Schoology

Pros

What I like most about Schoology is its ability to allow the instructor to compile all necessary course information into one easy-to-use online portal. Via this portal, I am able to create and post assignments, mark down due dates, grade the aforementioned assignments, among a plethora of other essential tasks, such as attendance tracking, progress report generation, and managing regrade requests. I am also able to communicate with students directly through the portal, which is great just in case the students want to keep their personal email addresses private. Lastly, customer service is very friendly, convenient, and helpful any time I need them, (which is infrequent, as the platform lives up to its expectations on a regular basis without any mishaps, which is fantastic, especially for efficiency's sake).

Cons

There is honestly very little that I dislike about Schoology, as it really does help me manage my classroom in an efficient manner, eliminating all of the hassle I was occasionally confronted with prior to my implementation of the platform, (the same applies to the students' perspectives on the matter, according to a mini-survey I provided them with). With all that being said, however, if I were to choose one aspect which could be further improved upon, it would be the performance of the app on both Apple and Android devices. I occasionally receive complaints from students pertaining to random crashes of the app, assignments not being able to be submitted, and various other technical issues. I must add that these issues are rare, but it would be nice if they could be eliminated in their entirety. Other than that, there is really not much else I can report as being a negative.

Pros

Once you get the hang of it, it's pretty easy to create quizzes using Google Forms and upload them into Schoology as an assignment. You can also directly create an assignment in Schoology itself which is pretty easy to do. I frequently create math tests on here, because it is so easy and has different options like multiple choice, sequencing, etc.

Cons

I had to take an initial training course to understand this software better. There are a few confusing buttons when creating an assignment - but after a few tries, you get used to it. (I would recommend watching some YouTube videos about how to use Schoology if you're interested in buying this software for your school. They have some very helpful ones on there.)

Pros

I have been using Schoology for approximately five years now and I find it to be the easiest LMS with the most features of all the other ones I’ve tried. It is so easy to organize in whatever way is most convenient for you and your course. It supports video uploads from multiple different kinds of sources whether be YouTube or Loom or Edpuzzle. Students love the use of badges where teachers can send “gold star” encouragement to students like “most improved” or other distinctions. Students can easily email their teachers through Schoology. Course updates allow for whole class communication. The pro list goes on and on.

Cons

The biggest con I have experienced occasionally rears its head when I try to sync Schoology to PowerSchool. I find that some assignments will not sync. Even after I go through all of the usual troubleshooting details such as having a due date or the assignment title being too long, nothing will get it to sync. This is not a huge problem maybe one assignment and 50. What is frustrating, is that when you go into the sync page the error listed doesn’t tell you what to look for us just simply says “failed the sync.

Another frustration I have is when I want to unpublished material to students In Schoology that unpublished material is then unpublished in PowerSchool. Just because I want to on publish it in Schoology does it mean I want their grades in assignments to be unseen in PowerSchool.

Pros

I love that I can login once and be able to access a variety of programs and software. The one user login is awesome! I like that I can send out messages to students either through the messenger feature or by placing an announcement in each class. I also like being able to go directly from one website (for example Newsela) to another (for example Nearpod) with in the platform itself. Set up classes is a breeze, and I appreciate how seamless Schoology has made it for teachers. The training I received from Schoology staff is also very good.

Cons

As with any LMS, there is a learning curve, but it ranks as one of the better LMSs in terms of easy of use. I would like to see Zoom integrated directly into each class, as an additional option.

Pros

Schoology is packed with features that let educators customize their courses and content to meet the specific learning needs of various populations of students. The user interface is fresh, simple, and easy to navigate. Many popular external applications are already integrated and available to use within the Schoology platform and sync effortlessly with the gradebook. For me personally, I really appreciate the way I can build customized, authentic, and engaging assessments from their wide assortment of question types. Schoology also has a badge rewards system where teachers can reward students for accomplishing certain tasks. Schoology simply is super customizable with a ton of features that other LMS don't offer.

Cons

As a user of many learning management systems over the past decade, there is no area where I feel Schoology is lacking in. It is the best for what it does.