Technology Tools

Schoology Quizzes and Tests/Google Classroom

Sharon Tomski and Joneta Hockett

Education employs many tools to help students learn information. During the process of
learning, students become aware of what they must learn, are given opportunities to learn it,
and then must demonstrate if they have learned it or not. Course objectives define the
purpose and direction of your course and assessment can be powerfully tied to these course
objective. (Kalsa, 2016). Assessment is at the heart of effective teaching and require tools to
help measure whether or not learning has resulted via authentic activities performed by the
learner. (Kalsa, September 2015).
There are many tools that can be used to perform assessment for online courses. Some are
independent applications and others are partly or wholly combined in a learning management
system, such as Blackboard. This paper will discuss two technology tools to illustrate how they
can be used for the assessment of student learning in an online environment. A description of
the tool will be provided discussing some of the advantages and disadvantages of using the
tool. Examples of learning objectives and planned activities will demonstrate how this tool will
be applied to assessment for online instruction and learning.

Quizzes and Tests using Schoology

Sharon Tomski

Description
One way to assess in an online class is to use traditional formats such
as multiple choice, true/false and short answer, but to use an online
tool to distribute and grade such quizzes. Schoology, a popular
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Learning Management System (LMS) has a built in quiz/test feature. The benefits and
challenges of using Schoologys quiz feature will be discussed as well as examples of how this
tool could be used.
Schoology is an LMS that is free for individual teachers. According to Schoologys website,
Schoology has all the tools your institution needs to create engaging content, design lessons,
and assess student understanding. Schoology can be used for K-12, university or corporate
training situations. Among the many features of Schoology is a built in Quiz/Test feature.
The Quiz/Test feature offers many format options including: multiple choice, true/false, fill in
the blank, short answer/essay, matching and ordering. Starting a quiz is as easy as selecting
Add Test/Quiz under the Add Materials drop down menu. See Figure 1.

Figure 1. Adding a Test/Quiz using the Add Materials Drop Down Menu

The quiz is given a name, points and date. There are other options such as choosing a category
for the quiz and individually assigning it to specific students. See Figure 2.

Figure 2. Template to name and create quiz.

Once the quiz is set up, questions are added. A question bank can also be made from which
questions can be added to any quiz. See Figures 3 and 4 for an example of adding a true/false
question:

Figure 3. Options for adding a question type.

Figure 4. Example of the creation options for a True/False question.

Advantages
There are some features that would make the quizzes especially useful for formative
assessments. For example, you can allow students to take the quiz more than once so that they
could review concepts they did not understand and then test themselves again. Another useful
option is to provide a hint to the students for any question so that they can look up information
and try the question again.
The data that can be collected from the quizzes is very valuable. The instructor can easily
quantify the questions that many students are getting wrong so that review or extra practice
can be built in. Schoology offers graphs of composite or individual student performance. The
teacher can also categorize the questions to see if similar concepts are being misunderstood
across classes or even years of students.
A nice feature of the quizzes is that an image or equation can be easily added to the quiz
question. Also, making a question bank will be a nice way to make review quizzes of material
already covered or to make alternate versions of quizzes for different class sections.

Disadvantages
One of the weaknesses of the quiz feature in Schoology is that the browser cannot be locked
down during testing unless this security feature is purchased. This means that students can
search the internet or their computers for answers as they are taking the test. Another
weakness is that making questions banks is not an intuitive process and takes quite a bit of time
to develop. Once a question bank is made, however, it would be very useful for subsequent
courses. Also, it is not possible to simply copy and paste an image. The image must be saved the
uploaded and inserted. This multistep process takes quite a bit of time.

Example of Classroom application as assessment tool/Learning Objectives

It is useful to demonstrate a specific example of using the Schoology Quiz feature. One of the
learning objectives for an intermediate Computer Programming class would involve looping and
decision structures. For example: Students will write a program using appropriate if...else
and/or nested if structures to input data and select appropriate output. In order to help
students practice this concept, a formative assessment could be created using a self-graded
quiz. Figure 5 shows an example of the design of such a question using Schoologys Quiz
feature.

Figure 5: A multiple choice question is added for students to test their knowledge of fundamental concepts.

Notice that the option to Randomize Choices was not selected since one of the options
among the answers is None of the above. Although the question is worth 10 points, this quiz
will not be counted in the student's final grade and students can retake multiple times since
the goal of the quiz is for formative assessment as the students test themselves on what they
understand. Figure 6 shows what the question will look to the students.

Figure 6. Preview of multiple choice question showing student view.

Another use of the quiz feature in an online environment would be to assess what students
know and can do by applying knowledge. For example, using the same learning objective,
students could be asked to use multiple concepts to determine what a given code would
accomplish. Figure 7 shows an example of a short answer question using the Quiz feature that
would test students knowledge on a question that could not simply be looked up. Notice that
students can submit media files if desired to explain an answer. A rubric can also be added to
show students how a longer question will be graded.

Figure 7. A short answer/essay question being created.

Schoology Conclusion
The Quiz/Test feature of Schoology is very useful for an online learning environment. It has
numerous options for questions that can be used for both formative and summative
assessments. The interface is fairly intuitive for both the teacher and the student. Although
adding images take a few extra steps, the option to insert images is very useful in courses that
use visual information as well as text. Overall, the Quiz/Test option on the Schoology LMS
should be considered for online classes because of its flexibility and options.

Google Apps for Education - Classroom

Joneta Hockett

Description
Google Apps for Education is a suite of productivity
tools that can be used for classroom collaboration,
learning and assessment. They are free for schools
with tech support at no additional cost. There are no advertisements to distract the student
from learning. It provides opportunities for collaboration where learners can create, share and
edit files in real-time. (Google for Education, 2016). Work is automatically stored in the cloud
as learners work on the document. (Google for Education, 2016). Apps are available so that the
learner can enjoy a consistent experience from any device that has an internet connection.
(Google Apps, 2014). Google guarantees that the service is available 99.9% of the time and has
enhanced security features which are important for the safety of children who would use these
applications for learning. (Google for Education, 2016).
Google Classroom is one of the features of Google Apps for Education and is
called the mission control for classes. Within these parameters, instructors can
create classes, distribute assignments, and send feedback all in one place, in a
paperless environment. (Classroom, 2016). Classroom provides many
opportunities for activities and assessment of learning. With easy setup and
better organization of class elements, instructors can plan assignments, announcements, and
class discussion while sharing resources among the students and interacting in the class
stream or by email. These elements create a collaborative atmosphere among students by
using the same tools. Checking for understanding and learning can be done partly through the
Assignment feature which allows the teacher to quickly see who has or hasnt completed the
work, and provide direct, real-time feedback in Classroom. (Understanding, 2016).

Advantages
There are several advantages for using Google Classroom to support learners and their learning
experience. Pappas has provided a list to help support decisions about using this tool and states
that it is an ambitious addition to online education as well as the learning management
industry. He has offered a list of advantages for using Classroom. These have more to do with
communicating and giving effective feedback for assessments:
Effective communication and sharing Google Docs are saved online, shared with
others, easily organized and personalized in folders.

 Speeds up the assignment process Assignments can be created and distributed;

students turn in assignments; the instructor can monitor who has turned it in and who
has not; and then feedback can be given immediately.
Effective feedback Instructors can give online support to learners right away therefore
feedback becomes more effective as comments and remarks have impact on the
learners minds. They can make corrections thereby unlearn what might be in error, and
relearn what they need to learn.
Great commenting system Learners can comment on the specifics of a discussion and
create URLs for interesting comments making them available for further online
discussion. (Pappas, 20 August 2015).

Disadvantages
Just as there are advantages to using a tool or product, there are also
disadvantages. The following are some that Pappas has also included in his
review of Google Classroom. They primarily reflect problems with collaborative
work among learners:
Difficult learner sharing Learners cannot share their work with their peers unless they
are owners of a document. Sharing options need to be approved by the owner which
can cause chaos if trying to share with a large group of learners.
Editing problems Shared documents are owned by all learners which means that
someone else can delete a part of the assignment or accidently delete it, and it cannot
be recovered.
No automated quizzes and tests Does not provided automated quizzes and tests for
learners. This might be more suitable to blended learning than a fully online program.
Impersonal Google hangouts are not integrated: online interacting is only possible
through Google docs. There is no live chat in Google Classroom. (Pappas, 20 August
2015).

Example of Classroom application as assessment tool

9th Grade World History-Civilizations - The instructor creates a Google docs template with
instructions for the assessment activity. The instructions require the student to create a table
comprised of 6 rows and 4 columns using Google Docs through Classroom. This is both an
activity and assessment about the Ancient Greeks and their contributions to mathematics,
science, philosophy, architecture and the arts.
Instructions: For this assessment activity, you will insert a 4 (col) x 6
(row) table into this document. In this table you will label the following to
help organize the information for this module:
a. Column 1 - the subject (mathematics, science, philosophy,
architecture, and the arts).

b. Column 2 - Name of a major contributor in each of the fields with

birth and death dates and identify the contribution with a short label.
c. Column 3 - Written description of what the contribution did for
the field (how did it change or improve the way of thinking in the field).
d. Column 4 - Written description of how that contribution impacted
people and places in world history.
e. Check spelling and information before you turn in this

completed template.

Learning objectives
The following are some of the learning objectives that students can achieve by employing
technology features of Google Classroom:

The student will be able to explain the significance of Greek achievements in the
subjects of mathematics, science, philosophy, architecture, and the arts, and the impact
of each on people and places in world history. (Table above)
The student will be able to analyze the wars between the Greeks and Persians and the
consequences of those wars for the Greek civilization. (Discussion blog)

Classroom Conclusion
Although there are limitations for only using Google Classroom as a comprehensive learning
management system, these and other learning objectives can be supported in Google
Classroom through the use of Google Docs, Slides, a discussion blog constructed in Google Sites
and a student digital portfolio for summary assessment of the course. Given the development
of Google Classroom over the past few years, there is a good possibility that this tech tool will
become more comprehensive and robust as a learning management system and find its place in
online instruction.

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Conclusion
These technology tools which have been discussed are only two of the many that can be used
to assess student learning, as well as evaluate the planned instruction which helps to facilitate
the learning. They also will be the beginnings of an Assessment Toolbox which will help us to
facilitate learning efficiently and effectively in the future. Both products should continue to
evolve to provide better tools for the applications which we have discussed. The Assessment
Toolbox must contain a variety of technologies for quizzing and testing, discussions and
reflections on learning, collaboration among the students, production of multimedia
assessment products (e.g. videos), as well as whole package learning management systems
where all of these tools are in one package.
Assessment is at the heart of effective teaching and these and other tools will provide ways
that teachers can monitor student learning. (Kalsa, 2015). Planning for effective teaching
requires learning objectives connected to efficient assessments and aligned with authentic
learning activities so that students, and instructors, know what is to be learned, how it will be
learned and if it was learned. Students will use the tools to facilitate this process, taking charge
of their own learning with ways to learn, unlearn (if necessary) and relearn through effective
feedback and communication from each other, as well as the instructor.

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