At Schoolbox, we believe that quality teaching and learning flourishes in a connected environment. We share a passion, like many of our schools do, to build engaged communities where students, teachers and parents can work together to improve the educational experience for students, celebrate their achievements and encourage them to challenge the status quo in a safe and respectful way. Schoolbox has long been influenced and guided by educational research and best practice, in order to ensure teachers and students have the tools necessary to achieve their desired outcomes. We understand that schools offering the IB curriculum have a strong sense of community and it is here that we are well aligned.
What makes Schoolbox education software different from other platforms?
Schoolbox is a holistic platform for students to collaborate and learn, for educators to deliver engaging, content rich learning experiences, assess and provide feedback for student growth, and for parents and the wider school community, to access all that they need to support their children and stay informed as they navigate their busy lives. You can head to our Features page for more information on the different aspects of Schoolbox.
As to notable features, Schoolbox has market-leading integrations that improve daily workflows and centralise your systems. And if your existing school systems are not readily compatible with Schoolbox, we will find a way.
With rubrics at our core, the Schoolbox LMS houses high quality feedback. Teachers are able to create rubrics with capabilities, indicators and specific descriptors to assess student submissions. And to take it a step further, with Schoolbox, teachers can use rubrics to provide students the opportunity to self-reflect and self-assess.
Schoolbox also offers great flexibility in the creation of class pages, unit pages and courses. This flexibility provides great diversity so IB schools can easily customise courses.
Can you capture a student’s learning journey in Schoolbox?
Yes. Schoolbox places students at the centre of the learning journey. Once you launch the platform with one single login, the user is immediately presented with their dashboard.
The Schoolbox dashboard provides users with access to much more than a Learning Management System. For example, as a teacher, if you want to see the progress of one of your students, you can go into their profile and in one location, you will be able to see not only their assessments, timetables and grades; you can also access important aspects like pastoral care and parent information. There is also the ePortfolio, which provides a showcase of the student’s work.
Is differentiated and self-paced learning available in Schoolbox?
Yes. When using Schoolbox, teachers have the ability to deliver varied pedagogical approaches and content to support their students, depending on their learning needs. Course work including assessment can be personalised and learning differentiated. For example, students can be provided a selection of activities in which they choose the activity which they would like to be assessed by. Assessments can also be created to keep in step with the learning pace of each student. Learn more about differentiated and self-paced learning by contacting a member of the Schoolbox team.
What type of feedback can Schoolbox provide?
Schoolbox offers a number of feedback options, so you can have the flexibility to ensure your students experience a learning journey that suits them. We have rubrics, which track achievement of criteria across multiple assessments and provide the opportunity to give targeted feedback to students. Schoolbox also has an inline grader, so you no longer need to download and reupload submitted documents. The inline grader enables you to annotate feedback on the document directly, and students can see the annotations. The inline grader also allows you to view historical feedback and even has the option to provide audio comments.
And there is always value in having centralised feedback so Schoolbox offers the Markbook, where you can record the results of your students in one place. You can track students’ self-assessments and get real-time results. The Markbook can also be exported to a .csv file to sync to external reporting systems.
If you have unique requirements for feedback, Schoolbox is highly configurable so get in touch and have a chat with us!
Does Schoolbox learning technology support the PYP/MYP/DP framework?
Yes, Schoolbox directly supports the PYP/MYP/DP framework. In particular, the Group areas and ePortfolio can be greatly useful tools for IB students.
The ePortfolio feature is a versatile tool that can be used for many different purposes by teachers and students alike. For students in PYP, the ePortfolio can be used to collaborate on an exhibition project while those undertaking MYP, the ePortfolio will be useful for personal projects. And in the case of DP students, the ePortfolio can be used for student reflection on Creativity, Activity, Service (CAS); the mandatory core component of IB.
You also have a number of assessment tools like rubrics, similarity checker and self-assessment that provide direct support to the student learning journey. If you would like to have an in-depth discussion of how Schoolbox can assist your IB school, contact us today for a complimentary consultation.
Is there an overview of CAS activities completed in Schoolbox?
Yes. There are a couple of ways to view CAS data in the Schoolbox Learning Management System. The first way is through the Course Markbook, as CAS activities can exist as a course in Schoolbox. The second way is to use the rubric markbook because with Schoolbox, CAS activities are also supported with rubrics. So, if you are using rubrics to showcase CAS activities, you can visualise it there. We do have more opportunity to enhance this space in the future so in our roadmap, we have provided scope to introduce CAS achievements into student portfolios so they can be shared and showcased.
How does the Schoolbox LMS support IB reporting and assessment?
Schoolbox has the ability to export assessment data from the platform. We are working with the IB organisation to build an API connection between Schoolbox and IB to simplify transferring results. Currently, there is a manual process available to export Schoolbox results into the IB system via .csv file.
Can the IB curriculum be imported into Schoolbox?
Curriculum mapping is already available in Schoolbox, however we currently are not licensed to provide IB curriculum data. We would really like to make the IB curriculum available as part of the Schoolbox platform so that IB schools can map assessments, criteria and all school activities so it will be possible to ensure that the curriculum is achieved and also help students see progression over time. Schoolbox is currently in discussions with the IB organisation to get access to the curriculum data.
What does the future look like for Schoolbox and IB?
Schoolbox is a proven and powerful LMS, community portal, and wellbeing platform for all schools, and is particularly well placed to serve the needs of IB schools through our focus on community and the power that it has to encourage connectedness, which is key to successful learning. Schoolbox, with its adaptive nature and our willingness as a team to listen to the needs of the IB community has meant that schools are able to tailor their instances to meet their IB requirements. Looking ahead, we are committed to introducing new functionalities that will continue to support the IB programmes.
Rubric assessment is something we are really passionate about at Schoolbox and we will continue to enhance this area. Helping students understand where they are in the learning journey is a passion of ours and we are very interested in displaying student progression over time. We are developing ways to capture more information on student progression over time and for primary schools, we are also looking at areas in our system for tracking achievement with micro-credentialing and evidence sharing.
Want to learn more about how Schoolbox is empowering IB schools? Check out our On-demand Webinar—Schoolbox & IB: Learning Communities at Our Core. And if you want to discuss how Schoolbox can help your school, contact us today!
