Schoology

While the content below highlights some very AISJ-specific tasks and tools in Schoology, the official Schoology Help Guides for Instructors cover most things that teachers using the platform would need to know, with topics such as Getting Started on Schoology, Courses and Groups, Course Materials, and Resources. Access the Schoology Help Guides for Instructors here.

Getting your Zoom class recordings from your computer's hard drive all the way into a Schoology "Announcement" link

This video (embedded below) was inspired by and had the honor of an MS TIC Talks "Special Guest Star", Chris Warnecke!

How to get your Zoom recordings from your computer, via Google Drive or YouTube, up and embedded into your Schoology course materials! Great way to make double use of your Zoom session recording for asynchronous and supplemental use by your students! (Even cooler with the new "superimposed face" feature in Zoom!).

Zoom Recordings_From Computer to Schoology.mp4

Schoology "Announcements": Updates that stick to top of page (great for Zoom meeting link!)

These are version of an "update" that create a top of the page, persistent update. If you are choosing to use a recurring Zoom link for your Course, this might be a great place to put it! Check out the video embedded below (or click this link to watch video in separate tab).!

Schoology-Updates.Annoucements.Zoom.mp4

Changing a Course's "section Name" to something relevant

Basically, the Course "names" we can't change, as PowerSchool will overwrite that anyways. But the section title is editable (i don't think Powerschool syncs those).

So, to do so,

1) Go to the Course Options dropdown (under the Course icon) and select Edit Info

2) Then, in the Edit Info section, you can rename what's in the Section Name area, and click Save at bottom:

Sync'ing your Schoology (teacher account) calendar with an external calendar

If you'd like to sync your Schoology calendar (your teacher account) with an external calendar, be it Google, Apple or Outlook (yes it could be your AISJ Outlook calendar), take a peek at this presentation (embedded below) to learn how. (Here is link to PDF version)

Syncing A Schoology Calendar to a different personal calendar

Integrate your cool EdPuzzle content right into your Schoology courses!

EdPuzzle is an awesome tool for easily making video content more interactive, engaging and feedback-rich! Watch the short video (embedded below) to see how to setup integration with your Schoology courses! (Check "Other Topics" area for more EdPuzzle info!)

Integrating EdPuzzle into Schoology content.mp4

Navigating among your Schoology Courses: A variety of ways to do it

What are the different ways to find and sort through your Schoology courses? Our favorite HS TIC, Tommi S., shows us how!

1. My favourite: when you are looking at almost any of the main tabs in a course (Materials, Updates, Gradebook, etc.), you have an icon of a small notebook on the right below the top menu bar. Clicking on the notebook brings up a list of all your Courses and Sections, and you can jump to them directly:

2. Clicking on the Home button in the top left (the AISJ logo) takes you to your Course Dashboard, and you can see all of your courses by scrolling down. NOTE: View the video at the bottom of this post to see how you can reorder your courses.

3. Clicking on the Courses button in the top left shows you quick access links to your 12 "top" courses with large icons for each. NOTE: View the video at the bottom of this post to see how you can reorder your courses.

Re-ordering your Schoology Courses to make visible those you need the most!

In video (embedded below), Tommi S. (HS TIC hero!) explains how you can change the order your courses appear in both the Course Dashboard and the Courses quick link in the top menu. This allows you to put the courses you access most often at the top.

Schoology_Reorder_Courses.mov

Enable / Disable Assignment Submissions

Tommi S. with another cool Assignments tip!

Assignments on Schoology can be set to accept submissions or not, depending on how you want students to see them. Please follow the steps below to learn the different options you have.

1. Create an Assignment with the settings that you need, but do not link it with a Google Drive Assignments app yet.

2. At the bottom of the screen, under Options, you can click a button to either have Submissions Enabled

or Submissions Disabled

NOTE: If you assign a Google Doc with the Google Drive Assignments app, you do not have the choice to disable or enable submissions.

With Google Drive Assignments, you will have to link the Google Doc once it's okay for students to see the full Assignment.

3. When students log into Schoology, they will see the Assignment in their Upcoming Calendar items, and in the Calendar itself:

4. When students click into the Assignment, they will see a Submit Assignment button when submissions are enabled:

but the button is missing while submissions are disabled:

How to create a Hidden Assessment

A Tommi S. "Top 40 Hit"!

If you want to create an Assessment on Schoology, and want it to appear in the Calendar for students to see, but don't want to them to access the questions yet, you can create an Assessment with disabled submissions.

1. Create an Assessment for your course:

2. In the Submissions pull-down menu, you can Disable submissions for now, and then Enable them when you want the students to access the test

3. Alternatively, you can set the Submissions to automatically be allowed from a certain date and time, and to close at a certain date and time with the Enable from... until... option

4. When a student logs into Schoology, they can see the Assessment showing in the calendar for the date it has been set for:

5. When they click into the Assessment, they cannot see any of the questions, but instead see a message saying "This activity is not currently accepting submissions

6. If you have set the Assessment submissions to Disabled, you will manually have to change that when students should be able to access the Assessment. If you use the Enable from... to... option, this will happen automatically.

Google Drive Assignments (original tool) vs Google Assignments app (just released LTI integration tool): which is best for you?

So, the "Assignments" function is one of the coolest parts of what Google Classroom does!

And, so Schoology tried to use some of that and developed their "Google Drive Assignment" function.

But, now Google has spun off their original version into a stand-alone "Google Assignments app". And, now we have integrated that into Schoology as well. So, what are the pros and cons of using each???

Watch this video below and see as I breakdown the new one and look at its pros and cons!

Schoology_Google Assignments LTI version.mp4

Schoology: Set Up for PowerSchool Sync

To get your Schoology Assignments and Assessments copied to PowerSchool, you have to set Schoology up to be able to talk to PowerSchool by creating correct grading categories and mapping them to the PowerSchool categories.

The video below shows you step by step how to do it, but here are the quick instructions, as well:

1. In Schoology under Grade Setup, add categories HS ATL, HS Formative and HS Summative

2. Copy these settings to all of your courses with the Copy Settings button

3. In each course you teach, go to the PowerSchool tab, and under Configuration, map the Schoology categories to the same PowerSchool categories

If you have any trouble doing this with the steps above, please follow the detailed video below:

Schoology_to_PowerSchool_Assignments.mp4

Place your "materials" anywhere on the Course Materials page you want!

Tired of dragging materials up from the default bottom of the page location they get created to???
There is a little trick to place them wherever you want to on the page!

Schoology_Place Materials Where You Want.mp4

Sync with PowerSchool Manually

Currently, it turns out that assignments are NOT automatically getting synced from Schoology to PowerSchool when you create or grade them. I will investigate why that has changed, but there is a simple way to manually force a sync of your Schoology assignments to PowerSchool.

To force a manual sync of one or all of the assignments for a class, go to that class, and scroll down to the PowerSchool tab in the left menu:

You can force a sync of all assignments by clicking on the Sync Changes button at the top of the page (1). Alternatively, you can sync just one assignment by clicking on the sync symbol (round arrows) next to a specific assignment (2):

If an assignment cannot be synced, you will see a View error text next to it (3). Most of the time, this is because you've selected Ungraded as the grading category, and thus this assignment will not sync to PowerSchool. Only assignments with categories HS ATL, HS Formative and HS Summative will be synced to PowerSchool.

Some assignments might have a status of Opted out, which means the Sync with SIS box has not been selected, and these assignments will not show up on PowerSchool:

If your assignments are still not syncing to PowerSchool, click on the Configuration button at the top of the page, and make sure the Schoology Course Categories match the PowerSchool Categories.

Schoology: Disabled Submission or "How not to freak students out by the amount of work they need to submit"

One side effect of us using Schoology assignments to set homework for students is that they have a lot of assignments with unsubmitted work. Any assignment that requires students to submit work on Schoology will show as overdue, and they see a reminder of this every time they log into Schoology.

We can alleviate the stress that this causes some students by making sure that homework and other work that students do NOT have to upload to submit anything on Schoology are set to have Submissions Disabled. Please watch the short video below to explain the difference of the two options for assignments.

Schoology Disabled Submissions.mp4

Archived Classes - Where Do I Find My Semester 1 Classes once Semester 1 Ends?

When the grading period for a course ends (Quarter, Trimester, Semester), the course doesn't get deleted or removed, but instead it moves under Archived courses where it can still be fully accessed. You can view the course, copy the materials from there, see students' work, etc. even after it has been Archived. This allows you to easily use a past course as a resource to copy materials to active courses that you have currently.

To view your Archived courses once Semester 2 ends, go to Courses > My Courses and then choose Archived (see below).

Creating Events in Schoology (without creating an Assignment)

There may be times when you need to put an event or assignment or performance assessment on the Schoology calendar. You want to be able to have it appear on the calendar but not actually have to create the assignment or assessment in Schoology.

This link is a great resource to remind yourself of how to schedule an upcoming event for your class, and have it appear on the students' calendar.

For Assignments and Assessments Created within Schoology

To see how many assignments, events, or assessments are coming up for your students, don't forget you can go to the "Workload Planning" tab in the options in the left, and you'll see a breakdown. Unfortunately, this won't show calendar events, only assessments and assignments created within Schoology.

Schoology: End Of Year / New Year Rollover for Teachers (High School)

Saving Course Materials to Resources to Use Next Year

NOTE: Before this can be done, Schoology Administrator has to create the new Group called "HS Course Storage 20xx-xx", add all the teachers in HS to it, and then make sure All Members have the permission to Create Resources in Group Settings:

To help teachers who are taking over a course, and to facilitate collaboration and sharing of course materials, each of your courses needs to be saved as a Resource in Schoology, accessible by other teachers.

You should only save course materials to Resources at the very end of the course, as it is a one-off copy, and if you add or change any Materials later, that will not reflect in the saved Resources. You can even do this after the end of the school year, as courses will be moved to Archived courses (Courses > My Courses > Archived), so will still be accessible to you.

1. Go to the Materials page of a course you want to save for next year.

2. Click on Options > Save Course to Resources to save everything from a course into Resources:

3. In the Save Course to Resources dialog box, under Collection, choose Group Resources > HS Course Storage:

NOTE: There is a Course Storage for each school year, so make sure to choose this year's Course Storage [e.g. 2021-22].

4. For Folder, select the correct subject group, e.g. Group 1:

5. The Materials will be saved as a Folder, so you can go ahead and click on Submit to complete the copy process:

NOTE: The copying is a one-off process of the materials as they are when they are copied. If you add more materials to the original course, they do not automatically synchronize to Resources. So, it’s best to copy them at the end of the course. You can always go back into Resources to edit the content, or you can copy new Materials from your course to Resources, but the copy itself is a one-off process.

6. To find these materials, go to Resources > Group > HS Course Storage [School Year] > [Subject Group]:

Adding Materials from Resources into a New Course

At the start of the school year, you can add materials into your new courses, after the official courses have come across from PowerSchool. If you create your own courses in Schoology before the beginning of the school year, these will not be updated with new students, and grades will not go across to PowerSchool.

1. Start by going to the Resources for a course by clicking on Resources > Group > HS Course Storage [School Year] > [Subject Group]:

2. To add all of the materials from resources into a new course, click on the gear next to the folder for the resources, and choose Add to Course:

3. Select the Course you want to add the resources to. If you wish the materials to go inside a folder in the course, you can select that Folder:

4. The resources will be imported to the course as a folder, with all your materials and subfolders inside. Remember that you can always drag all materials to anywhere you want in your course:

You can also copy all of your old materials into a course, unpublish the whole folder, and then move materials out of there when it is time for students to view them.

This is the link to the Schoology Support page for their recommended end of the year processes:

https://support.schoology.com/hc/en-us/articles/205627937-End-of-the-Year-Guide-for-Instructors

Schoology: End Of Year / New Year Rollover for Teachers (Middle School)

Saving Course Materials to Resources to Use Next Year

NOTE: Before this can be done, Schoology Administrator has to create the new Group called "JHB-MS Course Storage 20xx-xx", add all the teachers in MS to it, and then make sure All Members have the permission to Create Resources in Group Settings:

1. Go to the Materials page of a course you want to save for next year.

2. Click on Options > Save Course to Resources to save everything from a course into Resources:

3. In the Save Course to Resources dialog box, under Collection, choose

Group Resources > MS-(JHB or PTA) Course Storage:

NOTE: There is a Course Storage for each school year, so make sure to choose this year's Course Storage [e.g. 2021-22].

4. From the Folder dropdown, select the correct subject group and grade/competency/course

(ie. Math > Grade 6 or Spanish > Spanish 1, etc…)

5. The Materials will be saved as a Folder, so you can go ahead and click on Submit to complete the copy process:

6. To find these materials, go to Resources > Group

> MS-(JHB or PTA) Course Storage [School Year]

>Subject Group

>(then Grade/Competency/Class Name sub-folder):

Adding Materials from Resources into a New Course (in a new year)

At the start of the school year, you can add materials into your new courses, after the official courses have been synchronized from PowerSchool.

(Remember, if you create your own courses in Schoology before the beginning of the school year, these will not be updated with new students, and grades will not go across to PowerSchool. So, please let PowerSchool populate the courses in Schoology.)

1. Start by going to the Resources for a course by clicking on

Resources

> Group

> MS-JHB (or PTA) Course Storage [School Year]

>Subject Group

>(then Grade/Competency/Class Name sub-folder):

2. To add all of the materials from resources into a new course, click on the gear next to the folder for the resources, and choose Add to Course:

3. Select the Course you want to add the resources to. If you wish the materials to go inside a folder in the course, you can select that Folder:

4. The resources will be imported to the course as a folder, with all your materials and subfolders inside. Remember that you can always drag all materials to anywhere you want in your course:

TIP: If you’d like to populate a new course with materials, but don’t want it all to be visible immediately, you can copy all of your old materials into a course, unpublish the whole folder of materials (so that it is not visible), and then selectively move materials from the “hidden” folder whenever you choose the time is right for students to view them.

This is the link to the Schoology Support page for their recommended end of the year processes:

https://support.schoology.com/hc/en-us/articles/205627937-End-of-the-Year-Guide-for-Instructors

Schoology: A Shared Discussion Forum Across Classes

On Schoology, you can create a discussion forum that is shared across one or more of your Schoology courses. This would allow you to create a discussion forum across your HL and SL classes, and even across multiple sections of the same course.

1. Add a new discussion forum by clicking on Add Discussion from the Add Materials menu:

2. Make sure the Enable Grading button is NOT selected, as Shared Discussions cannot be graded:

3. In Options, click on the Shared Discussion button:

You will be presented with a list of all of the courses that you are an administrator for:

4. Select one of more of your courses to share the discussion forum across:

The ability to create Shared Discussions means that, not only can you share a discussion forum across HL and SL classes, you can do it for different sections of the same course you teach. And, if you are added to another teacher's course as an admin, you can have a shared discussion across multiple teachers. Pretty cool!

Getting Your Class Introduction Videos to Schoology with QuickTime Player and Google Drive

Perhaps the best way of adding your class introductions to Schoology is to first record them with QuickTime Player, then upload them to Google Drive, and then embed into a Schoology page. You could use something else like Loom to record your intro, as well, if you wish, but below is a video of how to do all of it with QuickTime Player.

SchoologyClassIntroductions.mp4

Using Google Plagiarism Check from Schoology

The video below explains how you can use the Google Plagiarism Check for originality of work from your Schoology courses. If you would rather read simple, step-by-step instructions on how to use Google Plagiarism Check, scroll below the video.

Schoology-Google_Plagiarism_Check.mp4

There are two things that you have to set up: a Schoology Assignment with a Google Drive Assignment function, and a separate Google Assignment.

Setting up the Assignment:

Add Materials > Assignment
Link Google Doc from Google Drive Assignments
Set the Due date, Category, Grade scale, and whether you want to Sync to SIS (PowerSchool)

This assignment is where the students will work and submit their document, and where you will do your grading. The reason we want to keep this setup is so that the assignment talks to the Schoology Gradebook, which syncs with PowerTeacher Pro grade book.

Now, you need to set up a separate Google Assignment:

Add materials > Google Assignment
Set the Due date, Description, and Score (not necessary)
Toggle on Check plagiarism (originality) NOTE: If you don't want the students to see the originality report, you can toggle it on after the students have submitted their work.
Click Create

You have now set up two assignments: a Google Drive (Schoology) Assignment where students do their work, and a Google Assignment, used only for plagiarism check.

For students to use the plagiarism check, they follow this workflow:

Type their work in the Assignment
Before they submit, select all text (⌘+A)
Copy it into the computer's clipboard (⌘+C)
Go to the Google Assignment
Click on Open to Attach and Submit > Create a new document
Open document
Paste text into document (⌘+V)
Close tab, can click Run plagiarism check (can take a little while
View originality report
If they are happy with the work, they click on Submit

Teacher viewing originality report

Go to Google Assignment
Next to a student's name, click on View originality report

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