Schoology Overview for Families

University Prep uses a system called Schoology as our Learning Management Systems (LMS). An LMS is a web platform which is a combination of a communication tool, an organization tool, online course website and assignment dropbox for teachers and students. Students can access Schoology as an app for iOS, or through our website at http://universityprep.schoology.com. In addition to its use in the classroom, we hope that Schoology can be a conversation starter for students and families. It's hard to ask students in-depth questions about school when families don't have enough information to get past a student reluctant to share details about their day. Schoology should be a tool which allows families to ask specific questions as an entry-point to deeper conversations with you and other family members.

Some examples:

The Calendar: Both Middle and Upper School teachers put major assignments and deadlines in the Schoology calendar. This allows your student to see their upcoming work ahead, as well as to read details about the assignment from the teacher and ask clarifying questions if necessary. Each class has different guidelines on where smaller tasks are assigned, though. Questions you could ask your student: How does each class give out assignments? How does your student track everything? What's upcoming on their calendar?

Assignments: Assignments can be submitted online through Schoology, and can be returned with feedback to the students as well. If a teacher has returned feedback on student work, that's easily visible to the student. Questions to ask: How does each class submit assignments? What kind of work is submitted through Schoology and what is handed in? What feedback have teachers given your students online? Do your students like getting feedback online?

Class Resources: In addition to the work that might be submitted/returned online, Schoology contains the links to course resources like online textbooks, discussion forums, webpages or videos. Asking your student to take you on a "guided tour" of a class online to show you the kinds of things in each course may be a productive lens into the content of a course and your student's interests or experience in there. Again, I'd suggest asking specific leading questions ("What is in this folder?" "What does this do?") from the standpoint of having your student show you the scope of their courses.

A note about the Gradebook: Teachers may or may not use the online gradebook feature depending on the degree to which they use electronic assignment submission and grading. Again, ask your student where grades are posted for each class.

As you can see, one of the important things to remember about Schoology is that each course and teacher approach this tool differently. While there are some school-wide norms (e.g. major assignments and deadlines are always in the planner, Syllabi and electronic textbooks are always in the course page), teachers are developing their own different uses for the tool in their specific classes. Discussing each of these with your student can help you see how and to what degree you would like to see your student's school activities.

We recommend that you decide as a family how you want to approach this information with your student, recognizing that different ages and levels of responsibility will be a factor as well, for instance, Middle School parents have full access to Schoology whereas Upper School parents do not. Upper School families may want to ask your student to show you these pages and tools and talk you through them on occasion, for example. Middle School families may want to be more hands-on and check the planner and calendar with their student on a regular basis or look at assignment submissions and feedback. Whatever you decide as a family, you should view the information in Schoology as part of your information about your student's school experience, just like their report card information. However you choose to use this tool as a family, we encourage the students to be fully responsible for their performance and hope that Schoology can help teachers, students and families be better informed and prepared.