Approximately a year ago, Norwin High School administrators introduced Schoology, a learning management app, to further the online education and security of the high school. Despite the numerous benefits of Schoology, including its organizational benefits and popular lockdown browser, the learning management app at times provides multiple difficulties and unforeseen troubles for students dealing with classes on Google Classroom and Schoology. 
According to the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Schoology was created by a group of undergraduates in 2007. On the other hand, Google Classroom was created by Google in 2014.
Some Norwin teachers seem to have a neutral opinion on the app. Mrs. Swick, the Norwin High School technology/iPad specialist, believes that Schoology will widely benefit students, as it is similar to many college learning management systems.
“An LMS has become the norm in higher education and the workforce due to advanced features that streamline the learning process,” Mrs. Swick said. “It is unlikely you will utilize Google Classroom once you leave Norwin, so exposure to an LMS platform like Schoology is a valuable part of your educational experience.”
Additionally, the Norwin Tech Turret has encountered students with difficulties regarding Schoology. However, the majority of these problems are easy to fix and common glitches.
“The Tech Turret has discovered a few common glitches in regard to Schoology,” Swick said. “The fix for the majority of Schoology problems is to turn off pop-up blockers and ensure the setting to ‘Prevent Cross-Site’ is toggled off within the Safari settings. Schoology… creates a consistent, more secure learning environment that supports the use of all resources within our curriculum.”
After polling over 50 students at the high school, the majority of Norwin students prefer the use of Google Classroom to Schoology in the high school, most likely because of its newer features and highly developed organizational system. In a recent poll conducted by the Knight Krier on students’ opinions on the use of Schoology at Norwin, a majority of students seem to dislike the use of the app. In the perspective of a student, an overwhelming 95.6% of students at Norwin High School prefer Google Classroom to Schoology or Moodle (an online learning platform used by cyber students).
On the other hand, a number of teachers favor Schoology over Google Classroom because of the security of its popular lockdown browser. The lockdown browser on Schoology makes it easier to reduce methods of cheating on tests and ensures secure test results that will not get lost on paper. While the lockdown browser is valuable, by providing honest test results, many students still prefer to take tests on paper because they can cross out and highlight the question. Even with the lockdown browser, Schoology has had some malfunctions in the past.
Last year, Schoology encountered some difficulties that resulted in the brief shutdown of the app for around a week. While some students and teachers proposed that the app was hacked, others proposed that it was simply a minor malfunction. Consequently, many students argue that Schoology is not worth the security that the lockdown browser offers.
“Schoology never loads half the time, and it’s annoying having to go to Clever to access it,” one Norwin student said. “It makes it harder to keep track of due dates since you don’t get notifications like you do from Google Classroom. Schoology just isn’t organized as well as Google Classroom… I used to not like Google Classroom that much, but after being forced to use Schoology in a couple classes, Google Classroom is amazing.”
Additionally a shocking 25.5% of students at Norwin rated Schoology a 1 out of 10 in a recent poll. Furthermore, there were only 3 ratings (out of 50 students) that put Schoology higher than a 5 out of 10.
Along with the harsh-hitting words of students that have criticized Schoology for not being efficient or organizational, a number of students have said that there is “nothing” good about Schoology.
“Schoology is single-handedly ruining the technological use of the iPad,” a Norwin student said in a recent poll.
However, some students greatly value the security the online learning program offers against cheating, with the use of the lockdown browser.
“The preventative measures regarding cheating using Schoology makes it a good resource for assessments and should be available for teachers to utilize as a necessity,” a Norwin student said. “Google Classroom should continue as a centralized location for assignments since students and teachers are comfortable using it.”
Clearly some students value Schoology because cheating can be easily prevented with the use of the lockdown browser. Nevertheless, Norwin students seem to collectively agree that Google Classroom should continue to be used because it is an easy and organized place to keep both assignments and class work. Many students argue that the layout of Google Classroom is superior to the lack of organization in Schoology.
“In Schoology, you (Norwin students) have to find the assignment along with all the different posts that are needed for that assignment,” a Norwin student said, “instead of it all being attached to one.”
Although the majority of students do not like the use of Schoology at Norwin, some teachers seem to enjoy Schoology because of the lockdown browser and other features.
“I do think it’s necessary to introduce a new LMS (learning management system),” Mrs. Kauffman, the Norwin High School librarian, said. “Schoology more closely mimics the kinds of learning management systems students are likely to encounter in higher education. Experiencing a similar platform before moving on from Norwin is beneficial to students. Additionally, Google Classroom can limit materials and tools to those that play nice with Google – using an impartial LMS broadens the kinds of resources accessible to teachers and students in their virtual classroom.”
Many teachers argue that it is important and vital to incorporate a new learning management system to Norwin, in order to teach students how to become more acclimated to the introduction of a different system.
On the other hand, Mr. Salany suggests that the use of Schoology at Norwin can be both a benefit and a trouble to many, including teachers and students.
“The best feature of Schoology… is the ability to preserve integrity on our digital assessments using Schoology’s lockdown browser,” Salany said. “Another awesome feature is the ability to run just about anything right in Schoology, such as opening different document types, filling in Google forms, watching linked videos, and even running apps. All of these can accessed on Schoology without having to be pushed onto other websites or apps, which creates an increased security risk.”
However, Mr. Salany, a science teacher at Norwin High School along with many other teachers, have encountered some difficulties when dealing with the new learning management system.
“One thing that is a challenge with Schoology is that if you don’t have the app installed, it is an involved process to upload specific file types such as Google Docs,” said Salany.
According to a tech email from Norwin, Schoology is now on all iPads. This will allow students to upload materials directly to Schoology as they can with Google Classroom. The app also provides a more student-friendly experience.
To use the Schoology app, students will need to:
- Open Schoology, tap “Sign in to My School” and type Norwin High School.
- Choose to “Go to SSO” and they will be directed to sign in with Google.
The numerous difficulties and presence of Google Classroom leaves many students questioning why the new learning management system was introduced to the high school in the first place.
“It [introduction of Schoology] likely has to do with the limited capabilities of Google Classroom and our need for a secure learning environment,” Salany said. “Schoology can (also) integrate assessments and other resources very nicely, making the job of the teacher just a bit easier.”
While the opinions of students and teachers seem to drastically differ on the use of Schoology at Norwin, the Learning Management System like Schoology certainly offers advantages and disadvantages with the lockdown browser and the different organizational functions. Google Classroom is still used by many, but the use of Schoology may be on the rise at Norwin High School. Because one thing is certain: online learning is not going away anytime soon.
