Schoology receives hundreds of requests at any given time for new features and for improvements to their Learning Management System (LMS).
One way that you can expand your knowledge and understanding of all the features of Schoology, is to explore the Help Centre. It's here too that you can 'Submit a Request', or Vote Up a request someone else has made. It all helps provide feedback to Schoology so that they can improve. This session brings to foreground some of the recent changes and improvements to Schoology since our last PD session. Information sourced for this PD is in fact borrowed largely from the Help Centre.
Follow the Schoology blog for all the latest Schoology information and updates.
Creating, distributing and collecting digital files is easy. Providing quality, annotated, feedback is not always as easy. Welcome to 'Quality Feedback - Digital Annotations' Goals:
Provide insights into digital means by which to provide quality feedback to your students.
Be successful trialling 2+ of the selected tools in this session and be able to explain how you might potentially be able to use them to assist student learning.
This session is for all teachers who wish to create:
Assignments
Quizzes or Tests
Discussions (that you can filter students, provide individual feedback on, and even grade)
Add Blank Grading Columns like on a tradition Excel/Numbers/Google Spreadsheet
Badges
Create Rubrics
Manage Student Workload
Please take time at the end of the session to provide valuable feedback to the EdTech Team via Fish Food: http://kisfishbowl.blogspot.kr/p/fish-food-post-session.html
All Middle and High School teachers
This session is designed for teachers at Korea International School, Pangyo and Seoul Campus, South Korea. All teachers in Middle and High School are expected to have Outcome 5 verified, as required by Building Principals to ensure consistency and accuracy regarding grading and assessment for the start of the 2014-15 academic year.
Outcomes:
In this session you will achieve the following:
Set Grading Term Weight in PowerSchool (Middle and High School)
Set Set Grading Categories according to class/Department agreements (Middle and High School)
Complete Gradebook Setup in Schoology (Elementary, Middle and High School)
Have 1-4 verified by member of KIS EdTech Department (Middle and High School)
Procedure:
Open PowerSchool Gradebook, and select your first Course for 2014-15
Preparation: In left side bar, in the 'Categories' box, use the +symbol to add new Grade Categories if your required Categories are not already populated.
Setup Categories Weights: Now in your Grade Setup, add your C1 and C2 Categories and associated weights. The percentage applied must equal 100% (i.e. 100% of the amount given to C1/C2
Do you this same setup for multiple Courses? It's easy to copy this 1 perfect setup. On C1, right select using your trackpad or mouse, and Copy Grade Setup -- Entire Class. Check the boxes for the Courses you want this configuration sent to.
Complete any/all other setup in PowerSchool
Rounding
All Gradebooks should be set to Round grades to 1 decimal.
2. Schoology
Schoology integration with PowerSchool is very new at KIS. As such, we are trialling the integrated Gradebooks.
Schoology will send any grade you give to PowerSchool, live.
PowerSchool does not however recognise the Grading Category that is applied inside Schoology, requiring this small piece of double handling. i.e. Once a grade is posted you need to go to PowerSchool Gradebook and apply the correct category to your synched grade item. Annoying....yes. But better than double entering every grade for every student.
PowerSchool is for now the only definitive reference for student's Overall Semester grades. Think of Schoology right now as a synched spreadsheet that makes it easier to create, collect and grade assessments.
For each of your Courses, you are however required to setup your Gradebook, in the same manner as PowerSchool. This is for the duration of 2014-15 so that we can assess the success of this part of Schoology.
It's easy to do:
1. Go to your Course
2. Gradebook
3. Gradebook Setup
4. Next to Grading Periods & Final Weights > Select EDIT
5. Select C1 and E1, and deselect any other periods
6. Check the box for Weight Categories and enter each Category you have.
7. Select Grade Scale 'KIS...or AP'
8. Enter all values in line with your PowerSchool setup.
Finish! Now have your Setups checked by a member of EdTech. Please complete the Exit Survey (Fish Food) to have your attendance recorded for verification purposes as well as PD hours.
Creating an Assignment:
This is a descriptive, but reasonably fast paced guide to creating and grading assignments in Schoology. Feel free to get the jump on this; however be advised that this will be the topic of our next Fish Bowl session (next week).
Regardless of what capacity in which you use Schoology, one common element is that it makes learning experiences simpler for teachers, students and parents to engage in as a community. Schoology adopts elements of social media, and combines it with all the features one would expect of a course manager, such as grading, assessment, calendars, and reminders. It also includes a direct (individual) or group messenger. This session in The Fish Bowl focuses primarily on the basics of Schoology, but then focusing on Grading and Assessment in a little more detail.
To familiarize yourself with Schoology, log in and take a look at the following:
Settings - Click on the triangle to the right of your name. Pay close attention to Notifications and Account Settings.
Home - Click Home and notice you receive all Schoology updates in one place.
Upcoming - All assignments and events will appear in the far right column.
Course - An official class created in PowerSchool. Members can only be modified by PowerSchool administrators.
Group - A group can be created by any user and for any activity (club, team, common interest). Membership to the group can be decided on by the group's creator.
Post - Similar to a Facebook status update. In the home screen you may post to multiple courses & groups with one post. Within a course or group you post will only be seen by that course or group.
Course Options - This popup menu is available in every course and allows you to customize the settings of the course. In the Privacy tab please change the Default landing page to Updates.
Below is the guide EdTech created in 2013-14 that helps to explain some of the basic landscape of Schoology. We will demonstrate this is our session with live examples of course. This guide is for your reference and convenience.
You can grade student work either by inputting your assessment scores directly into the Gradebook, or by using a Rubric, which auto-calculates and records for you. This Gradebook can be exported as a spreadsheet too.
Grade Scales are available to use (currently), which mirror the grade scales in PowerSchool (both the default A-F; and AP Scale)
Grading can take the form of Badges to 'gamify' learning and recognise achievement. This is being used in particular in the ES, and once created, can be shared.
2. Assessment
Assignment setup and distribution to a single class or multiple classes (in 1 click)
Pre-load assignment with a scheduled 'go-live' date and time
Create 'Grading Groups' for differentiated assessment or learning experiences (such as Discussions).
3. Communication
Parents will be able to view activity for all courses and groups their child is a member of.
Make sure parents have adjusted their settings to receive email or SMS.
You can easily send home notices, newsletters and post items as calendar events to keep parents informed of what is going on in your class.
