Many of you have already previewed the new user interface from Watermark (Faculty Success’ parent company). If you haven't, you can see the new view by selecting "Explore the new view!" under the top most black menu bar:
To return to the "classic" view select "Go back to the original view" in the same location:
On July 1st, the new view will become permanent, and switching between the two will no longer be available. To prepare for the change, Watermark has provided a list of changes. There is also a brief Canvas course that you can work your way through to see the changes in order (FS Canvas Course). Please contact Adam Schaeffer with any questions or concerns you have about the upcoming change!
General Changes in the New Faculty Experience
The New Faculty Experience introduces navigation and usability improvements while maintaining core system functionality. Key updates include:
Reorganized navigation menus. In the New Faculty Experience, the navigation menu has been moved to the left-hand side. It now features updated items that differ from those in the current experience.
Updated labels and button placement for improved usability.
Centralized activity management within My Profile.
Expanded ability for individual users to reorganize activities within My Profile.
Streamlined access to downloading reports based on your profile configuration.
These changes are designed to reduce the number of clicks required to manage professional records and provide a clearer overview of accomplishments.
My Profile (Formerly Activities)
In the New Faculty Experience, My Profile replaces the "Activities" section as the primary hub for managing records. Under My Profile, faculty will see activity screens such as: Publications / Intellectual Contributions, Awards and Honors, Service, and Scheduled Teaching. If faculty had previously entered or edited records in Activities, they will now complete those same tasks within My Profile.
What Changed?
Location: Activities were previously accessed via "Activities," they are now located under My Profile.
Layout: The page has been redesigned to read similarly to Vita.
New Features
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Profile Photo: Profile photos displayed in the New Faculty Experience are sourced from the Personal and Contact Information (PCI) activity screen. Depending on your current view, this screen is located under My Profile (New Experience) or Activities (Current Experience).
Please note that the ability to add a profile photo is available only if your campus administrative team has added the dedicated file upload field to the PCI activity screen. We recommend contacting your administration for specific guidelines and expectations regarding your profile photo.
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Export: The Export feature on the My Profile screen allows you to quickly generate a Word document of your profile or create a customizable report. You can choose between Quick CV for an instant download that reflects your profile layout, or Custom Report (Vita) for a report you can edit and save in the Self-Service Reports editor before exporting. To learn more about exporting, see the Export (Quick CV) section in this article.
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Activity Screen Layout Customizations: Faculty are now able to customize the activity screens from My Profile. To learn more, visit Personalizing the Layout of your Profile.
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Display Styles: Each activity screen in My Profile uses a specific display style to list its associated records. Your campus administrative team may have customized these styles to meet specific institutional needs. The citation styles for Publications / Intellectual Contributions will default to APA, and may be revised as part of personalizing your profile layout.
These display styles are also applied when generating self-service reports, such as a Vita, through the Reports menu.
Adding Activities
The process for creating activities has been updated in the New Experience, changing both the workflow and how they are managed.
What Changed?
Location & Workflow: In the Current Experience, faculty create records by first selecting a specific activity screen from the Activities menu. Activity screens are organized into categories (for example, General Credentials/Expertise, Career Information, and Teaching/Mentoring). After selecting a screen, you then click the Add New button within that screen to create a new record.
For example, faculty adding degrees using the Current Experience would navigate to Activities, select the Degrees screen, and then click the Add New button to create a new record on the Degrees activity screen.
In the New Faculty Experience, the creation of an activity is centralized. Instead of navigating into an activity screen to add an activity from there, you select the Add Activity button from Home or My Profile. After selecting Add Activity, you are presented with all activity screens available to you based on your permissions. The six most recently visited activity screens appear in the Top Activities area. The All Activities area maintains the same organizational structure for activity screens used in the Current Faculty Experience.
New features:
Simplified Creation: The new workflow offers a more seamless experience, allowing you to trigger a new entry from Home and My Profile rather than digging through Activities. (Note: Importing publications follows a specific process detailed later in this article).
Integrated Import Options: Upon clicking Add Activity, faculty can choose to either create a single entry manually or use the CV Import feature to pull data directly from their CV.
Finding and Editing Existing Activities
This functionality allows faculty to search for, view, and modify records they have already created.
What Changed?
Location: The search bar has moved from the "Activities" utility to the My Profile page.
Process: You can no longer click an individual activity directly from search results, instead, you select the screen that appears in the results and then perform a secondary search within that screen.
New Features
Filtering: Enhanced filtering within specific screens makes managing large volumes of data more efficient.
Publication Imports
The core functionality of the Publication Import tool remains unchanged. It continues to support the same third-party integrations (such as PubMed, Scopus, or Crossref) to help you bring your scholarly work into Faculty Success efficiently.
What Changed?
Location:
In the Current Experience, you can access the Publication Import tool by:
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Going to Activities.
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Navigate to the Publications/Intellectual Contributions activity screen.
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Select the Import button.
In the New Experience, you can access the Publication Import tool by:
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Going to My Profile.
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Navigate to Publications/Intellectual Contributions activity screen.
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Select the Import button.
While the path to navigate to the tool is different, the interface and import process remain the same.
Note: The Import option is not available when using Add Activity from the Home page or My Profile. To access Publication Imports, you must first open the appropriate activity screen and then select Import.
Proactive Search (Now in Home)
The underlying search engine that identifies potential publication matches for you across external databases is still active and functions the same.
What Changed?
Location: Previously located in the left-hand sidebar under Activities, Proactive Search results are now centralized on the Home menu within Tasks and To-Dos.
New Features
Enhanced Functionality: From your Task and To-Dos List, you can now manage workflow processes and directly approve, review, or reject publication records that have been matched to your profile.
CV Imports
The CV Import feature remains functionally consistent, utilizing the same parsing technology to identify and map data from your uploaded documents (.doc, .docx, .odt, and .rtf) into the appropriate activity screens.
What Changed?
Location: In the Current Experience, the CV Import tool was only available via the navigation bar. In the New Experience, you can access it by going to My Profile or Home, clicking the Add Activity button, and selecting Import from CV.
These changes will also impact the way that the Workflow tool appears during PROF season. The Workflow tool is changing its name to Reviews and will work in the same way as the Workflow tool but with some visual changes. Guidance on those changes will be provided as well.