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A Great Option and Ever Improving
Updated February 02, 2024

A Great Option and Ever Improving

Philip Pulley | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 3 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Schoology Learning

Fieldcrest currently uses Schoology as a district wide Learning Management System (LMS). We switched to Schoology last year and I use Schoology for almost all of my course work. I teach using the flipped classroom model and Schoology's platform allows me to share my lecture videos, conduct assessments of student knowledge and understanding, to give assignments, and to provide communication with students and parents. All of my content is available to my students through Schoology 24/7, I can make it available in a variety of ways, and I can make updates in real time. Recently, Schoology's introduction of the Google Assignment App has me excited about our switch to Chromebooks. This app allows you to attach a Google Doc (say a study guide) as part of an assignment. When students open the assignment the document is copied, renamed, and added to their Google Drive. No more students opening or copying a new version of the document each time they go back to the assignment instead of to the copy they made but didn't actually rename like the directions stated. The document is 'tied' to the assignment and updates no matter where they work on it from (inside the assignment or through their Google Drive.) Still to come, a cleaner looking interface with differentiation for elementary students!
  • 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.
I'm a bit of a cynic; almost nothing is perfect, I supported Schoology, was an Ambassador, and Ambassador of the Year. However, my opinion of Schoology has changed since PowerchoolS bought it. Schoology no longer continues to work to become better and user-friendly. From a full 1:1 district to use by an individual instructor, there are multitudes of uses for Schoology. Some may think an LMS is not useful for the elementary level, but with its Google integration, Schoology provides a way to share Google or Microsoft content with students and to get content from them. For middle school to secondary, all content and assessments can be managed through Schoology in traditional, blended, or fully online environments. For elementary, a new interface is in the works geared to those levels, but basic course materials can be shared and housed in the system. Additionally, its ability to integrate apps and LTI content within its framework means improved ease of use for all students as they can stay within Schoology while accessing content outside of the platform. Assessment options are not increasing and those features are now only available with the additional $$ assessment management platform (AMP).

Overall Satisfaction Continued

  • 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.
Schoology no longer provides all of the features of Canvas for a lower cost. In fact, as someone who now uses both LMSs, at different jobs, I can no longer recommend Schoology as features are disappearing and support has become almost worthless.

Do you think Schoology Learning delivers good value for the price?

No

Are you happy with Schoology Learning's feature set?

No

Did Schoology Learning live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Schoology Learning go as expected?

I wasn't involved with the implementation phase

Would you buy Schoology Learning again?

No

Schoology Learning Feature Ratings

Learning Management
6.1
Course authoring
5
Course catalog or library
5
Player/Portal
9
Learning content
6
Mobile friendly
7
Progress tracking & certifications
8
Assignments
5
Compliance management
10
Learning administration
2
Learning reporting & analytics
5
Social learning
5

Using Schoology Learning

500 - Elementary, middle and high school staff.
2 - Only one is a classroom teacher with actual knowledge of how to use Schoology.
  • Courses
  • Groups
  • Some communication
  • Limited to no professional development use.
  • None.
  • Poor training has resulted in under utilization.
  • Hopefully for professional development.
Only because switching would mean big upfront cost from whatever new platform is chosen. It is if they don't fix problems because they know it is hard to switch.

Evaluating Schoology Learning and Competitors

Yes - My Big Campus. Lightspeed stopped MBC.
  • Integration with Other Systems
Except that is does not sync with either of the SISs we have had.
Initally, I picked a different option. I did support them, became a Schoology Champion, then an Ambassador, and even Ambassador of the year. Since PowerSchool bought them...I can't recommend.

Schoology Learning Training

  • Online Training
Too surface level with no follow-up. A
Sit and get with very little hands-on time. 5 minutes to try out a feature/question type, etc. is not enough time. Once your training is done, there is no option for new employees to get that training without having to rebook and pay for the training again. If you pay for basic training, that should be available to a district to use in the future.

Schoology Learning Support

Since they were bought by PowerSchool, with a promise to have more funding for support and development, things have gone in the opposite direction. Support tickets can't get solved so they get escalated multiple times until they hit the development team. Then nothing happens. No follow-up, no follow-through. Users had been looking forward to the day that the Assessment feature has full feature parity with the Test/Quiz feature but it is clear now that this will never happen. Also, any problems do not get addressed.
ProsCons
Kept well informed
Slow Resolution
Poor followup
Less knowledgeable
Problems left unsolved
Escalation required
Difficult to get immediate help
Need to explain problems multiple times
Support doesn't seem to care
No. We are a small, rural district. The platform is expense enough.
Yes - Almost never.
Since the last long-time head of support left, no. They used to even help me help other districts with problems, but while they listen and agree something needs to be addressed or fixed, nothing ever happens anymore.

Using Schoology Learning

Features have been taken away and while some of the new options (Google Drive Assignments, OneDrive Assignments, and the new question types in Assessments) are nice, they come with functionality issues that Schoology/PS acknowledge but never fix.
ProsCons
Convenient
Feel confident using
Unnecessarily complex
Requires technical support
Not well integrated
Inconsistent
Slow to learn
Lots to learn
  • 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
Yes - I rarely use it outside of sending an update/announcement. It is clunky and looks nothing like the online version.

Schoology Learning Reliability

We use it 5-12 so scalability is not an issue but sharing materials between departments including common assessments is difficult without paying for add-on features.
Generally good, but issue self-reporting has become a problem. When there are issues, it can be 20 minutes to an hour before it gets noted on the status page.
Course saves or transfers can take several minutes and up to an hour.

Relationship with PowerSchool Group LLC

This was 7 years ago. Like most vendors, they promise a lot and at first, mostly followed through. We had a great working relationship with both the support and training staff. However, since their acquisition by PowerSchool that has all gone downhill. Training is still okay but mostly limited to sit-and-get-training. Support has gone completely downhill, so much so that it is almost not even worth putting in a support ticket.
Again, this was good prior to the PowerSchool buyout. We used to get input and even see results from that input. Now, it is "that's a good idea, put it in the portal." Which is rarely looked at and is considered by users who have used the product for more that a couple of years as being the place good ideas go to die.