About Schoology

Schoology /skoo-luh-jee/, is a robust learning management system that provides secure course management, mobile learning, and systemwide communication and collaboration opportunities that teachers can leverage to embrace personalization of learning for students.

With Schoology, teachers can manage all of the coursework, grading, and communications for their classes. They can create personalized pathways, access FCPS approved applications, and collaborate with colleagues through one secure entry point. Students can digitally submit assignments, review grades, participate in interactive discussions, receive announcements and feedback, take tests, write academic blogs, and more. Some key features include:

• Schoology provides a one-stop landing page to manage coursework, enter grades, and provide access to FCPS approved tools and content
• Schoology will eventually provide parents with a single location to receive and send communication for all of their children's classes and activities
• Schoology includes a mobile app (IOS and Android) for students and teachers that has much of the same functionality as the computer version
• Schoology works on desktop, laptops, Chromebooks, tablets, and smart phones.

GSuite (Google Apps for Education) will continue to be our core online productivity platform in FCPS for staff and students. You can use it as you always have and still curate all of your teaching resources in Google Drive. In fact, GSuite is heavily integrated into Schoology.

In the 2018-19 school year, Schoology was available to all FCPS teachers, however there was no system requirement for using it. About 450 teachers ended up using Schoology in their classrooms as their learning management system, and we received a lot of very positive feedback. During the year, we worked through the first-year implementation issues and provided optional professional learning across the district. All MSDE courses were run through Schoology, and Curriculum leaders found natural opportunities to expose teachers to the platform.

What about the current 2019-20 school year? All middle and high school teachers will use Schoology for their gradebook (instead of TAC). Training sessions have been available to teachers all summer long, and all schools have one or more Schoology Ambassadors who will be assisting with Schoology training in their schools.

What about in the following years? We expect continue to use Schoology as our permanent learning management system.

Q1: I'm using Google Classroom now and it's working well. Why should I switch?

A: Google Classroom is an excellent tool for what it does, but with Schoology you can do so much more, such as:

• Distribute Google Docs to students the same way as in Google Classroom, but with many more assignment creation features and with an automatic connection to your gradebook
• Create assignments, lessons, units, and entire courses that can be arranged, grouped, and re-ordered however you like
• Share anything you create with any or all teachers across the district, and assign these items from other teachers directly to your students
• Enter grades directly on the digital work of students and not worry about re-entering them in the gradebook, because they flow automatically to the Schoology gradebook
• Communicate with students/parents through built-in direct messaging and class updates
• Easily create and grade with rubrics
• With a couple of clicks, create audio and video messages for your students in updates, messages, and as direct feedback on assignments
• And much more...

Q2: How difficult will it be to switch from Google Classroom to Schoology?

A: Since you are familiar with distributing, collecting, and grading assignments digitally through Google Classroom, you already know most of what you need to know to start using Schoology. Much of the use of Schoology is relatively intuitive, with a fast learning curve for the primary functions. We have a lot of resources, videos, online courses, and live classes to help you learn Schoology.

Q3: Can I use the Schoology gradebook as an elementary teacher?

A: If you are an elementary teacher who has not yet used a digital gradebook and wants to start using one, you can use Schoology simply as a gradebook. You can also use Schoology as an LMS to distribute and collect digital work in your classroom. Schoology also provides a great communication platform between elementary teachers and parents, so if you want to use Schoology for that purpose, then it might make sense to use the Schoology gradebook as well in order to keep everything in one place for parents.

Q4: Now that we're using the Schoology gradebook, what exactly do I still use TAC for?

A: TAC will still be used for everything you had been using it for other than assignments and assignment grades. Also, your term grades from Schoology will sync back to TAC on a nightly basis. This allows parents to see all course grades in HAC and allows various ReportNet reports to continue to run successfully for all courses. You will continue to use TAC in the following ways:

• TAC will still be used for Interim Progress and Report Card grades. TAC is a part of eSchool, which holds all permanent student records.
• At the elementary level, effort codes, instructional levels, and personal and social development codes and comments will still be entered in TAC.
• For middle and high school courses, final course grades will be calculated by TAC, not Schoology.
• Some Benchmark assessments must still be manually entered into TAC and/or Performance Matters. This varies by content level and grade level.
• Teachers must use TAC for attendance.

Q5: How will parents access their child's grades for my class(es)?

A: Interim Progress and Report Card grades will always appear in HAC (Home Access Center). Assignment grades will be accessible to parents through a Schoology account that they create (see the Parent page on this website). In their Schoology accounts, parents have much more access into your classrooms than they did when you used TAC. They can see the actual assignment and the digital work their children did on the assignments (except in some cases Google assignments due to Google sharing restrictions). Parents can also see all of the announcements and events for your class, they can communicate with you directly in Schoology, they can see upcoming assignments and overdue work, and they can get push notifications on their phones for many different events that relate to their children. They basically can see everything a student can see, while maintaining privacy so that they can't see items that don't relate to their children.

Q6: How can I add my own applications?

A: Part our commitment and vision for students, parents and teachers is your ability to "Click with Confidence" in Schoology. In an effort to ensure a safe and secure environment for students, all integrated applications will be FCPS vetted/approved and managed at the system level.

Q7: How long will Schoology be in FCPS before we switch to something else?

A: We signed a contract with Schoology that includes 5 renewal years, and we intend to continue beyond those 5 years. However, technology continually changes, and some day we may switch to another product. Who would have thought 10 years ago that Microsoft Office would no longer be the dominant productivity tool for FCPS students? Google Apps made sense a few years ago, so we moved in that direction; this has been a positive change. The same change might someday happen with any technology product used by FCPS. Schoology makes sense for us now, and is an excellent product that will benefit our staff, students, and parents. We expect it to be our Learning Management System for years to come.

Q8: How can I learn more about Schoology?

A: We conduct many training sessions throughout the school year and over the summer that you can attend. See the "Teachers > Training Schedule" link in the top menu bar of this web site to see these training opportunities. We also have many videos and a couple of Schoology courses that you can work through on your own time to learn much more about Schoology. Click "Teachers > Courses and Videos" in the top menu bar to view these classes and resources.