District 228 has introduced a new app for teachers and students to use and locate schoolwork: Schoology. Schoology is an alternative to Google Classroom that some teachers are trying out this year. 

Student and teacher feedback has given insight to how this new app makes them feel, and the consensus is that most do not have a positive review.

Schoology is an app for locating and assigning work to students. It simulates the format of a college course. It is adjustable by teachers to be personalized, allowing folder organization and PowerSchool pairing so grades get shared from Schoology to PowerSchool. 

However, it seems as if the organizational aspect of this new app is leaving both students and teachers frustrated with how grades are depicted. Ms. Yunker, an English Language Arts instructor at Bremen, states how the app does not pair with PowerSchool. 

“Recently, I feel like there’s an issue with it syncing properly with PowerSchool, and that was a major reason why I thought it would make it easier.”

She described how students themselves were not sure how to approach the application and requested pdfs to do in notability because the editing tool in Schoology was complicated. 

“We cannot continue to torture each other with this product that is not working the way we need it to,” explained Yunker.  The app itself is not as functional as its website, and has features which were promised and not available at this moment. 

A majority of teachers are not actively using Schoology anymore due to its technical difficulties and overall frustration.  Compared to Schoology, Google classroom is more user friendly and familiar to the student body. 

Google Classroom and Schoology have several differences, and Google Classroom has a more appealing display than Schoology. Most students are familiar with its format and are not intimidated by its displays. 

Senior Alex Lopez thinks there could be more connectivity.

“Not everything is contained in there like Google Classroom has google docs, google slides, you can connect all into one place. In Schoology, it’s a struggle; you will be spending 10 minutes trying to add something to the assignment,” stated Lopez. 

Since many students have already used Google Classroom, this seems like an unneeded switch that is negatively impacting the student body today.