Schoology

A Facebook-like platform to communicate with and hold classes online. Schoology is a program that allows you to hold discussions, communicate directly with students and parents, join other classes, join groups, and much more. This program is very useful for classes that are held completely online. Younger, elementary-aged students would not enjoy this as much because there is no fun graphics or drawings or features to get them engaged. Schoology can be run on a computer or any smart device or tablet. I find that the app on a smart device is much easier to use and navigate.

Negatives: Schoology can be difficult to maneuver. I also believe that it can be a good program, but I can’t see all the benefits because I am not running a class in a school nor am I participating in a class. This makes it difficult to see all of the capabilities of this program.

Lesson Ideas: Because Schoology is a platform that you would use to run a class completely or partially online, there are not many lesson ideas I have for this program. I would recommend that if you use this program and enjoy it, take it to your administrators to see if you can use it school-wide.

Due to the app being much easier to use and having ALL of the same features, I have included only one picture of the Home screen on the computer. I will review all of the features on the app in the next section.

Once you sign up for an account, this is your main home screen that will be displayed. The top black tool bar will help you navigate some of the other aspects of the site. You can create courses that you teach under the Courses section at the top. If you want to join a course that is already created, you must have an access code. When you click Groups at the top, it lists the groups that you have joined in Schoology. In order to join a public group, you simply have to click the add button on the right side of the name of the group. Once you join public groups, you gain access to their resources on your account. All of those resources will be available under the Resources section at the top. Also in the top tool bar, you can access personal messages (through the envelope icon), friends that you have connected with (through the people icon), and your notifications to changes made (through the antenna icon). On the left side, you can access some of these same tools. The only one that is different is your calendar. Here you can add events that you have for your course, like a test date or an after school event. You can also easily post an update or event right under Recent Activity.

Below I have included extensive screenshots of the app in action! Click on the image below and scroll through the pictures describing each screenshot.