Schoology

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

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.

Nachteile

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.

In Betracht gezogene Alternativen

Warum Schoology gewählt wurde

Gründe für den Wechsel zu Schoology

Vorteile

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.

Nachteile

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.

Vorteile

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.

Nachteile

--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.

Vorteile

Schoology was used when we transitioned from face-to-face to online classes. At first, since I was a first-time user, I thought it would be so hard to navigate since I am not tech-savvy. I also thought it would be so intimidating and complicated, but it proved me wrong. It was indeed beginner-friendly and very easy to use for students and even professors.

Nachteile

I have honestly nothing against Schoology because it was one of the biggest help I had when I transitioned from face-to-face classes to online classes.