Get “Schooled” With Schoology: Using Schoology as a Platform to Take Your Class Into a Totally Digital Environment

I have never used another complete LMS, but there HAS to be a better one when based on the gradebook, which is what teachers use the most. Some teachers at my school also teach community college and say that Canvas is much better. Previous to this, I used EasyGradePro and Illuminate, both of which had gradebooks that were far more customizable. I am literally writing this right now because, in my 5.5 years of being forced by my district to use this LMS, not ONCE am I aware of any teachers being asked for product feedback--and only a couple times have any noticeable improvements been made. I find this intensely frustrating, as I have a long list of improvements that should be made and nowhere to share them. I arrived here, not at the product's website, after Googling "Schoology+feedback" And so I will post them here in their entirety in hopes that Schoology designers might actually care one day. ASSIGNMENT COMMENTS --should provide or at least allow pre-set comments to save time (best scenario: teachers can add them for the semester and save them in a comments bank) --teacher should be able to set a default to show comments to student instead of having to click the box every time they want the student to see the notes --comments should be dated SUBMISSIONS --system should be able to mark empty cells missing automatically once due date has passed (regardless of if assignment is graded yet) --when student submits an assignment, missing mark should disappear --missing mark value should be customizable (not always zero) --”Mark empty cells missing” should be accompanied by the option of “except ones with submissions” --submissions should be time stamped --should have the ability to sort assignments in order of date of late submission --score for quiz needs to update if student takes it late PRIORITIZING --should be able to sort students by who has most ungraded submissions MASTERY SECTION --should be able to display by alpha order, number order, etc. ASSORTED --clicking on a certain kid’s assignment used to take you directly there, but doesn’t anymore --Bulk Edit should allow you to change the lock date --I should be able to type in a LAST name to send a message --Teacher should be able to merge rosters so that students on different rosters (i.e. SpEd) can respond to same discussion topic --Copy Rubrics should not make endless duplicates; should notify when you already have a rubric with that name in the course --read receipts for messages (better if only teachers could see) --make designing seating charts possible!

This is overall the worst program my district has asked us to use in my 16 years as a teacher. I console myself with the thought that this is not the first program I've been through and it probably won't be the last. Soon enough it'll be scraped, I hope the next one will be better.

Whenever we are loading something on Schoology I would rather want the assignments to appear at the top instead of the bottom because I often forget what I already posted then end up posting two of it