1.
Schoology:
best practices

2.
What if we designed them to be a
What if we reimagined our learning spaces?
blended learning
experience?
collaborative

3.
if we think about using Schoology pedagogically…
? What
not just administratively?

4.
Best Practice #1
Name all courses with the following convention:
Elementary-Last Name, Grade Level, Content Area
Secondary-Last Name, Course Name

5.
Best Practice #2
Each course has a Course Name and a Section Name. This naming convention allows you to
create multiple sections for the same course.
If your school uses class periods, you may also use a course/section structure like the following
example:
Course Name: English 101
Section Name: Period 1
Section Name: Period 2
We recommend that you separate different class rosters into their own sections. If a group
of students meet during Section 1, for example, you should consider creating another
section for the group of students that meet at another time (Section 2).
Instead of creating separate courses... create sections.

6.
Best Practice #3
Students need to understand
how your mind works.
Organize your course.

7.
Everyone should set their course
to land on the Update Page. The
Update Page is where you
designate the Updates feed as the
course landing page. In other
words, Updates are the first thing
anyone sees every time they
navigate to your course. This puts
emphasis on communication and
encourages community.
First Things First: The Update Page

8.
Some educators prefer to segment
their courses by block or unit rather
than chronology. If you would
eventually like to move to a
chronological model, this is a great
first step to get a feel for the timing of
your lessons. It can also help students
conceptualize their lessons individually
and in the bigger picture.
Organize By: Block

9.
This approach refers to courses where
the materials are organized in
chronological order. The folders are
labeled by week, month, quarter, etc.
and help to organize the flow of the
course for you and your students.
Schoology also enables you to easily
Publish/Unpublish individual
materials or even Hide/Show entire
folders (using the Availability
function) so your students know
exactly where to go every time.
Organize By: The Chronos Plan

10.
Probably most applicable for educators
at the elementary level, the multi-subject
approach organizes everything by
subject. Organizing your course in this
fashion can streamline the navigation for
your students and provide you an easy
way to practice different instructional
methods and track how your students
respond.
For instance, the mathematics folder may
contain more frequent assessments
where as science contains more
discussions and group-projects.
Organize By: The Multi-Subject Approach

11.
Using modules is a great way to
include the “student completion”
feature in Schoology.
Organize By: Modules

12.
Creating courses by weeks, provides
students with an organized list of
scheduled tasks to maximize meaningful
learning experiences beyond the scheduled
class time.
Organize By: The Week

13.
Best Practice #4
De-clutter the
learning space.

14.
Best Practice #5
Use Schoology as a Learning Launchpad.
When students enter the classroom in the morning, they
log into Schoology where they find an agenda for the day.
They are immediately launched into interactive, rich
learning tasks to start their day. The task might be a
formative assessment to gauge understanding before
starting a lesson. It might be a discussion. Or perhaps a
video as an anticipatory set.

15.
Best Practice #6
All assignments need to show up on the
calendar. There are two ways to make
that happen:
Way #1-By selecting “Add Materials” and
using the “Add Assignment”.
Way #2-Creating an Event.
Do NOT just list assignments on a
page…it will not show up on the calendar. All calendar events are color-coded for easy recognition - course events are
orange, group events are green, and personal events are blue.

16.
Other LMS Best Practices to Support Learning
 Course offers ample opportunities for interaction and communication student to student,
student to instructor and student to content..
 Learning Objectives & directions for online activities are clearly articulated.
 Course provides a variety of learning objects, including visual (i.e. image, video), textual
(i.e. articles), kinesthetic (interactive site) and or auditory activities (i.e. podcasts) to
enhance student learning, accessibility, and accommodate different learning styles.
 Course uses a variety of technology tools to appropriately facilitate communication and
learning.
 Student voice and choice are incorporated throughout the LMS to enhance student
learning, and interactively engage students.
Instructional Design & Delivery

17.
Other Best Practices to Power Up Your LMS
 Course has multiple timely and appropriate activities to assess student readiness for course
content and mode of delivery (pre-assessment).
 Ongoing multiple assessment strategies are used to measure content knowledge, attitudes,
and skills (formative assessment).
 Course content and LMS features support summative assessment (tests, projects, essay,
portfolio, presentation, performance, etc.).
 Self- reflection, and peer and teacher feedback opportunities exist throughout the course.
*Adapted from The Rubric for Online Instruction by California State University
Assessment & Evaluation of Student Learning

18.
And Another Thing (or Two)…
What if our courses...
 had visual appeal?
Embedded Google Form
An Interactive Syllabus
 were seen as a teaching tool vs. a static web page?
Multiple Pathways- to better meet individual
needs
individually assign course materials
student-completion
supporting each student
Robust Content
Why Create Your Own Content?
Why You Should Add Video to Your Teaching
 encouraged Deep & Meaningful
Conversations?
Discussion Board Assignments
15 Tips for Facilitating
Discussions
Creating Awesome Online
Discussions
Other awesome resources
Groups-can be a vehicle for
interaction