Have you noticed a new “waffle” icon next to your name in Schoology?  This new icon is called the “App Switcher.” The App Switcher is different than the current Schoology “waffle” icon. The “waffle” icon is made up of 4 boxes and is used to access digital content apps, while the App Switcher is made up of 9 boxes and is used to switch between Schoology and other PowerSchool applications used in L.A. Unified, such as Performance Matters’ Academic Monitoring System (AMS).

You can now add an exception to any Assignment, Discussion, Assessment, or Test/Quiz in your Schoology gradebook to denote that a student's submission has been Submitted. The Submitted exception allows teachers to mark an item as Submitted and easily enter a score at a later time. The Submitted icon serves as a visual reminder that the student has submitted their work but has yet to be graded. Marking an overdue item Excused, Missing, or Submitted will also remove the item from a student's Overdue notifications, preventing unwanted overdue notifications from being sent to the student and parents. Once a score is entered, the Submitted flag will automatically clear itself. 

Features:

Teachers can add a Submitted exception to any Assignment, Discussion, Assessment, or Test/Quiz in the Schoology gradebook to denote that a student's submission has been Submitted.

Advantages:

• It allows teachers to mark an item as Submitted and easily enter a grade at a later time.
• Students and parents can verify that an assignment was received by the teacher.
• The Submitted icon serves as a visual reminder that the student has submitted an assignment.
• Students and parents will not receive overdue notifications if the Submitted exception value is used.

A new feature is now available in your Schoology Gradebook. Teachers can now indicate when accommodations are offered/provided to a student for any assignment. This initial enhancement allows teachers to tag assignments with “Accommodation Offered/Received” using the existing comment icon in the gradebook, based on their IEP, 504 plan, etc., offered to a student. A future enhancement, to be released later this semester, will allow students and parents to see the assignments that were tagged when accommodations were offered/provided.

Access the job aid, Assignment Accommodations Tagging to learn how to use this new feature.

The Personalized Learning Systems (PLS) department, in collaboration with MiSiS, will be enabling a feature for the start of the new 2022-2023 school year. The new feature will allow schools to add an “Additional Educator” in MiSiS that will automatically be added to the corresponding Schoology course. This feature will address the need to add a co-teacher, such as an RSP teacher, to a Schoology course.

PHASE I

• Available August 1, 2022
• Enable functionality to send the Additional Educator from MiSiS to the corresponding course in Schoology as a Co-Teacher.
• Co-Teachers will have access to the Schoology course using their current Schoology role.  

PHASE II

• Available in the early Fall 2023-2024 school year.
• Enable digital content access for Co-Teachers added through MiSiS.
• Access to most digital content apps via CLEVER only

If the co-teacher requires additional access to the course, apply for a higher role through oneAccess at https://oneaccess.lausd.net. Please refer to REF-098500, Attachment B, for a list of available roles.

Visit our FAQ document for more information.

The Personalized Learning Systems (PLS) department has released an update to the existing MiSiS Grade Passback application. The new MiSiS Grade Passback 2.0 is available to all secondary school teachers beginning January 11, 2022.

The MiSiS Grade Passback (MGP 1.0) app will no longer be available after June 30, 2022.  For more information about MGP 2.0, visit the MGP 2.0 Page

A new feature is now available in Schoology!  Teachers can now create assignments that allow students to annotate directly on a file shared by the teacher. Teachers can use existing handouts and attach them to an assignment. Students can record their responses directly onto the file without having to download or print the document. You can find out how to use this new feature using the Annotations Assignment job aid found on our PLS website under Resources.

Teachers can now align learning objectives to any External Tool in course materials. Teachers can align Common Core, State Standards, Next Generation Science Standards, or Custom Learning Objectives for elementary schools.

To align an external tool:

1. Select Add Materials > Add File/Link/External Tool
2. Select External Tool

*Notice the new Learning Objective section.

1. Select the Align button
2. Follow the learning objective alignment workflow to align one or more learning objectives to the External Tool. For elementary teachers, refer to the video on creating assignments.
3. Select Submit to create the new External Tool material. The aligned learning objectives appear in the course material view under the assignment title.

It is important to note that scores for an External Tool will be distributed across all learning objectives aligned to the External Tool material. Scores are not able to be applied differently to each aligned objective.

LA Unified will be implementing an updated Single Sign-on screen for all students and employees when logging in to the LMS, Schoology.  You may have encountered this screen when accessing any MiSiS or Schoology job aids or when using the web version of Outlook when checking your email. After June 13, 2020, when visiting https://lms.lausd.net and selecting either ‘Student’ or ‘Employee,’ users will no longer be redirected to the ‘Blue’ single sign-on page.  Instead, users will see the updated login page (see images below).  To learn more about new and upcoming features within the Learning Management System (LMS), Schoology, visit https://achieve.lausd.net/lmsupdates. 

Thank you

The Personalized Learning Systems Department

LA Unified and Teaching Matters are working to provide optional standards-aligned, student-facing activities for K-8 teachers to facilitate remote instruction. The activities offered by Teaching Matters are fully accessible on any computer, smartphone, or tablet and are customizable to fit your classroom’s needs. The following resources are now available to assist you in using these new resources:

1. Job Aid: https://bit.ly/LAUSDTeachingMatters
2. Website: https://lp.teachingmatters.org/lausd
3. Video: https://vimeo.com/411747071
4. Webinars: Teaching Matters Webinars

Schoology will release an improved Usage Analytics experience on April 15, 2020, that will provide users with better insights on the overall usage of the Learning Management System (LMS). The Usage Analytics feature is available to users with the Principal and School Support roles.

Users will be able to:

• Track Schoology usage across web, iOS app, and Android app use.
• Track time students spend on materials.
• Easily export data collected on/after August 1, 2019, in a friendlier format.
• View data through dashboards.

To access Usage Analytics:

1. Click Tools in the header at the top of Schoology.
2. Click Usage Analytics.

For a comprehensive description of the improved School Analytics experience, go to https://support.schoology.com/hc/en-us/articles/360036884914-Usage-Analytics-New-School-Analytics-Enterprise-