Links in Schoology

There are multiple different ways to view links in Schoology. The two most common ways are:

Links displayed in Schoology (default option, but can cause issues for students)
Links displayed in a new window/tab (always works for everyone)

There is a third option we will show later on, which is a bit of a mix of these two.

First, let's review how to add a link to your Schoology course.

As shown on the animation to the right, within your Schoology course, to add a link you want to:

Click on the add materials button
Choose to option for Add File/Link/External Tool
In the window that appears select "Link"
Paste the link into the top box
You can change the displayed name in the bottom box (optional)
Click the "Add" button to save

Let's break the options down to see the differences between them:

Option 1: Display in Schoology (default)

When a link is clicked in this option, it open within a Schoology page as shown in the animation below

Option 2: Display in new tab/window

When a link is clicked in this option, it will open in a new tab outside of Schoology, as shown in the animation below.

The issue

Some websites aren't designed to be embedded in another page (Option 1), and might result in an error message similar to the one shown to the right. This often times makes students think the link "doesn't work", when in reality the link does work. Students can click on the link name at the top of the screen, or the "pop out box" on the top right side of the screen. This will display the link in a new tab of the browser (Option 2).

The biggest challenge is there is no good way to "test" is a link will show in Option 1 or not. Furthermore, the link may display correctly for you, but not for your students.

Can we just share our links using Option 2 from the start? Sure, with one easy click. Let's see how.

The fix

When you add a link to your course (or edit a link you have already added), there is a small icon at the bottom of the window next to "Options" that looks like a piece of paper with "ABC" at the top. When you hover over that icon, the text that appears indicates which option you are currently using, and clicking on that icon will switch between Option 1 and Option 2.

Option 1: Display in Schoology (default)

Notice the icon is in color (blue letters)

Option 2: Display in new tab/window

Notice the icon is black and white (gray letters)

Once you have the option you want, be sure to click the "Save" button at the bottom of the window.

(Slightly more advanced stuff below here)

Google Slides in Schoology ("Option 3")

When it comes to sharing your Google Slide Decks in Schoology you can certainly use one of the options shown above... there is a 3rd option (shown in the image to the right) that offers a that combines "Present mode" and Option 2. This is a nice option if you only need your audience to view the slides (this method is difficult to "Add to My Drive" or make a copy of the slide deck.

So how do we build this? In two steps...

The Build

Step 1: Google Slides

The process starts with taking your Slide deck (you can also do this with Google Docs and Google Sheets), and publishing the file to the web (found under the "File" menu at the top left corner of the screen. You can set options for each of the following separately:

Auto-advance slides: The time delay between slides once the desk has been set to "play" (either automatically when the page loads, or when the user clicks the play button in the bottom left
Start the slideshow as soon as the page loads (helpful for photo galleries, maybe not so much for lessons)
Restart the slideshow after the last slide (same as above, useful in specific situations)

You will notice on this window, we have the option for "Link" and "Embed", for this work flow we want to use the EMBED option. In the embed window, we also have the option for the slide size, but in this workflow we don't need to worry about that as we can resize later on.

The best part is all of these options can be edited after you click the yellow publish button, and the same link will automatically update. In addition, any changes you make to the slide deck will automatically be updated in that link as well, provided your audience refreshes their webpage.

Once you click the yellow "Publish" button, you will have the option to copy the published link (please note: this will look and behave differently than the link we traditionally use to share files in Google). After we copy that link, we are ready to head over to Schoology.

Step 2: Schoology

Inside your Schoology course, instead of using the link tool shown before we will utilize the Page tool. This is because the link tool will require the students to click to view the slide deck, where the page tool will display without a click.

You can find the page tool under the "Add Materials" button, about half way down. One way to add your embedded slide deck involves about 10 clicks, so let's look at the 3 click method (which when written out sounds scarier than it is):

1. Give your Page a title (which can be the name and/or date of the lesson)

2. Click on the two vertical dots on the right to "Switch to HTML"

3. Paste your embed code in the space, and click those same to dots to "Switch to Visual"

4. The yellow box is the space where your slide deck will show up, you can click and drag the center dots to adjust the height/width (without locking proportions) or you can click the corner dots to adjust the height/width (while locking the proportions)

5. If you want you can add text above or below your slide deck

Added bonus: You could use this space to provide the share link to the slide deck so your audience can have access to the slide deck later on

6. IMPORTANT: Click the icon in the "Options" area to "Display inline" (icon appears in color) to have it show on the Schoology page without having to click on the page title (which is the opposite logic from the above steps... I know...)

Steps 2 and 3

Step 4

Step 6

Back to

Button that links to Schoology Help Area page

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