Schoology
What Is Schoology?
Schoology seamlessly connects learning management with assessments so that school districts can improve student performance, foster collaboration throughout their community, and personalize learning for every student. Every day millions of students, parents, faculty and administrators from nearly 2,000 K-12 school districts leverage Schoology to advance what is possible in education.
Who Uses Schoology?
Millions of people from over 60,000 K-12 schools and universities around the world use Schoology to transform how they teach and learn.
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Reviews of Schoology
Brian
Engagement Promotes Student Retention
Comments: While Facebook has had some bad press regarding privacy here lately, the overall impact and popularity of social media in general and Facebook in particular is undeniable and has become a permanent part of online culture. Why? Because Facebook is, by design, set up in such a manner that it is both extraordinarily easy to use and navigate around, and because it has a well-documented tendency to "suck you in" - it keeps you engaged with the platform. It's easy. It's interesting. It's fun. It's entertainment. So what does that have to do with Schoology, you ask? Immediately after registering for my Schoology account provided by my grad school (MBA student), I was very surprised to see what looked and felt just like Facebook, but with an academic focus. The main feature is the user's feed, which looked and felt exactly like any social media feed. It contained posts from the school admin and financial aid, posts from instructors with information, videos, etc., pertinent to the current material, and posts from fellow classmates asking questions so classmates and the instructor could all interact on the thread. Users are able to "Like" a post or even direct message others in a private, Messenger-style chat feature. Surrounding the feed are links to everything the student needs for college success, from financial aid to wellness. Simply put, Schoology's brilliant adaptation of a popular technology makes studying easy, interesting, fun, and entertaining.
Pros:
Schoology is academia's answer for engaging with today's social media obsessed generation of students.
Cons:
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.
Verified Reviewer
Alternatives Considered:
Schoology - Powerful, but User Friendly LMS
Comments: Schoology has been a game changer for us. As a district that previously used an open source alternative, we really took a risk by rolling out a new product that was not free. Teachers have really embraced the platform, which is allowing us to move toward a model where learning is individualized and focused on the needs of the learner.
Pros:
Schoology feels like a social media platform. It's easy to use and makes sense when you're using it. It has a tremendous ability to be extended with integrations with Google, Microsoft, etc. and connects well with other learning platforms that are important in K-12 settings.
Cons:
At the enterprise level, sometimes support the can be lackluster when dealing with things such as the synchronization between Schoology and PowerSchool. On the positive side, we anticipate with PowerSchool's purchase of Schoology that this might improve over time.
Analisa
The gradebook makes everything take longer than it should for teachers.
Comments: I have no choice; my school district makes me use it. Yes, it allows us to post and accept work online, but many more improvements to the gradebook should have been made in the six years that this has been used by the second-largest school district in the USA. It may be better than other LMSes in certain aspects, but the gradebook sucks, as detailed above.
Pros:
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.
Cons:
--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.
Danielle
Great for older learners
Comments: Overall, my experience is good! I’ve been pleased with it.
Pros:
I love being able to have quizzes or tests self-correct. I also like being able to link my grad book (PowerSchool) and having a centralized place for my students to view and work on assignments.
Cons:
It is not the most user friendly software. I consider myself pretty tech-savvy, and it took me a bit to understand each part. I teach elementary school, and some of my students still do not quite understand how to use the software. There’s a lot to it.
Amy
Excellent LMS with a variety of features
Comments: I love Schoology. The few times I needed support, the individuals I spoke with were amazing. The features and ease of Schoology outshines other Learning Management Systems on the market. Other than the couple of quirks I mentioned above, this is a product good for a wide range of ages and courses.
Pros:
I have been using Schoology for approximately five years now and I find it to be the easiest LMS with the most features of all the other ones I’ve tried. It is so easy to organize in whatever way is most convenient for you and your course. It supports video uploads from multiple different kinds of sources whether be YouTube or Loom or Edpuzzle. Students love the use of badges where teachers can send “gold star” encouragement to students like “most improved” or other distinctions. Students can easily email their teachers through Schoology. Course updates allow for whole class communication. The pro list goes on and on.
Cons:
The biggest con I have experienced occasionally rears its head when I try to sync Schoology to PowerSchool. I find that some assignments will not sync. Even after I go through all of the usual troubleshooting details such as having a due date or the assignment title being too long, nothing will get it to sync. This is not a huge problem maybe one assignment and 50. What is frustrating, is that when you go into the sync page the error listed doesn’t tell you what to look for us just simply says “failed the sync. Another frustration I have is when I want to unpublished material to students In Schoology that unpublished material is then unpublished in PowerSchool. Just because I want to on publish it in Schoology does it mean I want their grades in assignments to be unseen in PowerSchool.
