Schoology Erfahrungen

Vorteile

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

Nachteile

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.

Vorteile

Once you get the hang of it, it's pretty easy to create quizzes using Google Forms and upload them into Schoology as an assignment. You can also directly create an assignment in Schoology itself which is pretty easy to do. I frequently create math tests on here, because it is so easy and has different options like multiple choice, sequencing, etc.

Nachteile

I had to take an initial training course to understand this software better. There are a few confusing buttons when creating an assignment - but after a few tries, you get used to it. (I would recommend watching some YouTube videos about how to use Schoology if you're interested in buying this software for your school. They have some very helpful ones on there.)

Vorteile

I don't have a lot of good things to say about this software. It does allow you to keep up with updates from your child's school such as; grades, attendance, and direct messaging to staff.

Nachteile

The application won't allow you to view course outlines, grades, or any other information regarding your child's classroom and majors. If you use the website instead you can access everything you need.

Vorteile

An excellent program for sending assignments and lessons to students, receiving student assignments, communicating with students through writing, and organizing the relationship and interdependence between all school administration, from the principal to the teacher and student

Nachteile

What is lacking in this program is the lack of direct communication and the establishment of virtual classrooms for speaking audio and video online

Vorteile

I love that I can login once and be able to access a variety of programs and software. The one user login is awesome! I like that I can send out messages to students either through the messenger feature or by placing an announcement in each class. I also like being able to go directly from one website (for example Newsela) to another (for example Nearpod) with in the platform itself. Set up classes is a breeze, and I appreciate how seamless Schoology has made it for teachers. The training I received from Schoology staff is also very good.

Nachteile

As with any LMS, there is a learning curve, but it ranks as one of the better LMSs in terms of easy of use. I would like to see Zoom integrated directly into each class, as an additional option.

Vorteile

Schoology is very intuitive for teachers, students and parents providing an easy to use learning management system for all.

Nachteile

Using the free, non-enterprise, version doesn't provide teachers with student access analytics.

Vorteile

One of the strengths of Schoolology is how easy it is to use. The user interface is intuitive.

Nachteile

However, it can be tricky to combine various platforms. Google Classroom allows multiple activities with one account, but Schoolology has limits.

In Betracht gezogene Alternativen

Google Classroom

Warum Schoology gewählt wurde

Recent students preferred Google Classroom because it is convenient for expanding and accessing the area through Google Meet.

Gründe für den Wechsel zu Schoology

Initially, I used Schoology, but then moved to Google Classroom.

Vorteile

I absolutely love the gradebook and it is so east to use. Grading the project and watching it automatically upload to the gradebook saves sooo much time.

Nachteile

I hate the uploading feature. It makes you jump through too many screens to upload a document. On the teacher side I do not like the missed assignments tally. When you click on a resubmitted assignment for example it never takes you straight to what was resubmitted. It will take you to the overall assignment and then I have to guess which student resubmitted it.

Vorteile

Our district uses Schoology as a district-wide Learning Management System (LMS). We switched to Schoology last year and I use Schoology for almost all of my course work. I teach using the flipped classroom model and Schoology's platform allows me to share my lecture videos, conduct assessments of student knowledge and understanding, give assignments, and to provide communication with students and parents. All of my content is available to my students through Schoology 24/7, I can make it available in a variety of ways, and I can make updates in real-time.

Schoology's introduction of the Google Assignment App has me excited about our switch to Chromebooks. This app allows you to attach a Google Doc (say a study guide) as part of an assignment. When students open the assignment the document is copied, renamed, and added to their Google Drive. No more students opening or copying a new version of the document each time they go back to the assignment instead of to the copy they made but didn't actually rename as the directions stated. The document is 'tied' to the assignment and updates no matter where they work on it from (inside the assignment or through their Google Drive.) I also use the platform’s completion rules to give students autonomy while also keeping them on track.

Another great option is the ability to add images to pages, updates, announcements, and folders to give visual information, help guide students, and give them access options. I also am able to hyperlink

Nachteile

While they've done a great job updating the product, however, I wish the pace of that was faster. For example, they introduced a new "Assessments" feature that was to eventually replace the "Test/Quiz" feature once it had all of the same options. While the question types in Assessments are nicer, it is two years later and it is still missing features of Test/Quiz including the ability to comment on individual student questions, auto-correction and rescoring if you made a mistake in setting up the correct answer in a question, and importantly, they still have not added a question test bank option for Assessments. Without the option to randomly pull questions from question banks I still use Test/Quiz for later end of unit assessments and semester exams.

Vorteile

My personal experience with this program is two fold. I experienced it as a master student and I also use it for my students. The thing is what you would expect from an LMS is obvious and Schoology has done it for a long time now. However, it is also obvious that it should be improved in terms of UI experience and assignment tracking.

Nachteile

Assignment tracking is a matter needing a solid solution. Even after they are due the students keep seeing the assignment as an upcoming one. Maybe a small glitch but annoying if you are to be motivated with your achievements as a student.

Vorteile

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).

Nachteile

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.

Vorteile

There is an instant comfort to using Schoology for students and teachers. Most things are very easy to find and within a couple uses, teachers begin to develop confidence with the program. As a teacher, I was easily able to teach myself (with some online guidance) how to accomplish what I needed. The range of options available for free is outstanding and the paid version just adds the icing to the cake!

Nachteile

There are times where it seems like I have to click a lot of buttons to execute something. There are some quirks (as there are with many programs) that don't seem 100% logical to me. With that said, Schoology is always willing to listen, things may not be fixed immediately but it is nice to know they are aware.

Vorteile

What I like most about Schoology is the ability to integrate multiple external tools within a Schoology course--you can embed videos, apps, and other tools directly within Schoology, which allows students a single point of access for all of the learning tools they'll need for a given lesson. For example, you can easily embed a FlipGrid, Padlet, or EdPuzzle directly into Schoology--this has been a great benefit to teachers and students.

Nachteile

There are a few small issues that we have a Schoology users--the most notable is the inability to force-submit quizzes and tests on behalf of students who forget to submit their assessments. This makes it impossible for the teacher to grade a students work without having the student go in an press the submit button. Additionally, the inability of teachers to rotate pages in document submissions (i.e. the student uploads a document horizontally, but it needs to be read vertically) adds additional difficulties for teachers as they grade. Finally, the fact that when a student uploads multiple pages to an assignment, Schoology displays them in size order instead of in the order they are uploaded increases difficulty for teachers when it comes to grading because often an assignment is not in the correct order.

Vorteile

Having come from Google Classroom, Schoology is a more robust learning management system. Teachers can create assignments, discussions, assessments. There is more than just a stream of posts. Folders are necessary to organize content. There is a free version of it that still has decent features but the enterprise version has ALL the tools that you need to manage student learning, grades, feedback, and communication. The online grade-book has the ability to create assessments and rubrics and keep track of student performance. I love that students can use the app, in addition to the Chromebook.

Nachteile

The learning curve can be steep; the user interface can be overwhelming. I wish that I could link sections of courses so that the I didn't have to re-post the same items in another section. For example, I teach two 7th grade sections. I find myself manually copying and posting in each separately - this takes extra time. Right now this doesn't have grade-book integration for our district, they are working on it. Grade-book integration is truly a requirement. Students and parents also cite issues with things being reported as late/over due that actually are not. Parents may need a streamlined interface or some free training. In terms of communication, it would be helpful to see stats on the message (how many read out of how many).

Vorteile

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).

Nachteile

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.

Vorteile

Schoology's greatest asset is its ease of use. When my institution adopted Schoology as the LMS (to replace a previous, more complicated LMS), we saw a 2/3 increase in active users, effectively transforming our classrooms. Schoology excels at communication (to your entire course, co-workers, or individual students) compared to other learning management systems. Additionally, schoology is an LMS visibly built around a learning centered classroom, unlike the obvious content-centered approach favored by prominent, older learning management systems.

Nachteile

Schoology's ease of use does mean some loss of complicated features. At first glance, schoology has a smaller feature set than some LMS's. However, if you are willing to be creative, the platform engages very cleanly with third party tools to accomplish any functionality that may have been lost.

Vorteile

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.

Nachteile

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

Vorteile

I have used a lot of different Learning Management Systems and Schoology is by far my favorite! It is very user friendly on both the teacher and the student end. It is easy to build courses and manage them. It's easy to see student progress and grades. Using folders and all of the different content options, it is very easy to organize the content so that students can navigate it easily.

Nachteile

Over the years of using Schoology, they have made many updates that have fixed the complaints I've had. My complaints come more from other systems we use, such as single sign on. And the issues isn't with Schoology, it's with students not knowing their login information to sign in.

Vorteile

Schoology is a well designed program that is very similar to Google Classroom. In Schoology, it is easier to organize than google classroom within the certain classes. The teacher is able to create folders that include all the classwork for the students in color coordination. This is easier to view than google classroom, however it is more difficult to view the due dates.

Nachteile

The hardest part of the software to me is the attachment of files to the assignment. In google classroom, it is very easy to attach videos, files, links, and documents. There is a button that allows students to attach documents of their own, however most of the time in my experience it refuses to attach my document to the file. I have to end up copying and pasting my document into a new document. Also, if a student submits the assignment and then realizes he or she has made a mistake, sometimes there is no option to un-submit it. Also, it will sometimes submit multiple versions of the document as it is edited.

Vorteile

I love the easy look of it for the students to use and upload their assignments to.

Nachteile

I don't love how older curriculum is not stored for the students, but that may be something to do with the admin of the product and not the product itself.

Vorteile

Schoology is a great organization tool for students as it displays all their classes and has each classes' contents inside the group. This allows for teachers to easily make assignments and information available to students digitally. Schoology also has a built-in calendar and notification system to make sure students turn in assignments on time. It has a very intuitive interface and it is easy to access for both administration, teachers, and students from both the mobile app and the web.

Nachteile

Schoology can sometimes have bugs which makes it frustrating in a classroom setting. Bugs can take time to fix and can delay important teaching material. The settings can be confusing at times and the mobile app can crash at times. Schoology support also takes some time to implement essential features which can be quite annoying at times.

Vorteile

This platform has been a savior in the current remote learning context we are in with this extended closure due to COVID 19. They've adjusted their settings, provided support and are responsive to the customer needs.

Nachteile

I wish they would make blind scoring a reality in their platform for written work! This would allow us to eliminate one other platform and it seems like something that this LMS could manage.

Vorteile

I found the folders setup to be very helpful so all content, assignments, and resources could be placed in the same folder. Sub-folders could also be added. Mimicking a computer storage system was helpful to many students. Next, the album feature was also very beneficial to display student work in a virtual environment. Also, badges can be given to students for positive reinforcement motivation. Finally, it was helpful to integrate tools such as Microsoft or Google products.

Nachteile

Due to having many folders, there is a lot of clicking for students to get to an assignment. Late assignments are marked missing and the teacher must manually make the correction. It would be helpful to see a list of missing work.

Vorteile

The ability to connect assignments with State Standards to create Mastery Grading. Connecting parents with their own log in meant that there were no surprises when it came time for grade reports and when parents were surprised, I could easily see if they had created a parent account. The time/date stamp on assignments was very helpful when a student tried to pit me against their parents. I also appreciated the option to personalize classes with photos, color code folders, and set announcement banners. I can't imagine teaching in today's Ed Tech world without Schoology.

Nachteile

Some of the features (such as badges) do not show on the IOS app. This was frustrating for me when implementing "gamification". Students needed a laptop or PC to view badges earned.