Overview
What is Schoology Learning?
Schoology aims to combine as many parts of the learning process as possible into a single platform for K-12 students. By doing this they aim to simplify the learning experience for students, parents, and teachers.
TrustRadius Insights
Schoology Learning is an awesome program that helps students reach their potential
Clearly not designed by a classroom teacher. :-(
Schoology LMS is the best for in-person and remote learning
Schoology. Good, but be prepared for the long haul.
Schoology for Teachers
Schoology for Pre-K - 12 Use
Very easy implementation and easy to use
Schoology for Education
Have a ton of instructional content? Schoology has got you covered!
This is the WORST relearning platform on the market! Avoid at all costs!
Quick unbiased view of Schoology
Connecting our students at home and abroad
Schoology - A Learning Management System that Works!
Schoology is the best LMS I have used
Awards
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Popular Features
- Course authoring (38)7.676%
- Assignments (40)6.868%
- Mobile friendly (38)6.666%
- Learning reporting & analytics (37)6.060%
Reviewer Pros & Cons
Pricing
Schoology Basic
Free
Schoology Enterprise
Contact sales team
Entry-level set up fee?
- No setup fee
Offerings
- Free Trial
- Free/Freemium Version
- Premium Consulting/Integration Services
Features
Learning Management
Features of LMS and LCMS systems, related to designing, administering, and consuming learning content in an educational, corporate, or on-the-job context.
- 7.6Course authoring(38) Ratings
Users can develop and assemble online learning content.
- 8.1Course catalog or library(27) Ratings
Learning content is organized into a course catalog or browsable library.
- 8Player/Portal(29) Ratings
Students or employees can engage with content and take courses using this interface, which may be called a player or portal.
- 9.1Learning content(33) Ratings
The vendor offers high quality pre-made courses or assets. These may be specific to certain industries or technologies.
- 6.6Mobile friendly(38) Ratings
Students or employees can access content from mobile devices. Course authors can develop responsive learning content.
- 7.3Progress tracking & certifications(34) Ratings
The system tracks individuals’ progress on courses, scores, transcripts, certificates, etc.
- 6.8Assignments(40) Ratings
Users can assign courses/curricula to individuals or groups, with due dates.
- 7.1Compliance management(23) Ratings
Users can identify potential risks and ensure that requirements are met and that certifications are up to date.
- 7.7Learning administration(33) Ratings
Administrators can manage the content and people (students/employees, course authors, instructors, etc.) on the platform.
- 6Learning reporting & analytics(37) Ratings
Provides insights into course completion, engagement with learning content, etc.
- 6.1Social learning(35) Ratings
Includes features for collaboration and knowledge sharing among peers.
Product Details
- About
- Integrations
- Competitors
- Tech Details
- FAQs
What is Schoology Learning?
Schoology, now a PowerSchool Unified Classroom product, is a learning management system (LMS). Schoology’s platform is built specifically for the needs of K-12 students, teachers, and administrators. Schoology aims to combine as many parts of the learning process as possible into a single platform. By doing this they aim to simplify the learning experience for students, parents, and teachers.
The Basic Package is free for instructors and includes features such as an Academic Activity Dashboard, Instructional Tools, and a Native Document Grader. The Enterprise Package includes the Basic Package and additional features such as Systemwide Administration, User Management, and Workload Planning.
PowerSchool acquired Schoology in late 2019.
Overview of Schoology Features
Schoology focuses on student mastery of learning objectives by offering a proficiency model of grading and traditional numeric grades. Through their online platform, it is simple to deliver assessments to students regardless of their location. Assessments are flexible and can be quick quizzes, locally-created benchmarks, or district-wide assessments.
Through Schoology’s built-in data and analytics, educators can determine what is working and what is not at several different levels. The reports generated give information at both the class and school level and can be used by teachers to determine how their students are doing, as well as administrators to ensure that all students school-wide are on track. Reports can be shared via a secure URL, and access is filtered based on staff permissions
Schoology aims to ensure effective communication between parents and educators. Teachers can send weekly digests about classroom activities. Parents can instantly access their students' grades to get an idea of their child’s full learning experience.
Per the vendor, Schoology is easy to use in combination with other learning tools and comes with over 200 native integrations. Educators can use said tools to quickly create assignments. Courses can be built from scratch, or educators can use Schoology’s content library that contains over 300 applications. Courses can be easily shared with other teachers or can be re-used across multiple academic years.
Collaboration is encouraged between teachers through the Public Groups pages on Schoology. These are community pages where educators can share ideas, ask questions and learn from each other.
Tailored Education Solutions
Schoology aims to create a highly tailored educational experience for students that ensures that they meet learning objectives in the way that works best for them. By offering personalized pacing, students can work through the material at the speed that suits their individual needs.
Educators also have the option of creating lessons that give students a choice in how they learn the material. Students can select the tasks that suit their learning style, and a grade for that lesson appears in the grade book, regardless of which task was selected.
Schoology also emphasizes the importance of collaboration between students, even in a remote learning environment. The Groups feature allows students to communicate and store resources about sports, clubs, etc. outside of their course modules.
Schoology Learning Features
Learning Management Features
- Supported: Course authoring
- Supported: Course catalog or library
- Supported: Learning content
- Supported: Assignments
- Supported: Learning administration
- Supported: Learning reporting & analytics
- Supported: eLearning
- Supported: Assessments
- Supported: Live online learning
- Supported: In-person learning
- Supported: Video learning
- Supported: Social learning
Schoology Learning Screenshots
Schoology Learning Video
Schoology Learning Integrations
Schoology Learning Competitors
Schoology Learning Technical Details
Deployment Types | Software as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based |
---|---|
Operating Systems | Unspecified |
Mobile Application | No |
Frequently Asked Questions
Comparisons
Compare with
Reviews and Ratings
(146)Community Insights
- Business Problems Solved
- Recommendations
Schoology is a versatile Learning Management System used by school districts, educators, and students to enhance the learning experience and streamline communication. Teachers rely on Schoology to create and share resources, post assignments, and assess student progress. It also serves as a platform for coordinating school groups, athletic activities, and building school culture. With Schoology, educators can easily communicate with families, manage events and assignments, collect feedback, generate discussions, and facilitate formal assessments. Students benefit from Schoology by accessing course materials, assignments, study materials, and participating in interactive class discussions. Parents appreciate the platform's ability to keep them informed about their child's progress through regular updates and messages from teachers. Additionally, Schoology has been widely adopted by entire school districts as their preferred LMS due to its effectiveness in addressing differentiation, collaboration, and communication needs. Beyond the classroom, Schoology is also utilized by organizations for professional development, communication, collaboration, and training purposes. Overall, Schoology offers a user-friendly interface that simplifies the transition to paperless classrooms while providing valuable tools for both educators and students alike.
Users commonly recommend the following actions when using Schoology as an LMS:
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Experiment and customize: Users suggest taking the time to learn how to use Schoology effectively, exploring its various capabilities, and customizing it to meet specific needs. They recommend creating a committee to evaluate Schoology or any other LMS and piloting Schoology with real students before fully implementing it. It is also recommended to build a customized course in Schoology, utilizing features such as videos and modified LMS settings to enhance engagement.
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Integrate with other tools: Users find it beneficial to integrate Schoology with other tools like Office 365 or Google Classroom. They recommend exploring Schoology's integration capabilities with platforms like PowerSchool and Google Drive. Some users mention that Schoology seamlessly integrates with products like Kami, enhancing the overall user experience.
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Organize and communicate effectively: Users appreciate Schoology's features for organizing classes and sharing information among instructors. They suggest utilizing the platform's folders feature and announcements for easy organization and communication within the learning environment. Archiving courses for future use is also recommended. Additionally, users find that keeping educational resources organized in one place makes it easily accessible to students.
Overall, users recommend taking the time to familiarize oneself with Schoology's features, explore integrations with other tools, and leverage its organizational capabilities for effective online teaching and learning experiences.
Attribute Ratings
Reviews
(1-5 of 5)A Great Option and Ever Improving
- Google Assignment App - this is a game changer for schools using Google and Chromebooks but grading is a scrolling nightmare for teachers and not intuitive.
- Open LMS - it integrates with outside apps and programs but they have done little to improve the functionality of the product.
- New interfaces on the way - a cleaner look for all and an elementary version of the interface. This took YEARS longer than promised and looks completely different. They updated the user interface (UI) again for other users and now have some icons used for different features.
- More question types coming for assessments including labeling. These are now available, but the promised equity with the old assessment feature has never happened. New users only get the new assessment and while it looks nice, it lacks many basic features and is a grading nightmare.
- Options are available for assessment monitoring for schools and districts. All third-party paid apps unless you have Chromebooks.
- Microsoft OneDrive Integration and Assignments.
- Google Drive Integration
- So many promised features have not been added as promised. Flaws in existing features have not been (and based on my experience with the highest levels of support and development) never will be.
- Grading Google Drive Assignments is a scrolling nightmare. Assessments that have short answer/essay questions do not show up on your list of things that need to be graded.
- Known pain points for teachers are never addressed. Support since they were bought by PowerSchool has become nothing but, "Huh, we will escalate that" and then escalated, then escalated again, then to the top level and nothing happens.
- Updates to fix issues, forget about it. If you look at their roadmap for Schoology, it is all about integration with other products PowerSchool owns. Nothing on the roadmap was about fixing anything in Schoology outside of a new UI which simply changed the look slightly.
- I wish I could move and resize pop-up editing boxes. I create complex and visual landing pages with hyperlinks for my students. I wish that box were able to be made bigger and many pop-up boxes cover information on the page that would be helpful when working in the box.
- Settings and due dates for assessments are in two completely different places when creating them. One is in a tab in the content area, the other is in the creation "gear" menu. If both are not set correctly, your assessment will not work.
- Course authoring
- 50%5.0
- Course catalog or library
- 50%5.0
- Player/Portal
- 90%9.0
- Learning content
- 60%6.0
- Mobile friendly
- 70%7.0
- Progress tracking & certifications
- 80%8.0
- Assignments
- 50%5.0
- Compliance management
- 100%10.0
- Learning administration
- 20%2.0
- Learning reporting & analytics
- 50%5.0
- Social learning
- 50%5.0
- Update: the changes to Schoology since PowerSchool bought them have been minimal and several features have been taken away. Support is hardly worth creating a ticket.
- The administration and counselors are also utilizing the platform.
- More parents are accessing their student's coursework and communicating through Schoology that in the past.
- For us, more staff members are using Schoology than with our old LMS.
- Blackboard, Canvas and Edmodo
- Courses
- Groups
- Some communication
- Limited to no professional development use.
- None.
- Poor training has resulted in under utilization.
- Hopefully for professional development.
- Integration with Other Systems
- Online Training
- Basic, simple assignments except the button to begin is labeled "Submit"
- Updates/Announcements
- Grading Google Drive Assignments
- Item Banks - so many issues
- Grading - Assessments with short anwer questions do not show up on your "Needs Grading" list
Clearly not designed by a classroom teacher. :-(
- allows teachers to upload Google docs, sheets, etc. as assignments
- allows integration with our school's report card system (grades in gradebook are automatically imported to report cards for families)
- allows different teachers to save and share materials by saving them to Resources
- In general, the system is NOT intuitive and there is a lack of customization across all aspects of it. Far too much clicking is required for many tasks. Some examples follow...
- When typing comments on assignment, the default is to NOT show the comments to students--for students to see, you must click a box before submitting and there is no way to change that setting.
- There is no way to create a bank of frequently used comments (e.g. "This is plagiarized", "Good job!", "You need to edit more carefully", etc.), so the teacher must type comments manually for each assignment.
- Once assignments are marked missing, late submissions are still marked missing and there is no automatic way to change this. Teachers must go in and manually remove the "missing" marks from any assignments submitted late. This is a huge hassle, considering our district does not want us to refuse late work.
- In consideration of the movement towards mastery grading, there is no way to customize the value of a missing assignment; it can only be zero. Any equity-focused district encourages teachers NOT to count missing assignments as zeroes. The value of missing work was customizable in the Illuminate gradebook that my school previously used.
- "Mark empty cells missing" (bulk feature) does not mean "all cells without a submission"; it means "all cells without a grade." You cannot easily mark multiple assignments missing at the same time without then going to manually remove the missing mark from those students who HAVE submitted something that you have not yet had time to grade.
- There is no way to sort students by who has the most ungraded work, which would be very helpful in prioritizing.
- If a student takes a quiz late, their score does NOT automatically populate. Teacher must go in to view the score and then manually enter it. This is incredibly annoying at a school with a high absence rate.
- Assignments submitted late are just marked "late" instead of time-stamped and there is no way to sort late assignments by the order they were submitted. I do not want to grade the work of students who turned in everything the last week of the semester before those who only turned things in one day late.
- The Bulk Edit feature does not allow you to change the lock date (last date an assignment will be accepted). Lock dates for assignments must be set and changed individually, which I learned the hard way.
- My experience with the mobile app was so frustrating that I never use it. It would be amazing if I could grade student work from my phone, but it's totally confusing.
- It allows off-campus students to access work when not present at school.
- It allows integration with out district's report card system.
- It creates an individual copy of posted Google docs for each student, and these are automatically stored in the teacher's Google Drive.
- Course authoring
- 60%6.0
- Assignments
- 60%6.0
- Learning administration
- 60%6.0
- Learning reporting & analytics
- 30%3.0
- Social learning
- 50%5.0
- It does allow shy students to share their thoughts on a discussion board without talking.
- It allows parents to view grades, although very few parents at my school do, mainly due to not being very tech-savvy.
- Motivated students are able to monitor their own grades.
- assigning work
- grading/scoring work
- submitting grades/marks for progress reports and final report cards
- I can't think of anything innovative, but it allowed teachers to assign work remotely during COVID-related distance learning. (Unfortunately, many of our families did not have internet access at home in 2020.)
- It will probably continue to be used for the same purposes; I can't see much other use for it.
- I wouldn't call any of it easy. It all required training, and I still have so many unanswered questions.
- I just listed all of these in a previous question.
- I can't speak from a student standpoint, but I can name at least ten improvements that should be made to make the teacher experience easier. (And I did in the previous question.)
Schoology: Great for Teachers and Communication with Students
- Posting Assignments
- Grading Assignments
- Using Schoology Rubrics to grade
- Time management for students as it shows due dates and upcoming assignments in order by date
- It is hard to find a student by name
- The loading takes a very long time when grading submitted papers
- The formatting of Word documents is messed up when using the viewing feature. I always have to download the paper to view the formatting correctly
- Course authoring
- N/AN/A
- Course catalog or library
- N/AN/A
- Player/Portal
- 30%3.0
- Learning content
- 40%4.0
- Mobile friendly
- 50%5.0
- Progress tracking & certifications
- 50%5.0
- Assignments
- 80%8.0
- Compliance management
- N/AN/A
- Learning administration
- N/AN/A
- Learning reporting & analytics
- N/AN/A
- Social learning
- N/AN/A
- Eases grading
- Eases student submission
- Doesn't help with parent communication
- Uploading Assignments
- Creating Rubrics
- Entering Grades
- Format of submitted Word documents
- Search function when looking for a student
- Viewing archived classes
Schoology Review!
- Listen to users.
- Provide consistent access.
- Streamline the process of sharing resources for teachers.
- Increased interactivity in the assignments.
- Improve the reporting of data following assessments.
- Improve question types in assessments.
- We are looking at ways to reduce the cost of textbooks by building our own content in Schoology.
- We have developed a network of schools to share costs on professional development.
- Organization of online materials
- Location for student collaboration
- Management of assessments
- Adding/Removing Students
- Creating assignments with Google Integration
- Moderation of Discussions
- Data Analsysis
Going to School with Schoology
For us, it streamlines our workflow. In the past, we've had teachers/staff working from several different platforms. It was difficult for staff to manage which system housed which set of information. Schoology has allowed us to ensure a one-stop shop for all school/work related items. If staff need bus schedules, curriculum content, online professional development, etc., they will find it all on Schoology. Schoology has addressed an organizational and management piece that was missing from our school system.
- Schoology allows for a variety of content to be embedded and uploaded into Schoology. From a teaching standpoint, this truly allows for personalization of learning. Teachers are able to offer multiple modalities of learning all through one platform. Students are given a voice and choice in how they want to demonstrate their learning, as a result of the aforementioned.
- Schoology continually grows and changes with their clients. As users request features, Schoology spends time researching and vetting these within the platform. In the three years we have used Schoology, we have noticed several new and positive changes. The changes Schoology has made have not been just to make changes, but rather to address the needs of the clientele. This shows that Schoology is willing to listen to its users and ready to adapt.
- Schoology is user friendly. We spent quite a bit of time researching and exploring other learning management system. We continually came back to the idea that Schoology would be easy enough for our staff to learn and adapt to. Most things are relatively straightforward, but Schoology has a robust help center, as well as a public resources center. The options to connect with other Schoology users are endless. As a result, it is easy to learn and continue to grow within the Schoology platform.
- It would be great to see Schoology continue to develop their mobile app. Their web version is great, but the mobile app lags behind. As a 1:1 iPad (K-8) school district, increasing this functionality would truly allow our students to use the app to its fullest potential.
- Schoology has a badging system which is perfect for gamification. However, those badges currently must be entered manually. While it is a not a game changer, automated badging would continue to improve the system. This would allow teachers/staff to create gamified and engaging courses.
- There are some minor gradebook enhancements that would also help to improve the functionality of Schoology. Despite the fact that users can create separate grade categories, there is no way to view the overall grade for just one specific category. The basic functionality of the gradebook is there, but there are minor adjustments that would truly make the platform robust.
- Schoology does not integrate with Campus, which is our current system for grading. This would be a huge help to us, as just another way to make workflow more efficient.
- Prior to Schoology, our district used another LMS. At that time, only a handful of elementary and middle school teachers used the LMS. Some used websites, and many others avoided a digital platform all together. Since adopting Schoology, all of our 7-12 grade teachers have a presence in an LMS. K-6, nearly all of our staff use Schoology in some capacity. This is a huge shift from our previous LMS.
- We have been able to offer professional development in an online environment. Staff are able to enroll in courses (that are also offered for graduate credit) via Schoology. We have been able to continue learning that might have only been done on a lone professional development day. We have offered three sessions of online/blended learning courses to our staff. Prior to adopting Schoology, we had not offered any.
- It's hard to put it into numbers, but Schoology has helped our teachers/staff to transition into a 1:1 environment. We have been able to streamline the workflow, engage students, and offer a personalized learning environment. It is not that we could not have done this before, but Schoology has made these things easier and more efficient.
- Setting up a course and adding materials is very easy. With a few clicks of a button, and the rich-text editor, you can add quality content to any course.
- Grading is very straightforward. Tests/quizzes, with the exception of short answer, are graded for you. The final result goes directly into the Schoology gradebook. Additionally, grading assignments and discussions is very simple. A discussion can be graded directly from the post. Assignments have the added functionality of given audio or text feedback.
- There is a learning curve to section linking. For instance, if one doesn't know in advance, once you unlink sections you lose all information. It is important to understand just how section linking works and why you would want to use it before going forward with it.
- When assignments/materials are in the past, there is no way to hide the content without also removing it from the gradebook. Teachers have to create a workaround in order to make this work for students.