Student Perceptions of Teaching (SPOT) evaluations are an important tool for gathering student feedback at the end of each semester. These evaluations provide instructors with valuable insights into what’s working well and where courses can be strengthened.
You can log in to SPOT evaluations through the Watermark Course Evaluations & Surveys platform. A direct link is available on your Brightspace by D2L homepage when surveys are open. You will also receive automated email notifications with links to the system.
You’ll receive an automated email from Watermark when your course surveys open. You can also check the SPOT Survey Schedule page for key dates. Students will receive email reminders throughout the evaluation period as well.
Here you can view a copy of the main SPOT survey:
Yes! In addition to the standard set of questions, faculty have the option to add custom questions one week prior to the start of the survey period.
For additional information on how to create and add custom questions, please refer to this article from the Watermark Help Center: Custom Questions for Administrators & Instructors
Faculty play an important role in encouraging participation. Response rates improve when instructors:
- Remind students multiple times during the open survey window.
- Explain how feedback is used to improve courses.
- Provide class time for students to complete surveys, if possible.
- Assure students that responses are completely anonymous.
- Share examples of changes you’ve made based on past feedback.
SPOT results become available after final grades are submitted. This ensure that evaluations do not influence grading decisions and student anonymity is protected.
All reports for the Fall 2025 term will be available by 12/19/2025.
Once final grades are posted, you’ll receive a notification when your reports are available in Watermark. You can log in through the system to view, download, or print your reports. Reports can include both aggregated quantitative results and student comments.
For additional information on this subject, please refer to the following article from the Watermark Help center: Instructor Results
You will be able to see response rates (the percentage of students who have submitted), but not which specific students have responded. This safeguard helps preserve student anonymity.
For additional information on this subject as well as instructions about how to access this information, please refer to the following article from the Watermark Help Center: Response Rate Tracker
To protect anonymity, courses with fewer than four students enrolled do not receive SPOT surveys.
Deans, associate deans, and department chairs may also have access to review results for assessment and faculty development purposes.
SPOT ratings reflect student perceptions of teaching, and as such, they do not and should not be taken as the sole source of information used to evaluate teaching. They should be supported by a variety of other indicators of teaching quality.
Each department should determine how SPOT results are weighted relative to other evaluations approaches. We would recommend faculty review the information in the Faculty Handbook for further information on university policy.
