Schoology as a Blended Learning Hub for Students and Teachers
July 07, 2017
Schoology as a Blended Learning Hub for Students and Teachers
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with Schoology
Our district is the 7th largest in Texas. This last year we began rolling out Schoology through the use on online Professional Development and next year it will be used my classroom teachers to access curriculum as well as by teachers and students for coursework. Schoology is a great LMS for blended learning. Between the ability to embed and various features like discussion boards and media albums, Schoology allows for a robust learning experience. Acting as a central hub, students are able to easily and consistently access course materials. Grading is extremely easy and provides students with feedback. For PD, the use of classes not only helps teachers learn at the pace they need, but also easily access the resources. We also use it for curriculum, which makes it wonderfully easy to copy exemplar lessons over into courses. The very best thing about Schoology is once you make something, you only have to make it once. And if you use a link to/embed web docs, when you update the docs they will auto update in Schoology, saving teachers tons of steps.
- Allows learners to have some control over path, pace, place or time.
- Organizing and sharing lessons and resources with your PLC is so easy! You can have your PLC in group, organizing documents and activities and then each can copy over to course, adjusting as needed for teachers.
- Grading is super easy. You see a preview of the assignment, so you don't even have to download it to see it, which makes it easy. Then you post the score and any feedback you'd like to give. Then all you have to do is press an arrow and you go to the next assignment. Quick and immediate.
- I wish it were able to have grouping for students where it creates a private area just for that literature circle group or that project group where they can discuss things without the entire class seeing. I know I can just assign individually, but for long-term groups, it isn't efficient.
- There is something a tiny funky about cutting and pasting text and adjusting formatting. It is manageable, but for someone who really likes things to look consistent.
- Schoology won't be a magic bullet. At the end of the day it is about what an educator is doing: in the classroom and in Schoology. For strong teachers who are invested in blended learning and offering students choice and control, this makes it nicely possible.
I've only used one other LMS that is set up more like a Facebook page. I have to remake everything every year and students commenting on the course would push down assignments and directions. Schoology solves those issues. On top of that, I can embed so easily in Schoology where students don't have to go to outside websites to interact with content and tools.