Distributing and Collecting work on Schoology 8/25/2020

Distributing and collecting work in the era of Remote Learning 

@LisaBerghoff/@MrKimDHS

A well-meaning friend of mine recently told me, "wow it must be really nice being able to work from home and teach remotely!" And to a degree he was absolutely right. How fortunate are we that we can continue to educate our students while keeping ourselves, and by extension our loved ones, safe from this pandemic? That's what I try and tell myself anyways, as I fight to stay well-adjusted in the face of all of the petty frustrations that come from teaching remotely. The once simple educational maneuvers like handing out instructions, or projecting your screen are now weighed down by uncooperative laptops and temperamental WiFi signals. 

What can we do to simplify things for you? At the very least, let's examine how Schoology offers two ways for staff to distribute and collect digital work: Google Docs, and Schoology text editor/hand-written work. 

One thing to pay attention to: The default in assignments is for submissions to be enabled. That means that the Schoology system is expecting students to submit something digitally. If you are giving an assignment that does not involve turning something in, for example an article to read, you need to uncheck the submissions icon. Otherwise it will look like the student has overdue work. If we want students, parents, case managers, and counselors to all work together we need to make sure Schoology information is accurate!

Option 1: Schoology Google Drive Submissions:

This option is for work that can be done completely on a Google Doc (meaning typed). With the Schoology-Google Drive Assignment feature you can choose a Google Doc assignment, the program will make individual copies of the Google Doc for each student, and submissions will be gathered in one easy place to grade. Here's how and what it'll look like:

1. The first step is to create an assignment. You can do this on the "Materials page" of your Schoology course. You can hover over the lines on your materials page and when they turn green you can click to add an assignment in that particular location. 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
2. This next step is a crucial one that marks this assignment a Google Drive assignment. After naming your assignment, click on the "Google Drive Assignments" button below the description.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
3. Now if this is your first time using the "Google Drive Assignments" feature, you won't be able to access your documents until you log in. To do so:
1. Click "Options" and then "Account Settings"
2. Click "Log in" and then log in using your district Google Account
   
   
4. Now you should see some of your Google Drive files. Unfortunately you won't see them nicely organized into the folders you're probably used to seeing. Instead you'll see a list of your most recent files. THIS IS IMPORTANT: Always know the name of the assignment because the best way to find and choose your document is to type in it's name in the search bar at the top right
   
   
   
   
   
   
   Once you find and click on your file, you can click on "view" to double-check that you're choosing the correct file. (You must choose a Google Doc)
   
   
5. Once you attach your document, build the rest of your assignment like usual by adding due dates, total points, and category.
   
   
6. Now once created, you'll see a new user interface with three options: Assignment, In Progress, and Submissions. 
1. The Assignment Tab will show you what student see with regards to the description and the Google Doc. 
2. The In Progress Tab shows you which students opened the file, and what their progress has been so far in real time.
3. The Submissions Tab shows off some of the true benefits of this option as all of their submissions are neatly ordered and ready for your grading touch. All grades and comments done here are automatically pushed into the gradebook.

Option 2: Hand-Written Work Or Typed Directly Into Schoology

This option is for collecting work that needs to be hand-written. Or, if you don't need Google Docs and just want your students to use the Schoology text editor. For hand written work, it relies on students using their cell-phone cameras or chromebook cameras and the Google Drive app to take pictures of work and converting those images into PDFs.

1. Just like the first option, we'll be operating out the "Add Assignments" feature on the "Materials Page."
2. This time we'll put all of our information into the description box. My suggestion is to hyperlink the assignment in whatever form it exists, whether it's a PDF, Google Doc, or Word Document. You can hyperlink by highlighting the text, and clicking the LINK button which looks like two links of a chain.
   
   
   
   
   
3. The next step would be to provide the student instructions for taking a picture of their work and converting to Google Drive. 
1. Using the Google Drive App Function
   
   
4. I would highly suggest your description box to look something like this:
   
5. Much like option 1, you will see all of your student submissions gathered in one spot for easy access and grading:
   
   

I hope that you find these options helpful and efficient as we fight our way through remote learning together with our students. Need any assistance in creating either option above? PLEASE feel free to contact us for assistance!

And if you are working with students who are unsure how to submit, feel free to send them this link.