SoHE Annual Review of Graduate Students (ARGS)
Process & Timeline
Each year all graduate students are asked to submit the Annual Review of Graduate Students (ARGS). The ARGS report will be reviewed by the Graduate Program Committee and faculty. All graduate students will receive a follow up response to their ARGS report. ARGS reports are due by April 1st each year and students will receive feedback by the end of May each year.
Goals
- reflect, review and catalog accomplishments
- tell your story, identify impact of your academics
- develop professional skills
- have an informal conversation with faculty advisor
- showcase your work
Enter Data In Watermark Faculty Success To Start ARGS Report
- Find tile in MyUW (my.wisc.edu) search “Watermark Faculty Success” (formerly called “Digital Measures”)
- Add tile to your MyUW home page
- Log into Watermark using your NetID and password
- Data categories for the ARGS report are: research, teaching, service/outreach
- Various data entry screens in Watermark and the corresponding information asked for in each
- Administrative data
- Personal and contact information (name, email, address, phone, website, etc)
- Yearly data (Reviewing the past academic year, provide any updates since your last ARGS the previous spring, include summer, fall and current spring semester as well as any planned activities coming up this summer)
- Professional development activity types: colloquium, conference, research, seminar, skill; title, sponsoring organization, description, start/end date, category
- Productivity and activity
- Publications: contribution type (book, chapter, conference proceeding, journal article, manuscript, newsletter, technical report, etc), title, part of a larger work, authors (name, role, etc), journal/publisher, city/state publisher, volume, issue, description, publication status (accepted, in progress, published, revising and resubmitted, etc.), comments
- Presentations: presentation type (colloquium, poster, conference presentation, guest speaker, keynote address, radio, podcast, etc), conference/meeting name, organization, location, title, authors (name, role, etc.) , number of participants, peer reviewed, published, description, link, status, date,
- Art and design exhibitions
- Grants and commissions
- Awards and honors
- Graduate funding
- Graduate milestones
- For credit teaching
- Academic service
- Professional and public service
Download ARGS Report from Watermark Faculty Success
The data entered in Watermark will be used to create your ARGS report. The report will be downloaded from Watermark as a Microsoft Word document and you will be asked to answer a few open-ended questions to complete your ARGS report. The flexibility of downloading the report into Word allows you to edit as you see fit.
- Download the report in Watermark: under the reports tab, “Annual Review of Graduate Students”, date range (June 1 of last year to May 31 of the current year), file format: “word doc”, click “run report”
- A Word document will download onto your computer
- The Word document contains the data you entered into Watermark AND additional written questions
- Review the report and see if there are empty fields; if so, go back into Watermark and update descriptions or data to ensure a more complete report; if necessary re-run the report in Watermark until the downloaded document is complete
Edit ARGS Report as a Microsoft Word Document
The Word document contains the data that you entered in Watermark and is now formatted into categories and headings: status, funding, milestones, research, teaching, and service/outreach. Additionally, the Word document has questions in each category that you must fill in by editing in the Word document. The questions are listed below if you’d like to copy and paste them in advance as a guide to filling out the ARGS word document.
- Additional short answer questions to answer on the word document are listed in BOLD and italics so they are easy to locate within the ARGS report
- Milestones
- Progress: In 500 words or less, describe the progress you have made on your thesis/dissertation (M.S. or Ph.D. program), capstone project (M.S. program) or final project (M.F.A. program) in the past year. Be sure to include a brief description of your area of interest for your thesis, project, dissertation, or if you have one, your specific topic.
- Personal statement of career goals: In 300 words or less, describe your current career aspirations- what you hope to be able to do with your degree.
- Research
- Research Goals: Briefly (300 words or less) describe goals related to research for the coming year. This could include training you plan to receive, progress on research projects, or research products (e.g., presentations and publications).
- Teaching
- Teaching Goals: Briefly (300 words or less) describe goals related to teaching for the coming year. This could include training you plan to receive, courses you plan to be involved in, or teaching products (e.g., presentations and publications).
- Service/Outreach
- Service/Outreach Goals: Briefly (300 words or less) describe goals related to service/outreach for the coming year. This could include training you plan to receive, activities you plan to be involved in, or outreach products (e.g., presentations, reports, material).
- Special Circumstances (Optional): Describe any special circumstances that affected your progress that you would like faculty to be aware of.
Create PDF and Upload to Box
The final ARGS report is the completed word document that was downloaded from Watermark and includes your written answers to the questions above. Your CV and unofficial transcript should be attached to the completed ARGS report. You may also add supplemental information such as teaching evaluations as you see fit. The ARGS PDF will be shared with the graduate program office, the director of graduate studies, the graduate program committee and your faculty advisor. Combine the following documents into ONE combined PDF file:
- ARGS report with short answers included
- Updated CV
- Copy of your unofficial transcript
- Any supplemental information (e.g., teaching evaluations)
Upload ONE combined PDF file with proper name to BOX:
- Name PDF file with your program and full name: Program_LastName_FirstName.pdf (Program: MS, CBFE, CSCR, HDFS, or DS) (Example: MS_Holland_Michelle.pdf)
- Upload PDF to this BOX drive
Tips/Tricks/FAQs
- Each year the data needs to be updated in Watermark to capture the progress from the past academic year.
- Only enter data where it is relevant and/or makes sense for your situation. You do NOT have to fill out every single box of every single screen. Only make entries where it seems like a good fit for what you are trying to document.
- The data should be available to you from year to year. If you entered a publication as “in preparation” last year, and now it is published, you can simply UPDATE the “status” to move the same publication through the system instead of re-entering it as a new entry.
- In the publications section, the first author automatically shows up. If you are not the first author, do not delete it, but instead add another row to write your name
- In the comments section, this is only for you and your advisor. If some experience was very helpful to you or another one was not as helpful as it could have been, include comments to prompt a conversation with your faculty advisor and/or let the graduate program chair know how different experiences were helpful to you or provided challenges.
FAQs
Q: Why is an activity I entered in Watermark not showing on the downloaded word document ARGS report?
A: There are a few things you should check. Is the date entered within the activity correct? Did you assign a code in the ARGS data field within the activity? Is the date range you entered in the Report Tab inclusive of your activity. If an item is entered in Watermark, but is not showing up on your ARGS word document report, double check that it has an ARGS category listed in Watermark. The ARGS word document report pulls data and is created by ARGS category and date. If you see any discrepancies after double checking, feel free to contact Michelle Holland (michelle.holland@wisc.edu) for help investigating the situation.
Q: How do I generate a report?
A: At the top of the screen in Watermark, you will find a REPORT tab. Select this and enter the date range for your report. The default report format will be a Word doc. Run report and it will download to wherever your computer sends downloaded files. Remember to enter your responses to the short answer requests within the report. (Reports can be found <approx.>at the 1:04 marker of the video)
Q: What data are required for this report and what is the correct date range?
A: For this Watermark pilot year, we are only expecting your current academic year activity. If you had some summer work last year or are anticipating upcoming summer activity, certainly you can enter those as well. Be sure your report date range reflects this.
ARGS Training & Resources
RESOURCES
OFFICE HOURS
The Graduate Programs Office will host office hours for students to work together on entering data into Watermark, submitting their reports to BOX, and answering any questions that you have along the way.