Schoology Procedures for the Beginning of the Year

Grade Setup

PowerSchool App in Schoology

Syncing with PowerTeacher Pro

Linking Sections

Course Images

Reusing last year’s materials

Table of Contents

General Updates

Linking Sections

Changing the Course or Group Image

Customizing the Grade Setup

Setting up the PowerSchool App in Schoology

Syncing the Schoology Gradebook with PowerTeacher Pro

Reusing last year’s Course Materials and Resources

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General Updates

• To join the RCPS Schoology Teacher Training Course (which will offer PD points), click here.�*Please note that this training course is ONLY available to RCPS employees.
• Based on experience of the last several years, we do NOT support unlinking sections after the start of the school year. If you choose to link your Course sections, then you must keep them linked for the remainder of the year.
• Since Performance Matters is no longer used in RCPS, do not use the Common Assessment in Course Materials
• Students use the Calendar feature like an agenda/planner. Please make sure you include due dates and other important dates in Schoology, when possible.

The Top 5 Ways to Use the RCPS Schoology Help Website

Linking Sections

Course section linking is a great way to manage all sections of a course more efficiently. When sections are linked, they all share the same set of materials and grade setup. This means you only need to create materials and set up your gradebook once, even when you teach multiple sections of the same course. Linked sections also have toggles you can use to switch between each section instantly, so you can keep the sections separate while enjoying a more streamlined workflow.

The linked sections feature was designed to improve the instructor's experience. Your students will continue to see and experience Schoology in the same way they always have.

Schoology strongly advises against linking or unlinking sections once school has started, as it results in loss of grade data for child sections.

Linking Sections: How to link sections in Schoology

If the requirements for linked sections are not met, the other section(s) will be grayed out. If you hover your mouse over the grayed-out section, you will see a tooltip explaining the cause of the issue.

If you teach the same course in multiple sections, there are benefits to linking these sections. For example, it is much easier to assign Course Materials and Resources (especially those using the Google Drive Assignments app) in linked sections.

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Here are the steps to link sections:

1. Click your Courses drop-down menu and and select My Courses.
2. In your list of courses, click the gear icon to the right of the section you consider to be the "master section".
3. Select Link Existing Sections from the dropdown.
4. Select the section(s) to link and click Next.
5. Select the file type to download, As a Standard CSV spreadsheet.
6. Click Download and Next.
7. Click Link Sections.
8. A warning message will appear to warn against linking after the school year began (potentially losing student work and grades). Click Link Sections.

Linking Sections: Customizing materials in linked sections

How to set different due dates and availability for assignments in a linked section:

1. In the assignment, scroll down and click Select Sections to Customize
2. Click Select All to choose a different set of dates/times and availability for each section; or, click the box to select some of your sections to customize.
3. Click the date box to choose a due date
4. Click the time box to set a specific time
5. Click the green circle to change the availability for a specific section.
6. Click Save Changes.

Linking Sections: Grading materials in linked sections

Whether you are grading a Course Material in the gradebook or within the item itself, look for the Section dropdown menu to toggle between the class sections.

In the Assessment, Assignment, or Discussion View

Gradebook View

Changing the Course Images

All courses and groups have a default image as the profile picture. As a Course or Group Admin, you can leave this default image, choose from a set of available images, or upload an image to serve as the profile photo for your course or group.

Customizing the profile images for your courses and groups can help users quickly identify your course or group when viewing the image tiles within the Course Dashboard, as well as the Courses and Groups drop-down menus.

Course Images: Customizing a course image

How to change the Course Image to something more recognizable:

1. Navigate to the desired course or group profile.
2. Hover over the image in the top left and click Edit Picture.
3. Select one of the preset images or click Attach File to select and upload an image from your device.
4. Optional: Click Edit Thumbnail to drag and resize the thumbnail version of the image. This is not the same thumbnail that appears in the Courses or Groups drop-down menu.
5. Once the picture has successfully been updated, a green banner will appear at the top of the course.

Pro Tip: Use clipart of a number to represent the period number for that class. If the sections are linked, then choose one clipart image to represent all of the section.

Click here to find free public domain clipart of numbers!

Customizing the Gradebook

The Grade Setup area is used to adjust grade settings for your course. In this area, you can manage your Grading Categories, create scales and rubrics, adjust the weights of your grading periods, and enable Final Grade Settings for your student reports.

To access Grade Setup, click Gradebook on the left side of your course. Then, click on the Grade Setup tab that appears underneath Gradebook.

Grade Setup: Creating grading categories

Note: We highly recommend that you use the same grading categories in PowerSchool as you have in Schoology. If you have not yet created your PowerSchool grading categories, please do this FIRST!

Grading Categories allow you to organize graded items in the course. At least one grading category is required in order for you to use the Gradebook. PowerSchool default Categories are: Classwork, Project, Quiz, Test, Homework, Participation. There is no limit to the number of categories you can create, and each can be weighted according to your own definition. It is best to use the same categories in PowerSchool as in Schoology.

To add a new category, follow these steps:

1. Click Gradebook and then Grade Set Up on the left side of the course.
2. Click Add in the Categories area.
3. Enter a Category Name.
4. Select either Percent or Total Points as the category calculation method. (*if you plan to sync your gradebook, leave the default of total points, no weights.)
5. Click Create to complete.
6. Click Save Changes at the bottom of the page.

Tip: Click the star icon to the right of one of your categories to mark it as your default category for newly created materials.

Grade Setup: Deleting categories and copying grading settings

If you have another course to which you'd like to copy the same grade setup settings as a previous course, follow these steps in the Grade Setup:

1. Click Copy Settings in the upper right corner.
2. Choose to copy Categories, Grading Scales, Rubrics, or all three. Grading Periods and Final Grade Settings cannot be copied!
3. Select the course(s) to which you’d like to copy the grade settings. You can only copy to courses for which you are the Course Admin.
4. Click Copy to complete.

To delete a category:

1. Hover over the category you'd like to delete and click x that appears to the right of the category.
2. If there are any course materials attached to the grading category, you will be prompted to assign another category to those materials before you can proceed to delete:
3. Once the materials are attached to another grading category or there are no materials attached to the category, click Delete to complete.
4. Click Save Changes at the bottom of the page.

Grade Setup: Hiding grade averages and grading periods

Note: This step is required of all teachers. It is important to hide the visibility of Schoology’s grade averages and grading periods. This will not impact students’ availability to see individual grades and feedback in Schoology, but it will reinforce that PowerSchool is the “Gradebook of Record” and prevent unnecessary confusion.

In Schoology, on the Grade Setup tab, scroll down to Visibility Settings at the bottom of the page

1. Select Hide overall grade from student report to prevent the overall grading column from being seen by students and parents.
2. Select Hide grading period grades from student reports to prevent the grading period columns from displaying (Note: Hiding the grading period grade from student reports will also hide the category-level grade.)
3. Do not select Hide total points achieved in student achieved in student grade report
4. Click Save Settings.

Note: These settings cannot be copied. You will need to manually set these for each course/section.

Setting up the PowerSchool App

The PowerSchool Teacher App is installed in your Schoology course so that you can sync materials and grades from your Schoology gradebook to your PowerSchool gradebook.

You can use the PowerSchool app in your course to determine which categories in your Schoology gradebook correspond with the categories in your PowerSchool gradebook. You can also use the app to manually sync materials and grades from Schoology to PowerSchool.

PowerSchool App: Mapping categories

1. Within the Course, click on the PowerSchool Teacher app.
2. When the app is launched, click on Configuration at the top of the page.
3. Map your Schoology grading categories to its matching PowerSchool grading categories. PowerSchool categories can only be used ONE time in this process.
4. Check the box that says “Automatically shorten assignment titles”. This will help to prevent syncing errors.

Before you begin, make sure that you created grading categories in PowerTeacher Pro and Schoology before beginning this process. Pro Tip: It really helps if the names are the same in Schoology and PowerTeacher Pro.

Note: If you linked sections, you will need to manually do this for each section. Use the drop-down menu in the app to switch between sections.

Syncing with PowerTeacher Pro

The PowerSchool grade item passback app is installed in your Schoology course so that you can sync materials and grades from your Schoology gradebook to your PowerSchool gradebook.

You can use the PowerSchool app in your course to determine which categories in your Schoology gradebook correspond with the categories in your PowerSchool gradebook.

Syncing with PowerSchool: Sync grades from the Gradebook

Syncing with PowerSchool: Sync grades from the PowerSchool app

To sync grades from the PowerSchool Teacher app in Schoology:

• Click on the PowerSchool app (from the left menu).
• At the top of the page, select Sync Grades
• A window listing your assignments will open. Click on the Sync Changes button to sync only those grades that have been changed/updated since the last sync (this will NOT override any marks already in PowerSchool), or click the sync icon ( ) beside the assignment(s) that you would like to individually sync.

Syncing with PowerSchool: Make bulk edits to gradebook materials

There are a few known causes for syncing errors, including the following:

1. More than 50 characters (including spaces) in the title
2. Characters in the title besides letters and numbers (i.e. punctuation)
3. No due date (or the due date is in the wrong grading period)
4. No grading category

One of the best ways to fix multiple errors is to use the Bulk Edit feature in the Gradebook. To access Bulk Edit from the Gradebook:

1. Click Courses in the header.
2. Select the desired course and view the Gradebook.
3. Click the three vertical dots icon in the top right corner.
4. Select Bulk Edit from the drop-down menu.

Accessing Last Year’s Resources

As a course comes to an end, you can save the materials you've created to your Resources. This enables you to copy your materials to future courses or share them with other educators.

Accessing Resources: Finding an archived course

If you did not remember to save your course materials (either all or some) at the end of the school year, it’s ok! You can still access and view last year’s courses.

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To access your Archive list:

1. Click Courses at the top of the page.
2. Click My Courses on the right.
3. From the My Courses area, click Archived to view past courses.

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Once you are in last year’s course, follow the directions for “Saving a course to Resources”

Accessing Resources: Saving a course to Resources

If you wish to reuse all the materials you've created for the course, use the Save Course to Resources option.

1. Navigate to the Materials page of the course you'd like to save to Resources.
2. Click Options at the top.
3. Select Save Course to Resources from the drop-down menu.
4. Select the Resource Collection in which you'd like to house your course content. If you haven't created a collection, you can add the course to your Home collection.
5. Optional: Select a folder within the collection to which you'd like to save your course material.
6. The Save as field indicates that your course materials will be saved in a new folder within the selected destination in your Resources. Within that folder, the materials remain organized in the same structure that was used in the course.
7. Click Submit to complete.

Accessing Resources: Important considerations for Google files

When you are saving Schoology Assignments that use the Google Drive Assignment app, the Google file does NOT save with the assignment into your Resources.

When you reuse the assignment this school year and import it from Resources, you will need to reattach the Google file to the assignment once it is in your Course.

For future reference: Some teachers have found success adding an asterisk (*) to the beginning of a Resource that includes a Google Drive Assignment app and including a link to that Google file in the assignment’s description. This makes for easy referencing when it comes time to import the Resource and assign the file in your Course.

Accessing Resources: Importing resources to your Course

To add material to a course from Resources, follow these steps:

1. Click Resources in the top menu.
2. In the Resource Center, select from Personal, Public, or Group Resources.
3. Navigate to the collection of Resources with the material you'd like to add to the new course.
4. Click on the gear to the right of the material template.
5. Select the option to Add to Course.
6. Select the course(s) to which you'd like to add the material template.
7. In the pop-up menu, check the box to the left of each item to add the item published. To add the item unpublished, un-check the box.
8. Click Add to complete.

Questions?

We’ve got you covered! Here are some resources to help you with any lingering questions or concerns you might still have.

Find more information and FAQs on the RCPS Schoology Help Website

Request individual, department, or team help with an ITRT

Ask for technical Schoology support with a Help Desk ticket.

Middle School Team

High School Team