Whether you are a first year student or a returning student, a new teacher or a returning teacher, you are new to Veracross, a classroom management system to document grades, show assignments, and simply keep students and teachers on track. Schoology, the management website the school used last year, is now “old news” as the Williston community transitions to Veracross. 

There are major differences between Schoology and Veracross that both returning students and teachers as well as those who are new to the community have been getting used to. Both have similar functions but Veracross “is more complicated,” says Tyler Scroggins ’15, who was an active Schoology user last year. “I prefer Schoology because it is easier to use,” he went on to explain.

The Veracross homepage no longer has a “Facebook” feel to it, like Schoology did. On the other hand, everything that students and teachers need is conveniently located on the Veracross start page. This includes the directory for the whole school, a calendar that shows upcoming assignments, athletic events and school wide events, and an easily accessible student planner with upcoming assignments.

One noticeable difference between Veracross and Schoology involves updates and notifications. Students no longer see red alerts in the top right of the screen when they receive messages and grades and when teachers post material like they did in Schoology. On Veracross, students get the advantage of seeing grades posted as updates in the center of the screen in an orange text-color next to each class. This makes class averages easier to see, but if a student needs to find notes or material that has been uploaded by the teacher, he or she has to navigate to the specific class page and find the right tab. This small scavenger hunt from time to time can be very confusing.

Veracross has a couple of essential tools that easily stand out. According to Scroggins, “My favorite part about Veracross is the directory.” The directory is a great tool that allows you to see the members of your classes, your dorm, and your afternoon program. There is also an all school directory so you can search for anyone.

Rourke Ferguson ’15 says, “My favorite part about Veracross is the drop box. It works a lot better than Schoology and it is easier to see when the homework is due because it is placed in a calendar format.” The calendar on the Veracross can help keep students and teachers organized. It shows homework assignments when they are due, what color week it is (blue or green), and any events that are going on, all right on the home page.

Mr. Kyle Hanford, an English teacher, says his favorite part about Veracross is “the ease with which I can take attendance. I also like the [ease of] navigation of the site.” This is helpful for teachers at Williston because taking attendance is something that has to be done every class, every day. When attendance is easy to record, it can lead to a faster and smoother start to every class.

Mrs. Kim Evelti, the Associate Academic Dean at Williston, configures the entire academic side of Veracross. She says the main difference between Schoology and Veracross is that “Schoology wasn’t connected to any actual data, whereas Veracross is. So everything we put into Schoology was imported or manually entered, which meant that we left a whole lot out. Veracross is all one integrated system.”

Veracross appears to be more teacher friendly than Schoology ever was. Mrs. Evelti says, “As a teacher, I like that the gradebook, my attendance and all the information about my students is in one place. I also love being able to see all the information about my advisees.” Veracross means less time in class trying to get around an attendance problem or grading malfunction and more time teaching new material.

Even with its ups and downs, Veracross has a lot to offer. Just like with anything new, it is only a matter of time before users are all comfortable with Veracross and all of its capabilities.