Starting next school year, Hackley will be moving on from our current Learning Management System (LMS), known as “HOL.” Hackley will now have two integrated Management Systems: Veracross, a Student Information System (SIS), which has already been used this past year to post progress reports as well as course requests, and Schoology, an LMS which will deal with everything that has to do with the classroom.

Erich Tush, Director of Instructional Technology, explained that although these platforms are new, we will still use the name “HOL, “which simply stands for Hackley On-Line. Going forward, Veracross will be called “HOL” and Schoology will be called “HOL Classroom.”

According to Tusch, our previous platform was not meeting standards for the school.

“We were forced into making a decision and moving to a new product,” Tusch said,  “Once you move to a new product the integration is now gone so keeping the old product without the integration of the new product seems silly to us.”

The Technology department convened three committees to make the decision on finding new management systems that fit the needs of the school.

A committee led by Joseph Dioguardi, Director of Technology, evaluated several Student Information Systems and found that Veracross was best for that job.

A committee of K-12 faculty members and a committee of students and parents were convened and they each looked into different Learning Management Systems. Both groups recommended Schoology.

Schoology is a Learning Management System that focuses on everything having to do with the classroom. Teachers can post assignments and requirements for their classes. Unlike the current HOL, however, it is much easier to use third-party products in Schoology. For example, students can use platforms such as TurnItIn and Google Docs right in Schoology. Schoology also has an app which allows users to do everything that they would on their computers right on their phones.

Veracross is where all student records are created and maintained. It provides the ability for students and parents to see schedules, report cards, and progress reports, and gives parents the ability to pay their school bills online. The school has already started integrating Veracross this past year by posting progress reports and report cards on Veracross and having students sign up for next year’s courses.

Since there are now two different platforms there may be concerns regarding functionality and accessibility, but Tusch explained that the two systems will be fully integrated and there will be links allowing for easy movement of data from one platform to the other. Tusch said, ”There’s functionality that’s in play that over time should hopefully streamline and improve the experience of students and teachers alike.”

This summer, students will be sent an email introducing Schoology with instructions on how to log in as well as how to use the system itself. By the start of the next school year, Hackley will have fully moved in to and integrated the two new Learning Management Systems.