Watermark Engagement Faculty/Staff Resources

Watermark Engagement (formerly Aviso Retention)

  • Watermark Engagement helps students get the help they need when they need it – before it is too late.
  • Watermark Engagement will help faculty and staff get accurate holistic information in one place, so students don’t have to retell their stories.
  • Watermark Engagement will help us proactively connect with students.

Watermark Engagement Automated Alerts

Grade Alerts

This alert is sent to all students in which the current grade is a 70 or below.

Instructors should ensure that grades are updated in Moodle by 11 p.m. the day prior to the grade alert date.

2025 Spring Semester Grade Alert Dates:

  • February 4 – 20th day (16-Week Classes and 1st 8-Week Block)
  • March 4 – 40th day (16-Week Classes); 22nd day (12-Week Block)
  • April 2 – 57th day (16-Week Classes); 17th day (2nd 8-Week Block); 39th day (12-Week Block)

Attendance Alerts

Instructors should ensure that the attendance status of each student is marked at least once per week. An attendance alert will be automatically distributed to a student for every two absences they accumulate in a class.

LMS Course Login

This alert is automatically distributed when it has been 7 days since a student’s last login and will wait 2 days before repeating again.

This alert is only for “I” and “S” sections.  A student must login to the LMS course at least once for this alert to be created.

Questions?

For assistance/questions with Watermark Engagement, please contact the Watermark Engagement Q&A Support Team.

Frequently Asked Questions

To ensure that students and designated staff members receive accurate information about students’ progress, faculty will need to update grades in Moodle prior to the alert deadlines. Faculty should also take attendance and enter it into Self Service at least once per week (P- present, L- Late, A-Absent, or E-Excused Absence).

The Watermark Engagement system relies heavily upon faculty entering accurate data in order to trigger a notice to students and staff members. Reminders to faculty will go out ahead of each Grade Alert deadline. Faculty should ensure that the course average/total is displaying the correct percentage.  Faculty are encouraged to follow progress on students in their classes. In the Settings at the top right corner of the Watermark Engagement dashboard, faculty can select the option to get regular student updates through the Daily Digest.

An alert is simply a referral for a campus office to address an outstanding student issue or question. There are two types of alerts: Manual/Early Alerts and Automated Alerts. Manual/Early Alerts are manually submitted by faculty or staff when they notice a student is struggling or having a personal issue. Manual/Early Alerts are not viewable to students. The Manual/Early Alert option through Watermark Engagement is replacing the previous Early Alert form that was previously utilized to report students who were at academic risk.  Automated Alerts are sent out to both students and designated staff members based on the data that imports into the system.

Automatic Alerts

  • Automatically sent throughout the semester
  • Dependent upon faculty to enter grades in Moodle and attendance in Self-Service
  • Viewable on the Watermark Engagement Dashboard and Daily Digest Email
  • Student receives this alert

Manual/Early Alerts

  • Sent by a staff member when they encounter a struggling student
  • Must be manually entered
  • Will create an instant email to the designated contact
  • Viewable on the Watermark Engagement Dashboard and Daily Digest email depending on the privacy setting of the alert type
  • Student never receives this alert

If a student is struggling in your course or if you have any other concerns about a student, please submit an alert. You can submit an alert by clicking on your roster from the Watermark Engagement homepage. Use the checkbox next to the student’s name and select the alert button at the top of your screen. A pop-up alert box will appear. The drop-down allows you to select the alert type. In the text, you can write why you are creating an alert on the student’s behalf. It is okay to submit more than one alert if the student continues to struggle.

The most common used alert types are “Academic Concern” and the referrals to a specific office. If the alert is regarding a student’s mental health or personal issue, it should always be directed to Counseling. The “Counseling” alert types are private, and the information is kept confidential within the Counseling team. If you are submitting an alert for a student who is not submitting assignments or is having academic performance issues, the “Academic Concern” type is appropriate for these situations. Regardless of the alert type, students do not see Manual/Early Alerts in Watermark Engagement.

Immediately after submitting the alert, an email will be sent to the WCC employee that is designated as the coordinator for the alert type that was indicated. The alert coordinator will try to make contact with the student, make any necessary notes in Watermark Engagement, and then close the alert. You should receive an email when the alert has been closed. If you have submitted a “Counseling” alert or “Accommodations” alert, then the notes on the alert will not be visible to you. These alerts are only visible to those respective departments.

Notes and manual/early alerts are not visible to students in the system, but they may be considered a part of the students’ academic record. When appropriate, you may notify the student that you are sending a referral on their behalf before submitting an alert. In the text of the alert, try to make comments that are factual and objective. Don’t add comments based on feelings or biases. Try to submit a manual alert whenever you first notice a student struggling. It is hard for an alert coordinator to positively intervene if the student is past the point of being able to make up work or if they have missed too many class meetings already. It is okay to submit multiple alerts for the same student.

  • Attendance Alert: Automatically distributed after every 2 absences in a course.
  • Current Grade Alert: Automatically distributed for any course that has a grade below 70.  Grade Alerts will be distributed three times per semester.  The dates are posted on the Watermark Engagement Resource webpage.
  • LMS Course Login: Automatically distributed when it has been 5 days since the last login and will wait 2 days before repeating again.  This alert is only for “I” and “S” sections.  A student must login to the LMS course at least once for this alert to be created.
  • Overall GPA: Automatically distributed when a student’s cumulative GPA remains at 2.0 or below for 3 or more days.

Students will receive Automated Alerts in addition to their assigned Academic Advisor and Faculty Mentor. Faculty and staff who are “Followers” of the student in Watermark Engagement will also receive the alerts (depending on their personal settings). The assigned Academic Advisor or Faculty Mentor will reach out to the student.

Automated Grade Alerts will be triggered three times per semester after the grade deadlines. Students with a grade below 70 will receive an automated alert, urging them to reach out for help. The alerts are scheduled to occur before withdrawal deadlines. This allows students to make an informed decision about whether a withdrawal is necessary.

The first eight-week session will receive two grade alerts and the second eight-week session will only receive one grade alert. Sixteen-week courses will receive all three alerts. Lastly, five-week and WinterMester classes will not receive grade alerts. Attendance alerts will be distributed for all classes.  If you need a class excluded from the alerts, please reach out to an Watermark Engagement administrator.

Watermark pulls Moodle assignment data every 6 hours.

Assignment types that Watermark can pull submission data on are:

  • Moodle Assignments
  • Moodle Quizzes
  • Moodle Forums

Watermark cannot detect Journal entries, Turnitin submissions, Lessons, Moodle Questionnaires, or Choice activities.

  • 10:30 a.m.
  • 4:30 p.m.
  • 10:30 p.m.

Keep in mind that the attendance data is part of a very large bundle of data that populates other information in Watermark as well. Even though the import begins running at the above times, the duration of the import job can sometimes last over 2 hours due to the sheer amount of data, so I would add around 2.5 hours beyond the above times to allow time for the job to complete fully.

Attendance is an automated alert.  Students will receive Automated Alerts in addition to their assigned Academic Advisor and Faculty Mentor. Faculty and staff who are “Followers” of the student in Watermark will also receive the alerts (depending on their personal settings).

Attendance alerts are automatically distributed after every 2 absences in a course.

No, when creating an alert, it does not give the option to send an email at the same time.

Yes, if they want to send the same alert to multiple students, they can create a filter that includes those students. The comment and alert would be the same for all students.