Schoology Courses and Materials

The Highlander Virtual Course Design team has already created course templates / structures that teachers can use for their own courses. Copying the course template will provide all the structures / folders for the course, and teachers need only edit the information.

1. In Schoology, click the Resources menu at the top

2. Click the Group icon on the far left

3. Click on any one of the district groups on the middle left (such as 3rd grade teachers, 4th grade teachers, 5th grade teachers, etc.) or any of the individual schools on the middle left (such as Challenger Elementary, Highlander Way Middle School, Howell High School, etc.).

4. On the right, at the top, click to go inside the Course Template folder

5. Check the boxes for the folders / modules you would like to copy

6. From the Edit menu at the top, select Add to Course

7. Select your course you would like to copy the folders / modules into

8. A confirmation window will show a list of materials being copied. You can uncheck any specific materials you would like to skip

9. Click the Import button

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In order to show an external video conference link (Zoom, Google Meet, RingCentral Meetings, etc.) in the Schoology Calendar, teachers should add the link as a calendar event in Schoology.

1. Copy the link to the video conference from Zoom, Google Meet, RingCentral Meetings, etc.

2. Inside Schoology, inside the Course, click on the Add Event link on the far right, on the top of the list of Upcoming Events

3. Enter the date and time of the video conference

4. Enter the title of the video conference. If this will be a whole class video conference where attendance will be taken, include Attendance in the title

5. On the top of the description, click on the Insert Content button and select Link

6. Paste the link from the Zoom, Google Meet, RingCentral Meeting, etc.

7. Give the link a title, such as Zoom link

8. Click the Insert button to insert the link

9. Click the Save Changes button to create the calendar event.

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It is possible that you accidentally deleted a material or folder from your course Materials page. To check whether a course material was deleted, you can:

1. Click Courses along the top menu of your home page

2. Select the course from the drop-down menu.

3. Click Course Options below the course profile photo.

4. Select Recycle Bin

Here, you see:

• A list of all deleted materials.

• The date each was deleted.

• The name of the person who deleted it.

To restore deleted materials:

1. Hover your mouse over the row corresponding to the deleted item in question.

2. Click the gear icon that appears.

3. Select Restore To.

If the course previously showed up in a teacher's Courses drop-down menu but is no longer there:

• The course may be archived.

• The course may be deleted.

• You may have more than 12 courses in your account

Archived Courses: Courses are archived at the end of a grading period. To find archived and upcoming courses, navigate to your My Courses area by following these steps:

1. Click Courses along the top of your home screen.

2. Click See All.

3. Click the Archived tab to view past courses.

Note: Archived courses do not expire. If the grading period has come to an end, you can leave the course Archived. The teacher retains access to course - including the materials, gradebook and members page - when a course is archived.

If you'd like to reactive this course, and keep the same course material and roster of students for a longer period of time, ask your system administrator to extend the life of the course by adding a grading period. If your course is not associated with any grading periods, you do not have to add grading periods to extend the course into a new school year.

Deleted Courses: To view a list of the deleted courses, follow these steps from the account that had deleted the course:

1. Click Courses area on the top menu.

2. Click the My Courses link on the far right

3. If a course has been deleted, you'll see a Deleted Courses link in gray on the top right of the page.

4. Click the Deleted Courses link.

The information listed in the Deleted Courses area displays the course and section name, as well as the date and time of its deletion.

To restore a deleted course section, follow these steps:

1. Click the check box to the left of the course name.

2. To select all courses, click the check box to the left of the Courses column title.

3. Click Restore

More than 12 Courses: If you have more than 12 courses in your account, only the first 12 courses will appear in the Course drop-down menu. (All courses will show in your Course Dashboard on the Schoology home page, and all courses will show in your "My Courses" list.) To change which courses appear in the Course drop-down menu:

1. Click the Courses area on the top menu

2. Click the My Courses link on the far right

3. Click the Reorder Courses button on the right

4. Click and drag a course to change the order of where the course appears in the Courses drop-down menu. If you have more than 12 courses, you will see a line labeled Courses that appear below this line will not appear in the courses dropdown.

Yes, it is possible to have more than one Course Admin. However, coteachers from PowerSchool will not be automatically added in Schoology; you must add the second Course Admin to the course manually.

Once the course exists in Schoology, add additional Course Admins by:

1. Navigate to the Course

2. Click on the Members tab on the left side of the course

3. Click Add Members and type the name of the additional instructor(s). Highlight their name, and click Add Members.

4. Their name now appears in the Members list on the left side of the course.

5. Click on the gear icon to the right of their name and select "Make Admin"

6. They now have a crown icon next to their name, indicating that they are now the Course Admin.

Note: If you only add a coteacher as a member, but do not make them a course admin, they may not remain part of the Schoology course the next time PowerSchool and Schoology synchronize rosters.

Some best practices for co-teachers in Schoology:

• Develop agreements - there are different options on how to do things in Schoology, including how to work with special education students. It helps to come to some agreements on how you want to approach things given those options.

• Communicate - you both have access to add materials, make changes, etc. - make sure you're on the same page when you make changes to courses

• Organize - decide on how you want to organize materials in folders, and how you might want to set up grading groups (video) to differentiate assignments

• Back up - remember to Save Course to Resources (video) every once in a while as a backup. I've made the mistake of accidentally deleting a course that Ryan Horne and I co-taught. It took me a while to recreate everything. If we had been backing up to our Resources area, it would have saved a lot of heartache.

To reuse course materials for another grading period or for use in a different section, save the course to Resources. This makes a copy of all of your Course Materials only. Saving to Resources does not retain the original course's enrollments, grades, updates, or due dates.

To clone a course:

• Save the current course to Resources

• Create a new "shell" Course for the upcoming Grading Period

• Copy the Course file from your Resources into the upcoming Course

To save the current course to your Resources:

1. Navigate to the Course

2. Click Materials on the left side of the course Materials page

3. Click Options

4. Select Save Course to Resources. This course file first goes to your Transfer History, and then saves to your Resources once the save is complete.

Note that this is a one-time copy, so any changes made to the original course after saving to Resources do not update to the version saved in Resources.

In Schoology, there isn't a way to change the name of the course or section, but you can change the order of the courses in both the Schoology homepage (Course Dashboard - when you click on the HPS logo in the upper left) and also in the Courses drop-down menu:

Homepage / Course Dashboard

On the Schoology homepage (click the HPS logo in the upper left of Schoology), you can click and drag the courses into different positions on the Course Dashboard.

Courses Drop-down Menu

To change the order of courses in the "Courses" drop-down menu:

1. In Schoology, click on the "Courses" menu at the top

2. On the far right, click the link to "My Courses"

3. Click the "Reorder Courses" button. That allows you to move courses around in the "Courses" drop-down menu

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Because Schoology is tied to PowerSchool, courses created by PowerSchool are automatically archivd based on the grading period of the course.

Teachers can archive their own Sandbox course(s) by:

1. Go to "Courses" menu at the top left

2. Click on the "My Courses" link on the far right

3. Click on the gear icon next to the Sandbox section and select Edit

4. Change the grading period to the "Archive" grading period

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Note: Do not change any of PowerSchool created courses, nor any of the PD courses. Move / reorder those instead.

Option 1: Link to PDF

1. Download the Google slide as a PDF

2. Upload the PDF as a file into your Schoology course

Students will have to click on the link to open the PDF, but it displays inside Schoology and is still clickable.

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Option 2: Slide image in a Schoology Page

1. Add a Page in your Schoology course

2. In the description box, click the Insert Content button in the toolbar

3. Select the Google Drive Resource app

4. Find your Google slide file, click the gear icon to the right, and select Import Embed

5. You'll see a big orange box in the Schoology page description box

6. At the bottom of the Schoology page, in the Options area, change Display on new page to Display inline

7. Click Create

Students will see the Google slide / bitmoji image directly in the course, and it is clickable. To make the image full screen, students can click the full screen icon below the Google slide / bitmoji image.

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One of the helpful features in Schoology is the built-in video recorder, for both teachers and students.

When teachers create assignments, they can attach a video to the assignment where they demonstrate a particular task or skill.

1. In your Schoology course, click on the Add Materials drop-down menu and add an Assignment

2. At the bottom of the description box for the assignment, click the Microphone icon

3. A window will popup, asking whether to create an Audio or an Audio & Video recording.

Note: If it's the first time, the web browser or app will ask for permission to use the device's camera and microphone. Click Allow.

4. Choose either Audio or Audio & Video recording. When ready, click the blue Start Recording button.

5. You will see a timer in the upper left corner. When finished, click the Stop Recording button.

6. You can play back the video and decide if you want to use it. Either click the Insert Recording button to add it to the assignment description, or click the X icon in the upper right to cancel.

7. Fill out the required fields in the assignment, then click the Create button.

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When students submit traditional Schoology assignments (not Google Drive Assignments), they also have the option to record a video to share back with the teacher.

1. In the traditional Schoology assignment, click the Submit button on the right.

2. At the top of the the Upload tab, click the microphone button.

3. A window will popup, asking whether to create an Audio or an Audio & Video recording.

Note: If it's the first time, the web browser or app will ask for permission to use the device's camera and microphone. Click Allow.

4. . Choose either Audio or Audio & Video recording. When ready, click the blue Start Recording button.

5. You will see a timer in the upper left corner. When finished, click the Stop Recording button.

6. You can play back the video and decide if you want to use it. Either click the Insert Recording button to add it to the assignment submission, or click the X icon in the upper right to cancel.

7. Click the Create button when finished.

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Discussions in Schoology will be how we document 2 way interactions on a twice per week basis between students and teachers, as required by the new legislation for online courses. Rather than filling out contact forms for each student detailing phone calls, email conversations, 1-on-1 meetings, etc., the discussion allows each student to post, and the teacher to respond to each student, fulfilling the individualized, 2 way requirement in the law.

Use discussions in Schoology when:

• You want students to see each other's ideas and comments (it's possible to require students to post a comment first, before they see others' comments)

• You want students comment on each other's ideas, possibly building into a conversation

• You want students to revisit / add to their ideas / comments any time, regardless of whether you've replied

• You want an easy way to document, in one place, 2 way interactions between you and each of your students

Use assignments in Schoology when:

• You want students' responses to be private to you (other students can't see them)

• You want students to fill out a Google doc template (using the Google Drive Assignments app)

• You want to control when students can revisit / add to their ideas, and see versions of each time they submit the assignment

Both discussions and assignments can:

• Be graded

• Have a due date

• Be individually assigned

• Include videos, links, attachments, etc. in the teacher-created description

• Include videos, links, attachments, etc. in the student-created post / submission

(Schoology Guide to Discussions)

Assessments in Schoology, unlike all other materials, also need to enable submissions.

1. Click the gear icon next to the assessment and select Edit.

2. In the Submissions dropdown menu, select one of the Enable options.

3. Click the Save Changes button at the bottom.

(screenshot and Enable options)

This can happen with some websites (like YouTube, Google Images, Loom, etc.) that try to prevent their multimedia files from being embedded inside other websites (like Schoology). The simplest way to correct the issue is to change the Schoology option from "Display in Schoology" to "Display in a new window."

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Linking sections of the same course (must be the exact same course number in PowerSchool) makes it easier to create the same assignment, assessment, discussions, etc. for multiple sections.

Benefits:

• Create one assignment for multiple sections simultaneously, including attaching Google docs for Google Drive Assignments or PDFs for Texthelp PDF assignments

• Simplify your Courses menu

• Simplify your Calendar

Challenges:

• Extra step to create different assignments, due dates, etc. for different sections

• Must still manually configure each section's individual gradebook to sync with PowerSchool

• Some tricks to show the period (like changing the course picture to show the period) won't work - must know which section is which period

When to link sections:

• Best to link sections before creating assignments

• Avoid linking sections after entering any grades - will lose existing grades in Schoology (Schoology will ask you to export existing grades) and you will have to manually re-enter any existing grades

• Avoid unlinking sections after entering any grades - choose and stick with the choice for the semester

How to link sections:

1. Click the Courses drop-down menu and select My Courses

2. In your list of courses, click the gear icon to the right of the section you consider to be the "master section". If you have materials in both courses, the "master section" is the one that holds the materials and grades you would like to continue to use between the two sections.

3. Select Link Existing Sections from the dropdown.

4. Select the section(s) to link and click Next.

5. As a safeguard against losing grade data for child sections, you must select to download a grade export file for each section being linked. See the "Gradebook File Download when Linking or Unlinking Sections" instructions for details.

6. Select the file type to download:

   • As a Standard CSV spreadsheet.

   • As a CSV file that you can use to import into other systems, such as an SIS.

7. Click Download and Next.

8. Click Link Sections.

9. A warning message displays: "Materials from (section name) will not be copied into: (section name). Once complete, the sections will share: grade setup, materials, and course profile (of the destination section). Member enrollments will still belong to their respective sections." This means that the section for which you clicked the gear icon will be the master section–the linked sections will now all have access to and use the materials in that master section. This includes Course Materials and items in your Grade Setup (such as Grading Categories, Rubrics, etc). However, the original rosters of students when the sections were separate will remain the same after you link the sections.

10. Click Link Sections.

Screen capture of steps 2-10

Video explaining why and how to link sections (0:00 to 4:03)

One of the primary benefits of Google Drive Assignments in Schoology is that you can see students work in progress. By contrast, traditional Schoology assignments or Texthelp PDF Schoology assignments will only show teachers the end result when students submit the assignment. By attaching a Google doc, even a blank doc, to every assignment, teachers can see which students have opened the assignment, and how far students have progressed, even before the student submits the assignment.

1. In Google Drive, create a blank Google doc and give it a generic name, like Schoology Assignment Doc. Of course, it doesn't have to be blank - you can add any text or instructions that you want students to see on every assignment.

2. In the Schoology course, click the Add Materials dropdown menu near the top left and select Add Assignment

3. Give the Schoology assignment a name, a description (instructions), a grading category, and possible points / due date if applicable.

4. Click the Google Drive Assignments button, select the Schoology Assignment Doc from your Google Drive, and click the Attach button

5. At the bottom of the Schoology assignment creation window, click the Create button

Now, when you open the assignment in Schoology, you will have 3 tabs:

• Assignment tab: This shows the title, description, and link to the Google doc you attached

• In Progress tab: This shows students who have not submitted the assignment, but allows you to see whether they have opened the Google doc, and what they have entered into the Google doc so far

• Submissions tab: This shows the Google docs that students have submitted

Video explaining the benefit and demonstrating the process (7:45 to 11:08)

Schoology allows you to insert Google Drive files into your course in different ways. You can insert a link to the file, or you can insert the file itself. The difference is that the link will take students out to the original Google Drive file, while inserting the file itself will create a snapshot of the file and embed it inside Schoology, separated from Google Drive.

If you reuse the same Google Drive file (presentation, doc, etc.) in different classes or plan to use the same file in future years, it might be better to insert the Google Drive file into Schoology as a link. That way, you can make changes to the Google Drive file, and the Schoology material will always be linked to the updated version. So if you copy the Schoology materials to another course, or to your Resources area, the link will still connect to any updates you make to the original Google Drive file.

By contrast, if you insert the Google Drive file as a file (instead of a link), Schoology will take a snapshot of the file and embed a self-contained version of the file inside the Schoology course. That snapshot will be disconnected from the original Google Drive file, so any changes to the original Google Drive file won't be reflected in the Schoology course. You might want to do that if you need to preserve the Schoology version of a file for a particular course or assignment, but change the original Google Drive file for a future course or assignment.

Video explaining the difference and advantages of links over files (11:39 to 12:24)

Individual Schoology materials and entire Schoology folders can be unpublished, which hides them from students. This can be useful in situations where you have course materials created for the future, but you don't want students to see those materials yet. For example, if you are repeating a course in 2nd semester, you may have copied all the course materials from your 1st semester course or from your Resources area, including all the unit folders of the course. In the 2nd semester course, you can unpublish the future units and only leave the current unit published:

1. In the course where you want to hide a particular material or an entire folder, click the gear icon next to the material or folder

2. Select unpublish from the dropdown menu.

3. The icon for the material or folder will appear in a lighter shade, almost transparent. Students will not be able to see the material or folder.

Video explaining and demonstrating the feature (12:25 to 13:00)