MET:Schoology

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This page was authored by Jason Harbor, Winter 2014.

Schoology, Inc. schoology-logo-1.png
Company Type Private
Foundation Date 2007-2008 [1]
Location New York, New York
Founders Jeremy Friedman, Ryan Hwang, Tim Trinidad
Website schoology.com
Type of site Social Learning Network / Learning Management System
Registration Required
Users 4,000,000+ [2]
Current Status Active

Introduction

Schoology is a Learning Management System (LMS) designed to make online education a collective effort and to increase the overall impact of everyone involved in a student's education. [3] Schoology is similar to Facebook is appearance and functionality. Schoology allows keeping of attendance records, online gradebooks, administration of tests and quizzes, and assignment dropboxes. Schoology's social media aspects include collaboration amongst a class, group, or school.
Schoology is offered under a "freemium" model, with upgrades including custom branding, single sign-on, and integration with existing Student Information Systems.[4] Schoology's mission is to empower teachers, giving tools and connections to engage students more efficiently and improve educational effectiveness. Schoology's values include Quality Education, Listening and Learning, Creative Innovation, Collaborations, and Enthusiasm.[5]

History

2007-2008 - Founded by Jeremy Friedman, Ryan Hwang, Tim Trinidad and Bill Kindler.[6]

May 2009 - Receives $1.25 million in angel investment from an unnamed "prominent New York investor"[7]

August 2009 - Released Commercially.[8]

January 2012 - Palo Alto, NY school district chooses Schoology as its LMS.[9]

February 2012 - Receives $1 million investment from Cempaka Schools in Malaysia to jointly promote increased usage of the Schoology platform in school systems throughout Malaysia and Singapore.[10]

April 2012 - Receives $6 million in Series B venture funding from FirstMark Capital and Meakem Becker Venture Capital.[11]

June 2012 - Releases open API, developer platform and public content network.[12]

August 2012 - Releases internal app center.[13]

October 2012 - Adds GoAnimate to its catalog of apps.[14]

May 2013 - Wins SIIA CODiE Award for Best K-12 Enterprise Solution.[15]

August 2013 - Chosen as Best App for Managing Classrooms by American Association of School Librarians.[16]

Design

Schoology's design visually mirror's that of Facebook, but unlike Facebook, Schoology creates a secure place for teachers, students, parents and administrators to connect, collaborate and share content. This is accomplished by creating groups for schools and classes that students can only join with a teacher provided access code. In addition, parents can be given codes that only reveals information about their child. Teachers can create sub-groups to differentiate and individualize learning. To support their social learning platform, Schoology has also provided a help resource to guide users, webinars for professional development, and a blog to recognize teacher achievement outside of the platform.

Features

  • Educator Groups - Allow teachers to join groups of interest allows a vast Personal Learning Network (PLN) to develop, where Professional Development (PD) is fostered and best practices are shared.[17]
  • Secure Environment - Students can interact online after hours with their peers, and nobody else.[18]
  • Integration - Schoology's API allows Student Information Systems and Apps to be used seamlessly within the platform.[19]
  • Mobile Access - Schoology has mobile apps for iPhone, Android and Kindle, allowing teacher and student access ubiquitously.[20] [21]
  • Analytical Tools - Schoology provides data analysis tools for engaging in data-driven instruction and maximizing learning based on data-driven practices.[22]
  • Dynamic Content - Schoology allows seamless embedding of multimedia into lessons and assessments.[23]
  • Responsive Instruction - Schoology's analytics can illuminate potential routes to improvement for students who are not succeeding.[24]

Benefits

  • Engages Students: By providing a platform for students to access class materials through technology, Schoology connects students with each other and with the greatest body of knowledge, the Internet. 21st Century learners are now fully immersed in social media. Using Schoology gives students the feeling of using a social networking site without having to mix their personal lives with their school lives.
  • Education Enhancement: Some of the functions of Schoology can be used to enhance an already established face-to-face classroom such as providing online quizzes, notes, questions, interactivities, reviews and previews, catch-up for students who have missed class and opportunities to explore beyond the curriculum for those students who wish to do so. In today's classrooms, there is often limited time to cover topics fully. Using Schoology as a learning platform allows the use of additional resources to enhance learning. Online resources and websites for practicing material are at the fingertips of the user.[25]
  • Collaboration: Studies show that the level of engagement through the social interaction with peers in distance education can be enhanced with social networking sites.[26] When distance learners encounter problems with course management systems they often turn to each other for help, rather than the teacher or the technical support person. Social networking sites and Web 2.0 have the potential to allow students to communicate in meaningful ways because they allow continuous posting ideas at all times and in all places. Collaboration is a key motivator for students and social networking sites provide the conduit for this collaboration. Even for face-to-face classrooms, blending the learning through Schoology can provide additional support outside of the classroom for opportunities to communicate asynchronously.
  • Time Efficiency: Schoology is very fast and easy to use. Its intuitive interface makes the creation and management of content easy. This is important as teachers' time is shrinking with each passing year. Teachers can also easily create and update course materials on their Schoology site without programming knowledge. The content in teachers' libraries is saved and it can be used for multiple groups and classes from year to year.
  • Professional Development: Teachers can join groups to follow an educational community. This teacher-teacher interaction is a supportive community of learners that allows teachers to grow and discover resources for their own subject areas.

Challenges

  • Competitors: Schoology has only been around since the 2007-2008 school year, where its major competitors have been around much longer. Blackboard, Inc. was founded in 1997 [27], while Moodle 1.0 was released in 2002 [28]. As these (and other) Course Management Systems have been around much longer than Schoology, they have many more users; Moodle with over 60 million and Blackboard with over 20 million. [29] Schoology faces a significant uphill battle to gain users in the Learning Management System sector.
  • Privacy: Schoology, like other social media sites, has faced criticism. Schools and school districts are wary when it comes to their students using social networking during the school day. The potential for misuse of a platform such as Schoology can be enough for a district to disallow its use. While there is no personal page on Schoology like there is on Facebook, there are still concerns with users posting personal information through group wall posts.
  • Liability and ownership: Current student data systems responsible for managing student information such as grades, attendance, and permanent records are held by school districts or regional governments in data centres that remain physically in the jurisdiction (local, state/provincial, or federal) of the school. In the case of Schoology, connecting this information for a third party introduces new questions regarding liability and ownership of this information. Some divisions exercise ownership over content their teachers create while under contract while others don't. By using Schoology as the Course Management System, ownership may be unclear.
  • Communication: If Schoology is used in isolation from face-to-face instruction, students are at risk of missing out on explanations and clarifications of material. Students may experience difficulty forming their questions in a written format while they may be more comfortable (and accustomed to) asking questions in a face-to-face setting. Physical cues like tone, inflection, and body language can be missing from online communication.

Learning Theories

  • Learner-Centered - Schoology allows students to use the social platform to reach beyond the face-to-face classroom. Students are able to share their profiles and use other visual tools like Picasso Head, etc which may be underused in a traditional classroom setting. This in turn would make students feel more comfortable sharing their understandings/knowledge that they bring to the community of a learning environment.
  • Community-Centered - Schoology creates individual groups and communities of learning that allow students to make connections with ideas, facts, their peers and teacher.
  • Knowledge-Centered - Schoology allows students to become both expert and learner in the community as they become resources for each other's learning process. Students can insert links, videos and internet resources in their posts. Students can also access the resources that the teachers and their peers have inserted.
  • Assessment-Centered - Schoology allows for both informal and formal assessment. Schoology allows students to self-assess their work and peer-assess each other's work when a strong community is established where students feel comfortable posting, replying, and commenting on each other's work.

See Also

Learning Management System

References

  1. ↑ Schoology. (2014). Company History. Retrieved February 25, 2014, from https://www.schoology.com/history.php
  2. ↑ LinkedIn. (n.d.). Schoology. Retrieved February 25, 2014, from http://www.linkedin.com/company/schoology
  3. ↑ Schoology.com. (2014). Enterprise Learning Management System | Free LMS. Retrieved February 25, 2014, from https://www.schoology.com/learning-management-system.php
  4. ↑ Schoology. (2014). In Wikipedia. Retrieved February 25, 2014, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schoology.
  5. ↑ Schoology. (2014). LMS Solutions to Empower Teachers | Schoology. Retrieved March 2, 2014, from https://www.schoology.com/mission.php
  6. ↑ Schoology. (2014). Company History. Retrieved February 25, 2014, from https://www.schoology.com/history.php
  7. ↑ TechCrunch.com. (June 7, 2010). Schoology receives $1.25 Million For Learning Management Software. Retrieved March 1, 2014, from http://techcrunch.com/2010/06/07/schoology-raises-1-25-million-for-learning-management-software/
  8. ↑ Schoology. (2014). In Wikipedia. Retrieved February 25, 2014, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schoology.
  9. ↑ VentureBeat.com. (January 19, 2012). How New York’s Schoology beats Silicon Valley startups to win Palo Alto school district. Retrieved March 1, 2014, from http://venturebeat.com/2012/01/19/how-new-yorks-schoology-beats-silicon-valley-startups-to-win-palo-alto-school-district/
  10. ↑ Tech & Learning. (February 24, 2012). Malaysian schools invest $1 million in LMS. Retrieved March 1, 2014, from http://www.techlearning.com/Default.aspx?tabid=67&EntryId=3903
  11. ↑ TechCrunch.com. (April 16, 2012). 1M Users Strong, Schoology Grabs $6M To Take On Blackboard, Moodle. Retrieved March 1, 2014, from http://techcrunch.com/2012/04/16/schoology-series-b/
  12. ↑ eSchool News. (June 27, 2012). Schoology Releases an Open API, Developer Platform and Public Content Feature to Make Learning an Integrated Experience. Retrieved March 1, 2014, from http://www.eschoolnews.com/2012/06/27/schoology-releases-an-open-api-developer-platform-and-public-content-feature-to-make-learning-an-integrated-experience/
  13. ↑ TheNextWeb. (August 21, 2012). Schoology, the Facebook-like collaborative learning platform for schools, launches its own app store. Retrieved March 1, 2014, from http://thenextweb.com/dd/2012/08/21/schoology-facebook-like-blackboard-competitor-launches-app-store/#!x0Jji
  14. ↑ Edudemic. (October 22, 2012). Schoology Now Features GoAnimate To Spice Up Your Learning Management System. Retrieved March 1, 2014, from http://www.edudemic.com/schoology-now-features-goanimate-to-spice-up-your-learning-management-system/
  15. ↑ Schoology. (May 13, 2013). Schoology Wins SIIA Education Technology CODiE Award. Retrieved March 1, 2014, from https://www.schoology.com/codie-award-winner.php
  16. ↑ Schoology. (August 15, 2013). American Association of School Librarians Pick Schoology as Best for Managing Classrooms. Retrieved March 1, 2014, from https://www.schoology.com/aasl-app-award.php
  17. ↑ Schoology. (2014). Collaborative Learning | Schoology. Retrieved March 2, 2014, from https://www.schoology.com/collaborative-learning.php
  18. ↑ Schoology. (2014). Collaborative Learning | Schoology. Retrieved March 2, 2014, from https://www.schoology.com/collaborative-learning.php
  19. ↑ Schoology. (2014). LMS | LMS Features | Schoology. Retrieved March 2, 2014, from https://www.schoology.com/lms.php
  20. ↑ Schoology. (2014). LMS | LMS Features | Schoology. Retrieved March 2, 2014, from https://www.schoology.com/lms.php
  21. ↑ Schoology. (2014). Mobile LMS | Schoology. Retrieved March 2, 2014, from https://www.schoology.com/mobile-lms.php
  22. ↑ Schoology. (2014). LMS | LMS Features | Schoology. Retrieved March 2, 2014, from https://www.schoology.com/lms.php
  23. ↑ Schoology. (2014). Online Curriculum Management | Schoology. Retrieved March 2, 2014, from https://www.schoology.com/curriculum-management.php
  24. ↑ Schoology. (2014). K-12 LMS | Schoology. Retrieved March 2, 2014, from https://www.schoology.com/k-12-lms.php
  25. ↑ Zaidieh, A.J.Y. (2012). The use of social networking in education: Challenges and Opportunities. World of Computer Science and Information Technology Journal, 2(1) 18-21.
  26. ↑ Lester, J. and Perini, M. (2010). Potential of social networking sites for distance education student engagement. New Directions for Community Colleges, 150, 67-75.
  27. ↑ Blackboard, Inc. (2014). In Wikipedia. Retrieved March 7, 2014, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc.
  28. ↑ Moodle. (2014). Releases - MoodleDocs. Retrieved March 8, 2014, from http://docs.moodle.org/dev/Releases
  29. ↑ LambdaSolutions.net (January 24, 2013). Moodle Market Share Statistics. Retrieved March 7, 2014 from http://www.lambdasolutions.net/blog/2013/01/moodle-market-share-statistics-show-its-the-market-leader/












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