Schoology

Schoology is a virtual learning environment and social networking service for K-12 schools and higher education institutions that allows users to create, manage, and share academic content. Also known as a learning management system (LMS) or a course management system (CMS), the cloud-based platform provides tools needed to manage a virtual classroom lesson.

Schoology
Type of businessSubsidiary
Type of site
Educational Social networking service / Learning Management System
FoundedNew York, New York (2009 (2009))
HeadquartersNew York City, New York, U.S.
Founder(s)
  • Jeremy Friedman
  • Ryan Hwang
  • Tim Trinidad
Key peopleJeremy Friedman (CEO)
IndustryEducation
Employees124
ParentPowerSchool (2019-present)
URLwww.schoology.com
RegistrationRequired

Schoology allows teachers to manage classes remotely through posting daily reminders or updates, directly messaging students, and managing scheduled assignments.[1] Assignments can include quizzes, forms, links to websites/videos, and discussions for students to share ideas. Students can join a course through using a 13-digit access code or get added to a class directly by a teacher.

In 2019, Schoology was acquired by PowerSchool, a student information system (SIS) owned by Vista Equity Partners, for an undisclosed amount.[2]

Services

Schoology services include attendance records, online grade books, tests and quizzes, and homework drop boxes. The integration of social media facilitates collaboration within a class, group, or an entire school.[3] The system can be integrated with existing school reporting and information systems[4] and provides security, filters, and support which can be used proactively. The basic product is offered to individuals, schools, and districts free of charge. Revenue is primarily derived from premium add-ons such as customized branding, support packages, increased storage, single sign-on, and data integration with existing student information systems (SIS).[5]

Schoology has partnered with other learning services such as McGraw-Hill Education and National Geographic Society Cengage.[6]

History

Schoology was founded by Jeremy Friedman, Ryan Hwang and Tim Trinidad while they were studying at Washington University in St. Louis. Originally built and designed for sharing notes, Schoology was released commercially in August 2009.[3] In June 2010, its first institutional round of venture capital funding of $1.25M was secured from Meakem Becker Venture Capital, following an angel investment in 2009 from an anonymous investor.[4] As of October 2010, the service has more than 2,400 schools nationwide in its system and had plans to incorporate additional interactive content that teachers could use to supplement course materials and provide more access to parents.[3] Enhancements have included text messages and push notifications, mobile apps for iOS and Android, integration with Google Drive and other services, a shared resources library, and a question importer for tests and quizzes. As of October 2019, it was reported that the service is used in over 60,000 schools.[7]

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, usage of Schoology has increased by 400% as more schools have shifted to virtual or hybrid learning.[8]

Features

Schoology can access other online resource applications such as Google Drive and Google Docs. Each class or course is shown on the course dashboard as well as under the courses tab. The groups tab allows students to access clubs, activities, events, etc. Each student and teacher has a profile on Schoology with settings. In settings, different Schoology accounts can be linked together, which allows switching between accounts without having to log in to each separately. Users may also share their Schoology calendar, allowing other calendar services such as Outlook and Google Calendar access to events from Schoology using an iCal link. Courses and groups can be reordered by clicking, dragging and dropping on the web version.

Assignments

Assignments may be submitted late, submitted multiple times, as well as resubmitted. Video assignments can be linked to educational video services like Edpuzzle. Chrome extensions like Kami can open files from Schoology and edit them. Assignments may be locked until published. Students will be able to see upcoming assignments and overdue assignments. According to the set due date, submitted files are organized by on time or late. Document viewer allows teachers to annotate and comment on submissions. It supports the following file types: CSV, DOC, DOCX, DXF, EPS, GIF, HTM, HTML, JPEG, JPG, MP3, MP4, MOV, ODP, ODS, ODT, PDF, PNG, PPT, PPTX, PSD, RTF, SXW, TIFF, TXT, WAV, WMV, WPD, WPS, XLS, XLSB, XLSX, and XML.[9]

Assessments

Tests or quizzes can have time limits. Questions can be skipped and come back to. Before submitting an assessment, a "review" page will pop up, allowing students to go back to and look over any question. If given a time limit and the time is up, the assessment will automatically be submitted. There is a limit of 200 questions per test/quiz. Files may be uploaded within the assessment, Assessments may be individually assigned. Teachers can enable grade statistics. To see the data, press "view stats", which shows the number of students who took the assessment, maximum points, highest and lowest grades, average grade, standard deviation, median, and mode. Question formats include: true/false, multiple choice, ordering, short-answer/essay question, fill in the blank, and matching. Tests and quizzes can be imported from Blackboard 7.1-9.0, Edmastery, or ExamView. Question order may be randomized. Teachers may set an attempt limit which allows a student multiple takes on an assessment. If there are multiple attempts, the final score will be either the highest score, latest score, or average score which can be set by the teacher giving the exam. Attempts may be unsubmitted as well as deleted. Unsubmitting an attempt cannot be undone.[10]

Grading

Teachers can grade assignments and assessments through the Schoology Gradebook. If submissions are enabled, assignments can be graded using the "edit grade" icon on the actual assignments. These changes will be synced with Gradebook. Schoology allows an average grading system, where for example, homework is worth 20% of the overall grade but tests are worth 40%, or the total points system, where there are a maximum amount of points that can be scored by the end of the quarter or semester. Rubrics can be attached to assessments or assignments so that students may see how they scored. Schoology has both a letter grade and number grade scale, with letter grades ranging from A+ to F and number grade using the 100-point system ranging from 0 to 100.[11]

Communication

Teachers and or school administrators may send messages to students individually and as a group. Course and group owners can create updates on course pages as well as comment on student assignments to give feedback. Course and group members may converse on discussion pages. On discussions, teachers have the ability to hide all class answers until a student who has been assigned the discussion comments.

Blogging

An optional feature available to enterprise organizations, blogging allows students and teachers to create posts on their Schoology profiles.[12] Students can upload text and image posts to their blogs, and their peers are able to like and reply to posts with comments, and "subscribe" to each others' blogs like other social media. Blogs are by disabled by default, as a potential risk with blogs is cyberbullying among students.[13] Blogs are not automatically moderated, so students may be able to post vulgar language or explicit images, which can be removed manually by administrators.

Mobile applications

Schoology has a mobile app version of their website available on both iOS and Android.[14]

Advantages

According to a study conducted with elementary students of English in Colombia, Schoology "contributed positively to the writing skill development, throughout the integration of factors like the motivation, the proposal of attractive activities and the development of tasks inside the classroom as well as outside it".[15] As a result, "the students showed acceptance of the system and their willingness to learn improved."[15]

References
  1. Conte, Henry S. (May 2, 2011). "Facebook-like Web Site Helps Students and Teachers Communicate". Facebook Fanpost. Retrieved July 15, 2011.
  2. "PowerSchool Completes Schoology Purchase in March Toward 'Unified' K-12 Data Ecosystem - EdSurge News". EdSurge. 2019-11-27. Retrieved 2020-09-06.
  3. Moram, Gwen (October 2010). "The Rise of the Virtual Classroom". Entrepreneur Magazine. Irvine, California. Retrieved July 15, 2012.
  4. "New Program Merges Learning Management and Social Media Platforms". District Administration. Norwalk, Connecticut. August 2010. Retrieved July 15, 2012.
  5. Wauters, Robin (June 7, 2010). "Schoology Raises $1.25 Million for Learning Management Software". TechCrunch. Retrieved July 15, 2011.
  6. "Certified Partners | Schoology". www.schoology.com. Retrieved 2019-10-17.
  7. "Schoology Partners with Capti to Improve Accessibility & Literacy for Struggling Readers". PRWeb. Retrieved 2019-10-17.
  8. https://kslnewsradio.com/1934635/meet-the-companies-behind-virtual-learning-canvas-and-schoology/
  9. "Course Materials: Assignments". Schoology Support. Retrieved 2020-12-20.
  10. "Guide to Schoology Assessments". Schoology Support. Retrieved 2020-12-20.
  11. "Grading in Schoology – Schoology Support". support.schoology.com. Retrieved 2020-12-20.
  12. "Blog (Enteprise Only)". Schoology Support. Retrieved 2021-01-14.
  13. "How to change your BSD Schoology Password - NewBlog". 2018-11-23. Archived from the original on 2018-11-23. Retrieved 2021-01-14.
  14. "Mobile LMS App | K-12 | Schoology". www.schoology.com. Retrieved 2021-01-14.
  15. Rodríguez Tamayo, Ilba Yaneth; Vargas Hernández, Leidy Jhoanna (2020). "Schoology: A Tool for the Development of English written skill". Colombian Applied Lingustics Journal (in Spanish). 22 (1): 13–28. doi:10.14483/22487085.14348.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.