Log in to Watermark Faculty Success (Formerly Digital Measures). You can also access it through My Missouri State under the "Work Resources" tab.

Watermark Faculty Success (Formerly Activity Insight from Digital Measures)

What is it and what do we hope to accomplish this year?

Watermark Faculty Success is an information system adopted by the university which will ultimately be compatible with our new Banner system.

The central purpose of Watermark Faculty Success is to help faculty and administrators work smarter, not harder in maintaining information generally reflected in faculty vitae in a manner which will allow for updating and monitoring by the faculty. Traditionally, there are several reports that are requested by the President, Provost, or accrediting bodies that require faculty to continually produce separate reports or to duplicate efforts at different points during the academic year.

The College of Business (COB) has successfully used this product for a number of years to address AACSB requirements for documentation of faculty activities in the areas of teaching, research, and service. The Council for the Accreditation for Educator Preparation (CAEP—formerly NCATE) is another accrediting body which impacts all six academic colleges offering teacher education programs. Faculty who are members of the Educator Preparation Provider (EPP) are required to produce a separate vita that aligns with a specific format to comply with CAEP. This system will enable faculty leaders, program coordinators, and those in charge of accreditation within departments and key administrators to produce a number of different reports and formats for vitae that will not require the faculty to prepare separate documents.

The Provost provided each college with a budget to employ graduate assistants and other supports (to do the lion’s share of the work in getting the most up-to-date hard copy vita provided by the faculty into the system this summer. The Associate Deans and representatives from Computer Services have been meeting each week to look at how the system needs to be modified to reflect the unique mission of the university in Public Affairs and how other special features might better reflect the accomplishments of the faculty within specific disciplines.

Watermark Faculty Success is a completely secure system that has been closely scrutinized by Computer Services. During the fall semester, information at the college level will continue to be entered and modifications made to the screens to tailor the system for Missouri State. While many institutions of higher education are using the product for Compensation, Tenure, Promotion, and other annual evaluation processes, our goal this year will be to have the faculty information entered and made accessible to the faculty for review and edits by the end of the fall semester. Each college is working to enter the initial information and one or two may be ready to provide access to the faculty sooner than the rest.

It is very important that faculty know that their information is protected and will not be released to the public. We are moving in stages to customize the system and to work with the interface with Banner which will dramatically increase our capacity to produce high quality reports on faculty activity that will reflect current teaching loads drawn from the Banner system.

As we continue to make progress and as faculty become more familiar with the features of the system, we will explore other uses that may help to streamline other routine reporting based on faculty accomplishments and productivity. The implementation committee is meeting every two weeks and faculty are encouraged to provide in-put to the Associate Dean or designee in each college on how to make the system as useful as possible.