Schoology 101: How to Organize your Courses for a Successful School Year
Last week, we shared a post on 5 things you can do with Schoology to get ready for next year. One of the things we mentioned was taking some time to clean up your course and organize the folders and materials within. How you organize your Schoology course will make it more beneficial for your students next year as well as easier to copy content over from year-to-year.
In this post, we are going to discuss the benefits of Schoology course organization as well as some tips and tricks to getting this done the right way.
There are a variety of ways that you can organize your course materials in Schoology. Similar to cleaning up your Google Drive, the key lies in using “folders” at the top level. Limit the number of individual materials and/or assignments you post on the main page. By keeping things organized within separate folders, you’re making it easier to transfer entire folders of content from year-to-year, help keep your students organized, and make it easier on yourself to grade and track assignment submissions.
Step 1: Find Your Files
First, take everything you would normally send out separately throughout the year (syllabi, rubrics, writing documents, tip sheets, reflections, surveys, etc) and place it all in a folder. This will organize all of the useful resources your students need throughout the year in one easily identifiable and accessible location. If links change, you update your syllabus or need to add more resources, just manage this folder and make the necessary changes.
Step 2: Create Folders
Next, create folders for each unit you teach throughout the year and place everything that correlates with that unit within the folder. From here, consider grouping “like assignments” in folders within the unit folder. Again, everything is kept neat and orderly and reflects the progression of skills that will be attained.
To add materials to a folder:
- Click the “gear” icon next to the material/assignment you want to move.
- Click “move”.
- Select the designation folder from the drop-down menu.
- Click “move”
No matter if you have a lengthy project with a variety of moving parts or a plethora of materials, by clearly defining everything within folders, your students will know where they are and what needs to be completed. Everything is laid out before them to help them through the process while making it easier on your end to track student work, assign grades, and integrate new materials.
What is also great about utilizing folders in a variety of ways is being able to use the drop-down feature next to the folder. By clicking the “arrow” to the left of the folder, all of the subsequent content will open. More folders within? Click those drop-down arrows to open the next level too.
With everything neatly organized within folders, you will have an easier time saving things to your personal resources, sharing materials with others, and managing your digital classroom.
Step 3: Stay Organized During the School Year
Lastly, it's important not only to get organized for the new school year but to stay organized as the school year progresses. I recommend doing this for 5 or 10 minutes each month just to keep things organized and most importantly … “findable” for future projects and school years.
How Do You Keep Organized?
We would love to hear your thoughts on this topic. No matter if you are using Schoology, Google Drive, or something else… please share your digital organization tips with us below in the comments section.
About the author, Nick Amaral
Nick Amaral is a District Staff Development Coordinator in NJ. As a dedicated educator, he is known for implementing technology and differentiating instruction in the classroom. In addition to teaching, he has been responsible for supporting teachers’ understanding and seamless integration of technology in the classroom, as well as designing engaging and thought-provoking professional learning opportunities that meet the needs of all teachers to help to create student-centered learning experiences.