Demonstration of how to create a discussion for your students on Schoology.

1. Schoology Discussions
Learn how you can use these to further critical thinking
in your students outside of class.
Lisa Rutledge
American College of Education
© 2015 Lisa Rutledge. This material may be reproduced
in whole or in part for educational purposes only provided that the author is credited

2. Step 1:
Log into your
Schoology account.
Join this class with
code:
You are going to participate in a discussion that I have created
for this class, as a student. First, let me show you how to
create a discussion, including the features of adding a link for
reference, and adding a rubric with criteria that display to your
students as learning objectives.

3. In one of your own classes, go to Grade Book, then below to Grade Setup.
Here you will add a category, and call it “discussions”. This will tabulate all
discussion grades into a cumulative grade- if you want to design it that way.

4. Create the discussion

5. Add title, description, a
link, due date and points.

6. Check the box “Enable
Grading”.
Choose the
“Discussions” category
that we created earlier.
Create a new rubric,
specific to how you
want to grade
discussions.

7. Give this rubric a title, “Discussions”
Add as many criteria as you’d like!
Then click Create!

8. Once you’ve created the discussion, the criteria
you’ve written will show up as “learning
objectives”, both to you as the teacher and to the
student.
Clicking this advanced icon
hides peer responses until
after the student makes
his/her first post.

9. This is what the discussion (bottom half) looks like to the student.

10. https://www.schoology.com/system/files/attachments/page
_embeds/m/2015-07/iOS_App--
Grading_Discussions_559dbacf58a02.gif
Click the above link to see a sped-up
example of how grading a discussion
looks to the teacher.

11. Year-Long, Shared Discussions
Schoology Discussions can be shared between multiple
classes, opening the doors to collaborative learning across age
gaps, academic disciplines, and geographic barriers. One
discussion can also be open for the whole year, making it a
valuable resource for continuous peer support and practice.
For instance, you could connect your French class with
another class in France—or another French class in your
school if you prefer to stay local. Students can then discuss the
language and even post pictures or record mini presentations
as they help each other with pronunciation and vocabulary.
Rodgers, D. (2014) Five simple ways to turn your Schoology
course into a community of practice. Schoology Blog. Feb.25th.

12. References
Beal, Jeff. (2013) Intro Credits Theme, House of Cards.
Netflix.
Rodgers, D. (2014) Five simple ways to turn your Schoology
course into a community of practice. Schoology Blog.
Feb.25th
© 2015 Lisa Rutledge. This material may be reproduced
in whole or in part for educational purposes only provided that the author is credited