Schoology to IC Grade Passback update

Great news! If you use the Schoology to IC Grade Passback feature, Infinite Campus updated this past weekend to eliminate a step. So previously it was this:

Now you can change it so that when you click a button in Schoology, the student grade in IC updates immediately!

To do this, go to your Gradebook by going into Main Menu > Instruction > Gradebook. Choose Settings > Non-Campus Assignment Defaults. Change Default Standards/Grading task to Semester. This means that all assignments and their grades will go directly into Infinite Campus. 

The Schoology to IC Grade Passback documentation has been updated on page 5 with this latest update.

Schoology Notifications

Schoology sends an email for each new notification. However, if one receives too many notifications and emails, one may ignore or mute the emails. Limit the notifications by controlling which types of Schoology notifications to receive and how (email vs. text). Check out these directions here:

Schoology Notifications

New Schoology Feature: Student Annotations

When creating assignments in Schoology, teachers will now see the option to assign an Annotations Assignment which pushes a copy of a file (not Google) to each student for them to directly annotate on the document.  

Accepted file types: Docx, HTML, JPG, PDF, PNG, PPTX, RTF, TXT, XLS, XLSX, and XML

Students will then be able to use the tools to type and draw on the document. Changes will be saved as they work. It’s like using Kami on a PDF! (Parkway School District still has a license to use Kami for the 22-23 school year.)

Directions for using Student Annotations

Create an ARCHIVE folder in Google Drive

Your preferred learning management system (Schoology and Google Classroom) has a folder for your courses in Google Drive. This folder allows your students to share their assignments with you. Simplify this digital storage by creating an Archive folder. Doing this will allow you to quickly find the materials with the current courses. To do this:

1. Go to your Google Drive and select for the folder associated with your preferred learning management system

1. If you use Schoology, the folder is called Schoology Google Drive Assignments and/or Assignments.

2. If you use Google Classroom, the folder is called Classroom.

2. Right-click and select New Folder

3. Name this folder ARCHIVE

4. Drag and drop all the previous courses taught into the ARCHIVE folder

Do this AFTER the course has completely ended, with the final grades submitted. DO NOT do this with a live course because it will mess up the communication between the learning management system and Google Drive.

For more ways to organize and personalize your folders in Google Drive, check out the Google Drive folder tips blog post.

Are you creating a new Schoology Course? Where’s Ongoing PD?

 

We have changed the name of the “Ongoing PD” grading period to “Do Not Use.” We plan to archive all these courses at the end of the school year, including Sandbox courses. Thus, please save all course materials to your Resources in Schoology (directions and video). If you still need to create a new Schoology course for students, here are directions on creating a non-rostered Schoology course.

Schoology Tips: Saving Course to Resources and Where's Ongoing PD?

Schoology Tip: Saving Course to Resources Schoology provides a consistent instructional platform that students are familiar with and parents can access. Making assignments available in a digital platform should be considered part of our classroom instruction, whether in person or virtual.

As we plan for the transition to a new semester, there are some things that need to be addressed inside of Schoology. At the beginning of the new semester, teachers may have new courses created and their old courses will be archived. Below are some resources to help you with this transition to the second semester.

• Saving the course to Resources and Importing it into your rostered course - directions and video

• Adjustments to be made - directions and video

• Accessing your Archived courses - directions and video

Are you creating a new Schoology Course? Where’s Ongoing PD?

We have changed the name of the “Ongoing PD” grading period to “Do Not Use.” We plan to archive all these courses at the end of the school year, including Sandbox courses. Thus, please save all course materials to your Resources in Schoology (directions and video). If you still need to create a new Schoology course for students, here are directions on creating a non-rostered Schoology course.

Embed an Interactive Image into Schoology

 

Schoology Tip: Hiding Students’ Overall Grades

If you are using the Schoology Gradebook, your students may start to notice a different overall grade in Schoology than IC because Schoology will start calculating the semester grade by averaging Q1 and Q2 by default. Please remind and reiterate to the students that their actual grade is in IC.

To avoid confusion, you can hide the student's overall grade in Schoology. In each Schoology course, go to Grade Setup. Under Visibility Settings, check Hide overall grade and Hide grading period grades.

If you are using the Schoology to IC Grade Passback, it will not impact the accuracy of grades in IC. This is because IC is not set up as a quarter system. You should notice that as you pass back the assignments, you have to do an additional step in IC of selecting Semester for the Standard/Grading Task (slide 5).

 

If you need help or support with this process please email the Help Desk at helpdesk@parkwayschools.net. Please include whether you are having trouble with Schoology or Infinite Campus and a screenshot of the issue.

Annotate in Schoology

 

Schoology LockDown Browser - updated and now possible while video conferencing!

LockDown Browser locks down the testing environment within Schoology until the test is submitted for grading. It blocks access to other applications and websites during exams. Students cannot copy, print, or take screen captures with LockDown Browser. This feature works for both Test/Quiz (green puzzle piece) and Assessment (blue puzzle piece) in Schoology. It updated this 21-22 school year. Here is documentation on how to set up and implement Schoology LockDown Browser while testing.

New this school year - and what many of you have been requesting - LockDown Browser in Schoology is now possible during video conferencing! (For both, Zoom and Google Meet.) Be sure to read through the entire document thoroughly. It is highly recommended to practice these procedures with your virtual students before the real exam. As with any new updates, you may encounter some live troubleshooting issues that you will need to problem-solve.

Schoology Images, Tutorials, and Gifs

Take out the guesswork for students - include images, tutorials, and/or gifs of how to submit materials in Schoology from this new shared folder of Schoology Images, Tutorials, and Gifs. These are student-centered instructions and views to help them navigate through Schoology.

Above is a gif for students on how to submit/import a Google Doc created in Drive. This is found in the new shared folder.

Do you need other student instructions in a tech gif, image, or video? Submit your request through the Google Form.

Parent University

 

Are you interested in learning more about the online platforms that Parkway is using with students during distance and virtual learning? 

Parent University is a course created in Schoology, our district Learning Management System, that has information about Schoology, Google for Education, videoconferencing, and digital citizenship. Within the course you will find information that will help you understand the tools students use as well as opportunities for you to experience the tools from the student perspective. The goal of the course is to support you in feeling confident that you can help your child(ren) with online learning in Parkway. While you are welcome to explore the materials in any order, it would be beneficial to work through the Schoology folder first to learn how to interact with tools you will encounter in other folders. Follow these directions to enroll in the Parkway Parent University Schoology Course! Be sure to scroll down to page 2.

Written By: Elegan Kramer

Parent Pointer: Viewing an Archived Course

Written by Kristen Harms// posted by Elegan Kramer

If there is an activity or assessment that you would like to view again with your child, but that course is archived, you can find the materials by following the directions below.

Students can view course assignments and managed assessments in archived courses but they cannot make submissions. Students may still view existing submissions in archived courses if permission to view submissions is enabled in the assessment settings.

Student Can Access Archived Schoology Courses

With cumulative exams approaching (such as the EOCs and Collegeboard AP Test), remind students that they can access archived material in Schoology similar to how we access archived courses. Go to Courses > My Courses > Archived > Course. You can give students this pdf handout with the video linked. Remind students that doing work from an archived course does not imply that credit will be given.

Folder Organization in Schoology

Looking for ideas on how to best organize your folders for students?  Check out the videos below to see two different teachers share what is working best for them.

Submitted by Ashley Wiedman at Central Middle

Submitted by Melissa Gebhard at South High

Workload Planning in Schoology

If you are semi-flexible with your curriculum and time, you can use the data in Schoology to decide when to present certain content or when students’ materials are due. You can also use this data to reach out and collaborate with other teachers - connect ideas across content to make student learning interdisciplinary and meaningful.

In a Schoology course, on the left select Workload Planning. You can filter by Student Workload and the week. It will display the total number of students in your class with that student workload and give you a student breakdown. If you select the materials icon, it will display what Schoology materials are due for that student on that particular day.

Using Schoology Assessments as 'Target Checks'

Do not feel limited to giving only summative tests or quiz with the word Assessment. You can give Schoology Assessments as a formative assessment and call them 'target checks' to clarify the difference to the students. Check out this less-than-a-minute video from Jenny Proffitt at Parkway's TLA. This video shares how she used the Schoology Assessment settings and various question types to check for student understanding.

Multiple Questions on a Page in Schoology Assessments

This tip is from Veronique Lynch from Parkway South High. Veronique Lynch put multiple questions on a page so that students can refer to the image or audio prompt on the same page. Veronique was able to do this for fill in the blank dropdown question and fill in the blank text question in Schoology Assessments. Watch this 1-minute video to see what it looks like!

Analytics within Schoology

Are you wondering when a certain student engaged with your material in Schoology? Or if the student even opened the assignment in Schoology? You can determine this data in Schoology by going to Analytics, under the course tab. There you can see when students last logged on and when they were in your course last. Here’s a snippet of what it looks like:

  

Dig a little deeper by clicking on the student and selecting the material type to see how long they are manipulating with the material. This only monitors the time spent with Schoology materials. Any external tools, such as a link to a Zoom session or FlipGrid assignment, are not counted in the analytics. Also, it does not account for students logging through the Schoology app on their phones.

This data is NOT in real-time and is only updated at certain times of day as preset by Schoology. In other words, you cannot monitor this during videoconferencing to see if certain students have their assignments or assessments opened.

Use this data paired with your videoconferencing observations to determine which students, families, and team members you need to reach out to.

Google Drive Assignments

Schoology and Google Drive Assignment

Google Drive Assignment allows teachers to add Google Documents, Slides, and Sheets.  The app does not support Forms.  When a student opens one of the assignments, an individual copy is generated and saved in a folder.

Only the teacher that creates the assignment for the student can currently access and grade student work within Schoology.
The teacher can share the folder within Google Drive with a co-teacher or student teacher.