This week I critically compared three CMSs to determine which CMS would be the best fit for me. I chose to look closely at Schoology, Google Classroom, and Weebly. Schoology by far had the most features and best use as a CMS. Google Classroom had a few features that would warrant it a good CMS, but still fell short in comparison. As for Weebly, I never considered it much of a CMS because it functions more as a website to push out information and not as a place for students to turn in assignments for grades. A good CMS should minimally be able to allow students to turn in assignments for a grade, contain a gradebook, allow communications between students and teachers, differentiate instruction, and house flipped instruction materials. Schoology won the comparison for the best CMS out of all three by a landslide.
I CMS I am choosing to use for this course is Schoology. For one, I currently already use it for my classroom. It has amazing features for a CMS. There are great organizing tools and many ways to create Flipped Instruction. Tests and quizzes can be created and graded within Schoology. Discussion posts can be utilized as well as surveys. Students can communicate with each other as well as the teacher. Parents can be synced to student accounts. The gradebook is held within Schoology and can be synced to Powerschool. I can also embed outside links, videos, forms, etc. right within Schoology. Schoology has many apps that can be linked to it such as Dropbox, Evernote, GoogleDrive, Youtube, Khan Academy, and so much more. Through my experience, it has proven to be one of the best CMS options out there.
To see a more detailed comparison of the three, look at the document below.
Techy-Teacher 