Schoology Course Materials

Schoology: Setting Up Course Materials

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Course Materials

Throughout this tutorial you will find links like this one to take you to Schoology's help site. You can learn a lot from these links. These are simply a resource for you whenever you need it.

Index

In this tutorial we will cover the following things. You can click on the title of any of them to get directly to that section. You can also use the up and down arrows on the right edge of the tutorial to move forward and back.

· Section 1 - Add and edit a folder

· Section 4 - Create a discussion or assignment

· Section 2 - Create and edit a page

· Section 5 - Create a Rubric

· Section 6 - Add an Assessment Tool

· Section 3 - Add a file or link

Section 1

Add and edit folders

Section 1 - Folders

Add a Folder

We use folders in our courses to organize material. This makes it easy for students to navigate around the class, finding things they need.On the left you'll see a gif showing how to add a folder from the Materials tab of a Schoology course. We start with two folders "at the top level" which are called:

• Course Info
• Course Material

Inside the Course Material folder, there will be sub folders divided by units or weeks.

Section 1 - Folders

Edit Your Folders

You can customize your folders with images and text. Simply click the gear next to the folder and select "edit." From there you can type, format the text, upload an image, etc. Adding a colorful label and instructions to the outside of the folder will help students know exactly what to do.

Section 2

Create and Edit Schoology pages

Section 2 - Schoology Pages

Add a page

A page in your Schoology course will be a space where you deliver information to your learners. On the left you'll see a gif showing the steps to add a page to your class. You can do a lot with a Schoology page, including embed videos and other media, add text, format things into engaging designs, and provide links and resources.

Section 2 - Schoology Pages

Editing a page

There are lots of editing capabilities on a page. Click each pink button to see what kind of editing and formatting can be done.

Other Editing Options

Section 2

Formatting can sometimes be tricky on a Schoology page. You may find that you don't love the way it looks or the process. But don't worry! There are other ways you can create material that goes onto a Schoology page. Here are two common ways teachers make their content without creating directly on the schoology page.

Create content in presentation software

Create content on a Word document

Some people choose to make their content in a Word document and copy/paste it over. This may not work with images/videos, so be mindful of the steps. Add those after you've added your formatted text.

You can embed a Sway or PowerPoint directly onto a Schoology page. This can be a visual way to present information. It will also help you to avoid some of the trickiness of editing directly on the page.

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Schoology Pages

Section 3

Add links and files

Section 3 - Links

Add a link

You can add a link directly in your course material. The gif on the left shows how to do this. You might consider adding links to resources students might need. Be sure to give clear instructions about what students should do once they've gone to the site you've linked.

Section 3 - Files

Add a file

You can also add a file directly in your course material. The gif on the left shows how to do this. You might want to do this if you have a PDF or Word document that will support student learning and works in that format as well or better than a Schoology page.

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Files/Links

Section 4

Create Discussions and Assignments

Section 4

Discussions - Part 1

Discussions are a good way to get students to engage with each other, exchanging ideas and knowledge. Watch the short video to learn the basics of creating a discusison.

Section 4

Discussions - Part 2

Now learn some slightly more advanced features of a Schoology discussion in this short part 2 video. This will help you understand how to enable grading, along with some other features.

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Discussions

Section 4

Assignments - Part 1

An assignment is where students can submit work of some kind. This can be essays, projects, or a wide variety of tasks that you might want students to perform. Unlike a quiz or assessment, these can be open ended and larger. Like a full research paper, for example.

Section 4

Assignments - Part 2

In part two, you'll learn how to change some of the settings on an assignment, such as adding a rubric. We'll dig into rubrics a little more in the next section of this tutorial as well.

Schoology Learning Link:

Assigments

Section 5

Create a Rubric

Section 5

Rubrics - Part 1

Rubrics are a great way to ensure that students understand the assignment and makes it easier to do the grading too! These can be an amazing tool! Creating and using rubrics in Schoology can be a little involved so you will find three parts to the videos for Rubrics.

Section 5

Rubrics - Part 2

In the second video, you will learn a little more about how to set up a rubric in the gradebook as well as some of the idea around criteria.

Section 5

Rubrics - Part 3

In the third video, the primary skills that you will want to pay attention for is how to save rubrics and put them into classes.

Schoology Learning Link:

Guide to Using Rubrics

Section 6

Use an Assessment Tool

Section 6

The Assessment Tool

An Introduction

The blue puzzle piece in Schoology, known as the Assessment Tool, can be used for a lot of things. At GOAL, we often use it to not only assess student learning, but to deliver lessons and content to students. This is possible because there are so many options in this tool for how to question students and what material can go into it.

Over the next few slides of this tutorial, you'll find many links to short videos to help you see the question types available in the Assessment Tool. You may want to bookmark some of these to revisit later or come back to this tutorial many times to get adept at using the Assessment Tool. As always, these resources are for you to learn at your own pace. If some of this is old info to you, feel free to move past it, and if any of it is new, take your time and take away what you need from it.

Section 6

Assessment Tool -Basic Set Up

No matter how you plan to use an Assessment Tool, you'll first have to do a little bit of set up. This video will walk you through the basic steps to getting your Assessment Tool added to your course.

Schoology Learning Link:

Assessment-level Tools

Question Types

The Assessment Tool has many question types that you can use. Click on each one below to go to a tutorial video about this particular question type.

· True or False

· Fill in the Blank - Drag and Drop

· Ordering

· Fill in the Blank - Dropdown

· Multiple Choice

· Chart

· Matching

· Short Answer/Essay

· Fill in the Blank

· Math Short Answer

Question Types Continued

The Assessment Tool has many question types that you can use. Click on each one below to go to a tutorial video about this particular question type.

· Label Image

· Attatch Learning Objectives to Assessement Questions

· Highlight Image

· Highlight Text

· Adding Author Notes to Assessment Questions

· Highlight Hotspot

Schoology Learning Link:

Assessment Question Types

Schoology Learning Link:

Preview Course Assessments

Assessment Tool as a Lesson

As mentioned earlier, the Assessment tool is often used not only to assess learning, but also to deliver content. To really understand that, you should take a look at an example.

In your Orientation course in Schoology, you will find at least one example of a lesson delivered in the Assessment Tool. You may review this if you would like to see an example, but it is not required.

Congratulations! Tutorial completed!

Formatting Text

On a Schoology page, you can format text to be bold, italicised, or underlined. This can help students to identify important words and concepts.

Change the color of text or highlight text

Use these buttons to highlight text in a color or change the color of text. This can help students identify important terms or content.

Spell Check

Clicking this button turns on spell check. When the "abc" is green, the page is checking for spelling errors. Make sure to keep this on at all times so you can catch typos and spelling errors.

Change the size of font

Here you can choose the size of font you use. Again, this can be used to organize or highlight content.

Add a Table

Tables can be added for a variety of reasons. You might want to organize information into a table or use the table to format images next to text.

Insert Content

You can insert content such as videos, interactive presenations (like this one), images, etc. This can provide students with additonal resources and support those with various learning styles and preferences.

Align text left, center, or right

Another way to organize and make text look better on a page is to align it to the right, left, or center.

More text formatting

Here are some other options to format text.

Headings/Paragraphs

Selecting a format from this list will change the size and weight of the letters. This is another good way to keep text organized for your learners.

Increase and Decrease Indent

Using these buttons, you can increase the indent on a block or text, or decrease the indent again. This can be handy to organize text underneath headings to make content easier for learners to understand.

Add a list

You can use these two buttons to add a bullet point list or a numbered list. This can be helpful in organizing material for students or giving them information in a brief way.

Add an Inline Link

An inline link shows up in the text (not as a full web address) Adding one of these can be good so students know what to expect when they get to the link you've provided. For example:

Course Materials - Pages