Schoology is a powerful learning tool, but can be tricky to navigate for first-time users. This guide provides an overview of some of the basic features of Schoology.
When you first log in, you will begin on the Course Dashboard.
Course Dashboard shows all the courses that you are listed as a teacher (initially, you may not have any courses as an administrator). Teachers can move courses around by dragging and dropping them. Teachers would select the course from the assigned courses and be able to access the course.
You can also click on the tab called Recent Activity. This is a running news feed for the courses and groups that you are enrolled in. You will see:
- Any updates made in any course or groups that you are associated with
- Announcements
- New calendar events
On the right-hand side of the screen, you will also see Reminders and Upcoming. (Note: These will also populate into your Schoology calendar)
- Reminders will appear when students from any of your courses submit an assignment, discussions, or test/quiz that still need to be graded.
- Upcoming is a list of upcoming events, assignments, discussions, etc. The list displays up to ten items that will update as tasks are completed or when you refresh the page.
Navigation Bar
The top navigation bar is the main tool for accessing Schoology:
On the left side of the top bar, you can navigate to the four main areas of Schoology: Home, Courses, Groups and Resources.
Clicking the Springfield Public School logo always brings you back to your home page.
Courses are your virtual classrooms. This is where instruction, grading, and communication with students happen. Courses also contain:
- All instructional materials (e.g., files, assignments, and assessments)
- Communication and organizational tools associated with the course.
Clicking Courses displays courses you are personally enrolled in. A shield icon will be in the top right corner of the courses where you are the lead. By selecting My Courses on the right side of the screen, you will be able to:
- Create courses
- View current and archived courses
- Join courses and search for other courses
Groups and Resources are two other powerful tools in Schoology--they are covered in separate KBA Articles
Search, Calendar, App Center, Messages, and Notifications
In addition to Courses, Groups, and Resources, the top bar has other tools to help you navigate Schoology:
Search: Use this tool to find people, courses, and groups that you are associated with in Schoology.
App Center: Allows access to apps that you can install to integrate content and services with Schoology
Calendar: Combines events from all of your associated courses, groups and organizations, along with your personal events.
Messages: From here you can see messages that have been sent to you and you can also send a message to someone.
Notifications: Whenever you have activity by a student (i.e.. an assignment or discussion submitted) you will know from this icon. The activity of events will be in chronological order.
For additional support in navigating Schoology, you can use the comprehensive support documents put together by Schoology: Schoology Learning Help (powerschool-docs.com)