Written by Alvin W

The Palo Alto Unified School District (PAUSD) implemented Schoology at the start of this year. Instead of having teachers set up several different websites, Schoology allows teachers to post assignments all on the same site.

Many teachers agree about the benefits of Schoology. “If I wanted to post an announce- ment or something important, I would post it on Schoology because I find students check it more often than they check my website,” history teacher Ariane Tuomy said.

“[Schoology] is a very cool website,” junior Nabeel Chollampat said. “It was annoying to forget an assignment because I forgot to look on my teacher’s website. It’s a lot more convenient to have everything in one place so I can browse through all my classes and see what’s due for every class on the same

website.” Schoology is modeled after Facebook in

an effort to help new users find their way around the site. “It is very user-friendly. Students who are new to the site are able to find everything easily,” Computer Support Specialist Brett Demetris said. “It is very user-friendly. People seem to know exactly where everything is just because it is so much like Facebook.”

Schoology displays all the due dates of assignments from different classes also on the same interface. “One of the neat things about Schoology is how I can view a student’s workload,” Tuomy said. “I can check if the student has multiple assignments or projects due on a certain day. This may influence my decision to make my assignments or projects due on different days.”

The status update feature allows teachers to post announcements for their class. These announcements are seen on the first page of

Schoology once logged in, making it easy for students to see. Announcements from all different classes are on the same page for the student’s navigation convenience.

Some teachers prefer using their own website. “Schoology is rather slow,” French teacher Anne Jensen said. “I already have all the materials posted on my own website so I don’t see any reason to move everything from my website. Whenever I do use Scho- ology, I just link to the assignments on my own website.”

Jensen feels that many of the features on Schoology are unnecessary for class pur- poses. “I don’t see a reason to post all the due dates for assignments on Schoology,” Jensen said. “I already have a calendar that I hand out in class that has all the due dates on it. Reposting everything on Schoology is an extra step for me.” Jensen also believes that her personal class website includes many fea- tures that Schoology lacks. “When students

want to look at a past file on Schoology, they have to find the day it was uploaded,” Jensen said. “When I post the work on my website, students have a much easier time finding it because it is ordered by theme, something I can’t do as yet on Schoology.”

Jensen does not want to have all the time she spent on the website be wasted by switch- ing to another website. “I’m really only using Schoology to make it more convenient for my students,” Jensen said. “I still find my own website better.”

Middle schools such as JLS have also implemented Schoology. “Since the middle schools are using Schoology, they will be used to it by the time they reach high school,” Demetris said. “It will ease the transition to high school because the students have been using it throughout middle school.”

Schoology has been confirmed to stay for next year and may be a permanent due to the positive feedback.