Schoology: Educator's Web 2.0 Tool Box

Name of the tool:
Schoology

Url of the tool:
https://www.schoology.com
Primary category of the tool:Course/Learning management system with built-in Social networking

Description of the tool - Schoology
Schoology is an enterprise level course/learning management system disguised in social networking user interface that today's students feel comfortable with. Two major categories of features are the course management system that is similar to Blackboard, Moodle, or Sakai and the configurable social networking user interface that is similar to Facebook. In sum, Schoology is a course management system with the built-in strong Web 2.0 communication features. Major clients are schools and school districts, though it fits well in the colleges.

In course management side, Schoology provides common capabilities such as creations of school, course, and groups or classes. It also supports tests and quizzes. It enables instructors to manage courses, grades and even attendance. Overall, it parallels the capabilities of Moodle, but with much user-friendly interface.

In social networking side, Schoology provides features that are not seen in typical course management systems. They are cross-school networking and private messaging, group workspace for departments, PTA, Clubs, and Teams, Blogs, and personal file storage and bookmarking.

In conclusion, Schoology can be a strong alternative to major course management systems especially at school settings. But it features more favorable social networking-like communication capabilities among all stakeholders: students, teachers, administrators, staffs, and parents.
In order to use Schoology as teacher, one should talk to the administrator of the school you are in if the school already registered your school at Schoology. Otherwise, you may have to ask your school to set up an account in Schoology for you.

The primium add-ons can be purchased to customize the system for schools and districts. The basic version is available for free.

What skills needed to use the tool?
No particular skill is needed, but familiarity with any course management system as Blackboard and social networking site as Facebook would help.

What resources do you need before using the tool?
Since the tool is server-based, you do not need to download any major program. But your school must register at Schoology before you as a teacher can use the tool.

How do you use this tool?
The way you use this tool depends on your role in your school system. Let's consider a usage as a teacher.
1. Contact your school to check if the school has already registered at Schoology. If it has, call the contact person to obtain an account. If it has not, you may request a registration at Schoology.
2. Once you get an account as a teacher, you can create a class of your own. At this point, it is possible that the administrator in your school may set up your class for you.
3. You can create tests and quizzes, analyze their results and monitor students' progress while communicating with students off school.
4. You can communicate with parents through Schoology as well if you choose to do so.
5. You may do most course and learning management tasks with strong communication in many aspects.

Create an example with this tool and either embed in your blog or submit the Url.
Since my college already registered at Schoology, I have to wait to get an account from the school. In the mean time, I submit the url that illustrates features.
Url: https://www.schoology.com/features.php 

Here are some more screen shots of Schoology.com. I registered as a fake teacher at another university so that the identity was not verified by Schoology. Thus, not much action has been shown. 

Here is the welcome page after the registration.


Identity verification page, which I didn't go through.


Social, Academic, and Group settings page.


My network page.

Describe a scenario of how you might use this tool in a teaching environment

As a teacher in a college, I would create a class and set it up at Schoology not only to manage my courses but also to encourage my students to communicate and collaborate on assignments. I am interested in using Schoology for one particular teaching method that I apply each summer session.

I teach one day and my students teach the other day during summer sessions. As an instructor I teach on A-days whereas my students teach on B-days. Thus, my students work hard on every A-days after my lecture in order to prepare their teaching the next day (B-day). I have to give up about 30 to 40 minutes of my class time to allow them to collaborate on their group's work before their teaching presentations on B-days.

Two hurdles in this teaching scheme are not being able to provide students with (a) appropriate help from the instructor and (b) a tool for communication among students when they work alone at home. With the aid of Schoology, I will be able to remove these hurdles. User-friendly and social networking style communication tools will allow students in the same group to discuss over math problems that could be dealt with without help from the teacher. I can provide just-in-time help when they request for help through Schoology during the virtual office hours.

The significant benefit for students would be being able to talk about the math problems with which they are struggling. As we all experienced as a math student, sometimes just talking to someone is all they needed to move forward when they are stuck with the math problem.

What are the advantages of using this tool in a teaching environment?

The advantages in a particular teaching environment mentioned above are the social networking interface embedded in the course management system. Students' collaboration would be more seamless with the interface students are already familiar with.

What are the disadvantages of using this tool in a teaching environment?

The major disadvantage should be having a course on a rather proprietary course management system that your school does not provide full support.

Please note that the number of screen shots is small because I need to get an account from the college that I am to log onto Schoology I identified the personel who deals with Schoology accounts, but I was not able to contact her yet.