Schoology

Avantages

The newsfeed and the ability to integrate other tools into classes is hugely beneficial.

Inconvénients

Sometimes the grading didn't work quite right and could be difficult to set up correctly.

Avantages

Ease of use. Student portal works cleanly. Ease to move from one class to another. Lots of choices for adding different types of questions to assessments. Easy to organize.

Inconvénients

It would be nice to have more options for displaying content. We have found some work-arounds in adding a few variations to the straightforward listing style, but it isn’t easy. It would be nice to be able to add some flair.

Alternatives envisagées 

Pourquoi choisir Schoology 

Pourquoi passer à Schoology

Avantages

Easy to use, clear layout, could add links to microsoft sway previous learning material.

Inconvénients

There was space for learning material, but from my time in using it there wasn't any space for overly interactive learning activities.

Avantages

It had a free version that offered alot of features

Inconvénients

It was very american based and didnt cater well to the NZ system of education (levels etc)

Avantages

I like the way quizzes and test can be created.

Inconvénients

It is difficult to create new quizzes and assign them to multiple classes

Avantages

Excellent sync with our self-hosted powerschool server, once all was setup. Uptime is excellent. Communication when there IS downtime is also excellent. Ability to implement additional features via plugins/other services [such as NoRedInk] is good.Teachers are using the product pretty well [ granted, it is a requirement on our campus, but they are going beyond the bare minimum.]Support is excellent.

Inconvénients

Schoology's GUI is dated - it hearkens back to the 90's and MSFT Access.The admin team SORELY misses the ability to "masquerade" as a teacher - we used to be able to login as a teach admin, masquerade as a teacher, and quickly fix implementation and setup errors that the teacher had made. Under Schoology we have to get their login credentials from the teacher - not exactly an easy process.Perhaps one day that feature will be available.

Alternatives envisagées 

Pourquoi choisir Schoology 

Pourquoi passer à Schoology

Avantages

Could create quizzes that drew from a created bank of questions, which helped with quiz security and gave a more accurate of what the student knew and understood.

Inconvénients

When you switched from free to a priced platform.

Avantages

Schoology has made my teaching life so much easier. I have used many different grade book apps/websites for over 15 years. Schoology is by far the best I've ever used. It's very easy to learn the ins and outs. I like that I can easily contact my students/parents if a problem arises. I have found it beneficial that students can view their current grades and see if they have any missing assignments. One of Schoology's best features is that you can import assignments through Blackbook. It will then grade students' responses automatically. It gives you the ability to create your assignments, edit previous assignments, and has a section where you can save every assignment over the years. Its made my life much easier since our county integrated Schoology.

Inconvénients

I can't think of any cons except if you click through different pages too quickly it will give you an error. But this does not affect the overall quality of Schoology.

Avantages

Schoology makes it easy to create different types of quizzes and tests, and makes grading even easier.

Inconvénients

The automatic grading would mark answers wrong if there was any spacing or punctuation differences, requiring me to edit the incorrect answers.

Avantages

Being able to see all assignments due and coming up.

Inconvénients

Sometimes the user interface isn't the most clear.

Avantages

Schoology is a one stop Learning Platform integrating everything from assignments to self grading quizzes and tests. Sequencing and dating materials is a great return to have.

Inconvénients

Cumbersome at the beginning (for non-users of free version) as we had to learn quickly yo get used to the platform.

Avantages

I like that grades are shown, it's easy to keep up with assignments. All work is done and submitted through the software.

Inconvénients

I liked it all, there were no dislikes.

Avantages

The social media look like and all the real time tools for the classroom

Inconvénients

The app could do better about the use and simplicity

Avantages

It's better than nothing. I have never used another complete LMS, but there HAS to be a better one when based on the gradebook, which is what teachers use the most. I also work with teachers who say they've used Canvas and it's much better. Previous to this, I used EasyGradePro and Illuminate, both of which had gradebooks that were far more customizable. I am literally writing this right now because, in my 5.5 years of being forced by my district to use this LMS, not ONCE am I aware of any teachers being asked for product feedback--and only a couple times have any noticeable improvements been made. I find this intensely frustrating, as I have a long list of improvements that should be made and nowhere to share them. I arrived here, not at the product's website, after Googling "Schoology+feedback" And so I will post them here in their entirety in hopes that Schoology designers might actually care one day.

Inconvénients

--NO SEATING CHART--should allow teachers to save pre-set comments in Resources to save time--teacher should be able to set a default to show comments to student instead of having to click the box every time they want the student to see the comment--comments should be dated--system should be able to mark empty cells missing automatically once due date has passed (regardless of grading status)--when student submits an assignment, missing mark should disappear--missing mark value should be customizable (not always zero)--”Mark empty cells missing” should be accompanied should be accompanied by the option of “except ones with submissions”--submissions should be time stamped--should have the ability to sort assignments in order of date of late submission--score for quiz needs to update automatically if student takes it late--should be able to sort students by who has most ungraded submissions--Bulk Edit should allow you to change the lock date--I should be able to type in a LAST name to send a message--Teacher should be able to merge rosters so that students on different rosters (i.e. SpEd) can respond to same discussion topic instead of having separate boards--Copy Rubrics should not make endless duplicates; should notify when they are duplicates --read receipts for messages--in Mastery tab, should be able to display assignments by alpha order, number order, etc.

Avantages

Permits reconciliation with our school's report (grades are consequently imported to report cards for students and parents to see).Schoology has a straightforward and simple-to-utilize interface - it's easy to coordinate your study hall such that it checks out for the specific class you are instructing.

Inconvénients

While composing remarks on task, the default is to NOT show the remarks to understudies - so that understudies might see, you should click a container prior to submitting and it is basically impossible to change that setting. Students can get carried away from the main educational focus and get distracted.You may not have more than one student account.

Avantages

Schoology is academia's answer for engaging with today's social media obsessed generation of students.

Inconvénients

I can virtually ALWAYS come up with something that I didn't like, Schoology however is one of those few exceptions. For the sake of entering a "con" however, I will say the one lacking feature I did wish users had would be an option to switch from the blaring white to a dark mode type theme. Helpful for battery life when using mobile devices and also more conducive for night-time study and eye health. After all, many students are working while studying, leaving night time as their only option to get their classwork done.

Avantages

Some features that stand for Schoology are simplicity and easy navigation. The platform design is really user-friendly and doesn't require a high IT knowledge to use. The "recent activity" tab is useful to follow ongoing discussions or catch up. It is the same for the dashboard tool, making it easier to surf among different courses. However, the top bar is just by far the most useful thing all over the platform. I have used different LMSs during my career, and I have always wished other platforms had this feature. Not only it helps me find my way around, but also makes me feel secure and organized about what I am doing. I really love this feature!

Inconvénients

Some features that can be improved are the comment section and the tool for evaluations. Firstly, the comment section doesn't sort out comments following a useful pattern such as relevance. It only shows comments following the time of submission. I think this makes users miss great opportunities for interaction and knowledge sharing. The second feature that can be improved is the tool for evaluations. I think this puts a bar that limits tests to a simple questionnaire. I think having external features such as wall annotation or video response would expand the spectrum for grading and evaluation.

Avantages

What I like most about Schoology is its ability to allow the instructor to compile all necessary course information into one easy-to-use online portal. Via this portal, I am able to create and post assignments, mark down due dates, grade the aforementioned assignments, among a plethora of other essential tasks, such as attendance tracking, progress report generation, and managing regrade requests. I am also able to communicate with students directly through the portal, which is great just in case the students want to keep their personal email addresses private. Lastly, customer service is very friendly, convenient, and helpful any time I need them, (which is infrequent, as the platform lives up to its expectations on a regular basis without any mishaps, which is fantastic, especially for efficiency's sake).

Inconvénients

There is honestly very little that I dislike about Schoology, as it really does help me manage my classroom in an efficient manner, eliminating all of the hassle I was occasionally confronted with prior to my implementation of the platform, (the same applies to the students' perspectives on the matter, according to a mini-survey I provided them with). With all that being said, however, if I were to choose one aspect which could be further improved upon, it would be the performance of the app on both Apple and Android devices. I occasionally receive complaints from students pertaining to random crashes of the app, assignments not being able to be submitted, and various other technical issues. I must add that these issues are rare, but it would be nice if they could be eliminated in their entirety. Other than that, there is really not much else I can report as being a negative.

Avantages

This is hands-down my go-to LMS for education. Having used a variety of LMS programs out there, and having come from some such as Google Classroom, and 3DGameLab, Schoology is top notch. Constantly being updated, Schoology helps transition the focus from the teacher to the student. The best features are Schoology's ability to integrate with other tools, as teachers can embed edtech tools such as Padlet, Polleverywhere, Thinglink, etc into a Schoology assignment using their LTI integration. As they continue to partner with other edtech companies, some of these then become options within their platform. I have used their integrated Conferences, Lock Down Browser, and more. The ability to transition ownership to the students, monitor their work while letting them work at their own pace is truly remarkable and a game-changer in education.

Inconvénients

There are some things I wish were available such as the ability to share an entire folder of contents with an individual student, or to set separate completion rules/dates for assignments within a folder. Not sure why these aren't options. I also think a way to automatically award badges upon completion would really help teachers cut down on time awarding them.

Avantages

I like that we can set up folders and organize our course how we would like. I work with upper elementary so it worked fairly well, but definitely had a learning curve. Announcements were pretty easy to post. I also liked students messaging in schoology, they found this feature easy to use. I like that I also got an email when they messaged.

Inconvénients

As a specialist teacher, it was confusing whether to work with the classroom teacher or have our own Schoology accounts. When giving feedback on assignments, students could never find it, they didn't get notifications. Students also struggled with how to turn in assignments and would do it differently. You could connect google docs and things, but was super confusing and students also didn't do this correctly. It also does not look modern, there are so many other platforms that look nicer and more kid-friendly. In addition, I like students to share photos and videos with one another and the social discussions/sharing piece was definitely lacking. we liked flipgrid but was not easily incorporated within schoology.

Avantages

It was extremely convenient not only as a student but for staff and teachers that manage a large amount of students. For students, they are more encouraged to finish the school work quickly due to its convenience since they are only required to have a technological device such as a tablet or phone and internet in order to finish their work. They can access this in school, home, or anywhere as long as they have access to the internet. The app or website is easy to navigate through as well. The same goes for teachers and other staff since they are able to go through each student’s work efficiently since they are listed under their respective classes. Both student and teacher are able to track the progress of their work and they are enabled to see how they are faring in each class which encourages each student to improve and teachers are able to see which topic a student needs to work on. Teachers are also able to post take-home quizzes and lectures online which students can conveniently access.

Inconvénients

If the student does not have access to wifi or internet, they are unable to see their homework/school work and they won’t be able to submit their requirements.

Avantages

I am a teacher and school district I work for recently rolled out schoology and mandated all teachers to use it and I think this has been the best move in years. Schoology is AMAZING. First, it's very user-friendly (homepage looks like Facebook news feed, and grade books mirror many early-stage online grade books). Gradebook is easy to use and my school district has embedded an option where grades can automatically transfer and post in the district database every 5 weeks. That alone takes hours of work away from teachers when grades are due! Second, students can submit assignments on schoology - everything from exit tickets and papers to discussions and even tests. No more stacks of papers to take home and grade - I can literally access those online from any device and grade at my spare time. Even better - tests and quizzes can be created manually and correct answers programmed in, so when the student submits it, Schoology grades it and posts the grade for you (you have an option to review to verify it).

Inconvénients

I am a math teacher and I would like for the option to allow students to create graphs themselves when doing tests. Schoology does not yet have such options, and instead I have to create graphs and and insert those pictures into tests, and make any graphing question a multiple choice one.

Avantages

Before I transitioned out of teaching, I used Schoology quite a bit as a teacher. Schoology made it easy and convenient to engage students in the classroom. You could post informational resources for them such as notes and websites, or create more interactive lessons with embedded youTube or other videos and they can be set up so students can do scavenger hunt type things on the computer. They also can be used for assessments to see if students learned the material they were supposed to, as an exit ticket, or a way to review information at home. These assessments could then be loaded directly into e-school for student grades.

Inconvénients

One thing I found difficult was sometimes setting up answers to questions especially if I wanted a more free response type of question, although they do offer ways to grade on a rubric as well. Sadly in the day and age of inflating grades there was also no way to grade on a curve, which meant that even though grades could be directly loaded into e-school, administrators desired you to then have to go back into e-school to inflate student grades. All in all they seemed to be keen to adding new features that made things easier for teachers. They also had two different kinds of assessments, one of which I found not nearly as friendly as the other to use.

Avantages

I like Schoology because it's very easy to use, it's a great software for managing courses, it's also very good because you don't need to download the app, you can access your account through online and it's really helpful for users, especially those who don't have large storage like me. It's also very good in terms of making assessment.

Inconvénients

So far this software is really good, however I think it's missing something and that is a meeting classroom for online learning, the management should try to look into this and take consideration to make improvements.

Avantages

Schoology is a turn-key solution for any school, college, university looking to deploy blended/hybrid learning or develop online courses. Schoology allows for increased communication, collaboration, and connectedness among your class, content, and students. It is extremely easy to use, set up, and navigate for both instructors and students. Its integration with both Google and Microsoft365 increase the efficiency of assignment collection and grading than ever possible in a class without a Learning Management System. Schoology also provides a free version of their platform for teachers who may not be within an organization able to fund the full Enterprise version.

Inconvénients

Schoology needs to devote more of its engineers to expanding the platforms LTI integrations and UI to surpass its competitors.