How to Create a Course or Group for Education Modified in Schoology

Introduction 

Education Modified relies heavily on Schoology's Courses and Groups to pull student roster information and manage staff access to student profiles. You can find more details about that process here.

Because of this, some schools need to create Courses within Schoology specifically to give certain staff members access to students within Education Modified. This might be a course containing all IEP students to give administrators access to all student profiles, or many courses with represent individual paraprofessional case-loads. 

Many schools we work with want to know how to create these custom courses  in such a way that they are not visible to students, since they are not directly related to a child's instruction. By following the instructions in this article, you will be able to create courses and groups that pull into Education Modified, but do not otherwise impact Schoology workflows or student visibility. 

Step 1: Create a Custom Grading Period

Note 1: This step only needs to be completed once per school year. If it has already been completed for your school, you can skip ahead to Step 2. 

Note 2: For this step, Schoology Admin rights are required. If you do not have these rights, please ask a staff member at your school who does have these permissions to complete the following steps.

1. In Schoology, go to the top menu and click Tools -> School Management 
2. Select 'Grade Settings' from the sidebar. 
3. Click the Button labeled: '+ Add Grading Period' which should appear on the center-right-hand side of the screen.
   
4. In the dialog that opens, title your new grading period 'Future Sandbox' or anything else you would like and select two dates that are far in the future. (We would recommend 1-2 school years ahead of time.) 
   
5. Click 'Add Period' to Save. 
6. Now, back in main Schoology menu above, select Tools -> User Management
7. Select 'Permissions' from the Side Menu. 
8. Scroll down to the 'Courses' Section of Permissions and ensure that 'View upcoming courses' is unchecked for Student users.
9. Then scroll down to the bottom of the page and click 'Save Permissions' to save. 

Step 2: Create Your Course

Note: For this step, you must have permission to create courses within Schoology. If you do not have these rights, please ask a staff member at your school who does have these permissions to complete the following steps.

1. From the main Schoology menu, click Courses -> My Courses.
2. Click the 'Create Course' button in the center-right-hand side of the screen.
3. In the dialog that opens, fill out the following: 
   1. Name the Course something that makes sense for the context. "EdMod - All Students", "McConolley Case Load" etc. 
   2. Select a Subject Area of "Other". (This is not important from Education Modified's perspective, so feel free to change.) 
   3. Select Level of "None" (This is not important from Education Modified's perspective, so feel free to change.)
   4. Select the Grading Period that was created in Step 1. (Note, it may be grayed out because it is in the future, you should still be able to click it.) 
   5. If you do not see any of the options above, try clicking the 'Advanced' checkbox in the bottom-left-hand corner of the dialog.
      
4. Click 'Create' to create the course. 

Step 3: Add Staff Members

1. If you are following on from Step 2, you should now be on the course page. If not, navigate to the course by selecting 'Courses' from the main Schoology menu and choosing the course card from the list. 
2. Click the 'Members' link in the side menu. 
3. Click the 'Add Members' button. 
4. Select all Staff Members you wish to add to the course. (These staff members will be given access to all students you add in the following step.) 
5. Click 'Add Members'
6. Important: For each staff member you just added, click the cog icon in their row, and select 'Make Admin' from the drop-down menu that appears. (If they are not Admins of the course they will not be given access to students who are members in Education Modified.) 
   
7. Now it is time to add students. 

Step 4: Add Students

1. If you are following on from Step 2, you should now be on the course page. If not, navigate to the course by selecting 'Courses' from the main Schoology menu and choosing the course card from the list. 
2. Click the 'Members' link in the side menu. 
3. Click the 'Add Members' button. 
4. Select all Students you wish to add to the course.
5. Click 'Add Members' 

And with that you should be done! Access Education Modified and update your roster and you should see the new course appear there and when the staff members you added update their rosters they will see the course and students as well.