Schoology Help

Setting up Schoology

Account Settings

Notifications

Google Apps Setup

Other Apps

Setting up EdPuzzle within your Classes

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Setting Up Sapphire Sync with Schoology

Here you will find help in using Schoology. We have specific topics listed below. If you can't find what you are looking for below visit the Schoology help site. Don't forget, for WASD you must go to http://wasdpa.schoology.com to login. You can always check the status of Schoology at https://status.schoology.com/. There is also a subscribe button if you want to receive notifications

Getting things set up right at the start will save you lots of headaches and annoyances in the long run. Here we will look at settings for your account, your courses, and your grade book (in Schoology)

Setting up Schoology

Account Settings

There is not a lot you should adjust here. If you would like a different first name displayed you can change that here. I have changed mine to Mr.. After you change it you simply select "Save Changes"

The other setting you might want to change is at the very bottom. It gives you the choice of seeing either Recent Activity or Course Dashboard on your home screen.

Almost everything else on this page should be left alone unless you are instructed to make a change by the tech department.

Notifications

Here is where you will definitely want to make some changes. The good news, Schoology will notify you of almost anything that occurs within your courses. The bad news, Schoology will notify you of almost everything that occurs within your courses by default. The video will give some recommendations.

You have quite a bit of control over what and where you get notifications. You have the option to change what notification you get by email and what notifications you get on mobile devices you have Schoology installed on. The devices you are getting notifications on are listed on the right. (Please note that device notifications are also dependent on your notificaion settings on the device.)

You can also set custom notifications for any of the items. This give you the ability to select specific sections you want to receive notifications from. So if getting comments on posts is important for your regular core classes, but not for your WIN or Braves Block you can adjust that here.

Google Apps Setup

Next we want to get Google Drive set up within Schoology. This will make it easier for you to quickly add items from Google Drive to Schoology.

Other Apps

Other apps you can set up within Waynesboro if they are not yet.

EdPuzzle
Kami
WeVideo

Please note that for the most part, these are installed by our tech department

Setting up EdPuzzle within your Classes

Edpuzzle should already be installed in each of your classes. At the beginning of the year, you will have to setup each of those classes in EdPuzzle. YOU DO THIS WITHIN SCHOOLOGY, NOT EDPUZZLE! (If you have combined sections you do this from within your combined sections and it sets it up each section. You can see it is setup when you look in your left column within a class and see Edpuzzle there. If it is not there, you can either put in a tech ticket, or install it yourself.

To do your beginning of year setup you need to click on Edpuzzle in the left column which brings up your initial setup dialog screen.

You will want to give it a unique description. For example, 24-25 7th Grade First Choice Cycle 1 rather than 7th Grade First Choice. If you have combined sections you might call it 24-25 World Cultures. If you have not combined sections you might call it 24-25 World Cultures Period 1. After you have filled in the information hit create class.

After this, your really don't need to click on it again in the left column but work with it through assignments.

Setting up Classes

Linking Sections

If you have multiple sections of the same class (very common at the middle school level.) In Schoology you can choose to link those sections together. What are the advantages of doing this? You can post an assignment once and have it show up in all sections. If you keep all of your sections on the same pacing, this can save a lot of time and clicks. You have the option of assigning assignments in different sections or with different due dates for different sections. This is best done at the beginning of the year before you start entering anything else in. Also, undoing linked sections during the year is NOT recommended.

To link sections you first need to go to your My Courses page.

You will see a list of your current courses organized by course name. It will list all of the sections below it. You can only combine sections that are in the same grading period. Pick one of the sections (usually the top one) and click the widget on the right and select Link Existing Sections

Select the sections that you want to link together from the list provided. If the section is grayed out it is not available to link. This can be because course numbers don't match or because they have different grading periods. Make sure at this point that you are selecting ALL of the sections you want to combine.

You will then be run through a series of steps that you have to each time you are combining sections. This is a a safety valve and is in place if you are combing sections after you have started the year. Combining sections wipes out existing grades so it will prompt you to download them so you can reenter them. You have to download the .csv even if you are doing it at the beginning of the year. Just delete it when done.

Note that you have to do a final click of Link Sections after you download the .csv or the sections are not linked. On the My Courses page they will show as linked. Please Note: it may take some time for the linked classes to appear linked. However, within an hour or two they will appear linked on the course dashboard and the courses drop down menu.

Gradebook Setup

For WASD it is important to note that officially grades are found in Sapphire and that assignments are found in Schoology. There are some settings we can change in our grade book to help with this from the student and parent perspective.

In your course go to grade book setup.

There are a lot of options here to work with. Including a place to add categories. This is a good time to pont out that if you want to sync your grade book with Sapphire, you will want to setup identical categories here in Schoology. To get to the settings we are look for you will want to scroll down and select Hide Overal Grade in Student Report and Hide Grading Period Grades in Student Report. Then hit save changes.

Privacy Settings

If you are from WASD your privacy setting are set by the tech department and for the most part you want to / have to leave them where they are. If you are from another district, that may or may not be true. I recommend setting them to the setting you see wither in this video or on the following screens. Here I will show you how to avoid having students post course updates and comments that you don't want them to.

On your course page go under Course Options and select Edit Privacy / Course Settings,

Here you will see the current privacy setting for your course. Again, most are set by the district. However, Below the Course Settings are Other Settings. I usually set all three of these to Admin's Only.

Post Course Updates: If this is All Members then your student can post course updates without your approval.

Comment on Course Updates: You may have use for this or not. At the middle school level, I turn this off. I don't need or want students to be able to do this. The choice is yours.

Edit Discussion Responses: Again, this is a personal choice as a teacher. I choose to turn this off. You can leave it on.

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Setting Up Sapphire Sync with Schoology

This example shows the process within a course with linked sections but will help whether you have them linked or not. You should setup your categories in both Schoology and Sapphire before setting up to make things go smoother.

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