Schoology is a school-oriented website, used to turn in assignments, meet deadlines, and do classwork. It is used by teachers and students alike, with many helpful quirks. But where do those helpful quirks end and the problems begin? 

Many times, teachers do not use Schoology correctly when posting assignment due dates and outlining lesson plans. It is meant to make students’ and teachers’ lives easier but it tends to make it harder.

Teachers have access to a feature called “Workload.” They can see how many things their students have due on Schoology on any given day. Some teachers do not use this or do not even know it exists.

Students have always faced the problem of teachers overloading work onto them. Schoology was designed to show teachers all of the school work a student has in order to avoid excessive amounts of homework. Many teachers misuse it when trying to take work into account, or just do not use Schoology at all.

The “Workload” feature would be useful if all teachers used Schoology to post assignments. It would lighten workloads for many students, therefore lightening stressloads.

Teacher and blogger writing for the New Learning Times, Beckie Beeson, uses Schoology for her students wrote a review with pros and cons. There were many of each, but her biggest complaint was the lack of communication through it. 

“The forum is designed to sync with school events, activities, and general teacher and student inquiries; however, my students personally never used the feature,” said Beeson.

Schoology is useful for turning in work, but many teachers do not use this feature. Paper copies are still handed out by the dozen.

Many students find Schoology unhelpful. It makes lives harder with bringing work home.

“Schoology has definitely made my life harder,” Abby Kennedy, CHS sophomore said. “Deadlines at midnight are very pressing and make me finish my homework that is due online first. I am always up late finishing all of my work that teachers have given me.” 

Another problem brought with Schoology is students forgetting their assignments. Many students have become accustomed to having homework that they can physically find. They disregard their computers when they get home and just focus on the paper.

In a research article about Schoology written by Vincentius Tjandra Irawan, Eddy Sutadji and Widiyanti and published in the journal Cogent Education, it is shown that the learning model used by Schoology is not usually helpful to students.

“The learning process with more theory made students become bored. Students shall be more active to carry out practical activities in the productive lesson but just passively sitting on the bench,” said Irawan, Sutadji, and Widiyanti.

Students’ daily lives are very tiring between school and activities, but bringing the days lessons home on Schoology adds even more stress. The concept of Schoology is very good, but it is in need of some reevaluation by those who use it.

Disclaimer: Articles designated as “Editorial” represent the views and opinions of the author, not the 2018-2019 Periscope staff, CHS/CASD administration, or the CHS student body.