In our continued effort to improve service, we have once again taken all of our user feedback to make some major changes to the Schoology system:

Basic and Topic Formats Have Been Combined

After receiving a number of requests to eliminate the confusion between “Basic” and “Topic” format courses, we have combined the two formats so you no longer need to choose a format. We found that teachers liked the structure that topics provided, but liked the flexibility of easily creating content from within the “Basic” format.  As a result we have merged the two formats to make everyone’s life a little bit easier.

All courses now have an “Materials” tab, where Topics, Assignments, Events, Documents, Pages, and Discussions can all be created and are automatically organized.

Teachers can quickly create any type of course content (Topics, Assignments, Events, Documents, Pages, Discussions) using the “Create Content” button in the materials tab. Assignments, Events, Documents, Pages, and Discussions can all be created independent of topics or within topics. This allows you to freely create the content you want without having to make any setup decisions.

Creating Topics Has Been Simplified

Instead of having you choose between a simple or advanced topic, we have combined the two into a single, more powerful topics tool. When you create a topic you can now create new Assignments, Events, Documents, Pages, and Discussions that embed directly into the topic editor or you can embed existing ones that you have already created.

From the topic editor (WYSIWYG) you can click “Create/Insert Course Content” to either create new items to embed or add existing content. This allows you to create content first without worrying about organizing items into topics, and then use that content later if you decide to use topics.

New Documents Re-Design

My Documents, Course Documents, and Group Documents have been redesigned for easier use and added functionality. You can now bulk publish/unpublish, rename, delete, and move files into different folders. You can even organize course documents that belong to a topic into any folder within the documents area.

Other Site Updates:

• A “Shortcuts” button has been added in the bottom left-hand corner for quick navigation to courses/groups
• Discussion Threads can now be exported into PDF format for download or print
• Grading an assignment can now be done from the assignment profile
• Teachers can now add grades/comments from the Dropback area