NEW YORK— Watermark, the largest provider of educational intelligence solutions for higher ed worldwide, is pleased to expand its partnership with Howard University, located in Washington D.C. Accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE), the institution selected Watermark’s enterprise course evaluation and institutional survey solution for campuswide use across all courses.

“EvaluationKit has been instrumental in helping Howard assess instruction and course quality.  Serving the first pillar of our strategic plan, Howard Forward, the course evaluation module has already contributed to Howard's goal of ‘Enhancing Academic Excellence,” said Provost and Chief Academic Officer Anthony K. Wutoh, Ph.D., R.Ph. “Partnering with dynamic solutions, like those provided in the Watermark suite, has assisted with identifying areas for improvement and taking steps towards sustainable change.”

With a focus on improving the quality of its programs, effectiveness of curriculum, as well as accreditation reporting, Howard will use Watermark to streamline the process of capturing student feedback across the institution at different points in time. By centralizing and automating information-rich reporting, both faculty and administrators will have the actionable data needed to monitor quality and make real-time decisions that improve teaching and learning. Specifically, the institution will enjoy the key benefits of:

• Improved Quality of Evaluative Data: Moving to Watermark’s course evaluation survey automates data collection and calculation, and improves data quality and integrity with timely access for faculty and departments. Campuswide data will also improve through the use of standardized questions allowing for meaningful comparisons of data.
• Consolidated Processes and Better Integration: In addition to consolidating a variety of methods for aggregating and analyzing evaluative data, Watermark integrates with existing systems at Standard, including its Learning Management System -- Blackboard -- which will allow the University to better leverage its ongoing technological investments and have the kind of information that will help inform planning, improve curriculum, and drive quality at all levels.

As the only course evaluation and survey solution designed for education, EvaluationKIT by Watermark supports turnkey integrations with all leading LMS’s, allowing key institutional data to be imported to automate and streamline the survey process while supporting increased communication with students.

"EvaluationKIT and the Watermark team have given us a solution that meets many of our most critical needs. With the new product, we have seen increased response rates, and we have identified ways to better assess courses with multiple instructors or multiple modes of instruction. Additionally, Watermarks' platform allows faculty to take a hand in their own evaluations, ensuring a better connection to data and use of data for improvement. Adopting EvaluationKIT by Watermark has made course evaluations at Howard better, and in doing so, it has made student voices clearer,” said Glenn Phillips, Director of Assessment at Howard University.

“We’re honored to support the quality improvement efforts for an institution like Howard. As the University prepares to administer its evaluations institution wide in the coming term, we look forward to providing an increased level of student feedback and better insight into course effectiveness in order to streamline processes for making curricular improvements,” said Matt Bartel, Watermark’s Chief Product Officer.

“At Watermark, we want our technology to ease these institutional data collection processes so that faculty and administrators can focus more on using their data to make meaningful improvements to teaching and learning,” noted Bartel.

Founded in 1867, Howard University is a private, research university comprising 13 schools and colleges. Students pursue studies in more than 120 areas leading to undergraduate, graduate and professional degrees. To date, Howard has awarded more than 120,000 degrees in the arts, the sciences, and the humanities. The historic main campus sits on a hilltop in Northwest Washington blocks from the storied U Street and Howard Theatre. Howard is a leader in STEM fields. The National Science Foundation has ranked Howard as the top producer of African-American undergraduates who later earn science and engineering doctoral degrees. The University also boasts nationally ranked programs in social work, business and communication sciences and disorders.