The top navigation bar is visible from anywhere on the site once you have logged in. 

On the left side of the top bar, you can navigate to the four main areas of Schoology: Home, Courses, Groups, and Resources. 

Clicking the Schoology logo always brings you back to your home page, the landing page you see when you log in. This is where you see your Recent Activity feed and Course Dashboard. Scroll down to the Home Page section of this article to learn more about what you see when you first log into Schoology. 

Courses Menu

Clicking Courses displays courses you are personally enrolled in. A shield icon displays in the top right corner of the courses you administer.

Your courses are your virtual classrooms. This is where you will instruct, grade, and communicate with your students. Your courses contain all your instructional materials (e.g., files, assignments, and assessments) along with communication and organizational tools strictly associated with the course.

From your Courses drop-down, you can navigate to your existing courses. Clicking My Courses on the right, allows you to create courses, view current and archived courses, join courses, and search for courses. Learn more in our Guide to Schoology Courses.

Groups Menu

Clicking Groups displays the groups you are enrolled in. A shield icon displays in the top right corner of the groups you administer. Clicking My Groups on the right, allows you to create groups, view current and archived groups, join groups, and search for groups.

Groups are collaborative spaces to share ideas and resources, organize events, and connect with other educators. Groups can be used in many different ways from professional development to student extracurricular activities, so the best way to learn about their potential is simply by joining some open ones. Learn more in our Guide to Schoology Groups.

Resources

Click Resources to create, view, edit, and manage all your instructional resources.

From Resources, you can navigate directly to your Personal resources, any Group resources you have access to, all of the Public resources on Schoology, any Resource Apps you may have installed. If you are part of an Enterprise organization that uses Schoology's Assessment Management Platform, this is where you can access any Managed Assessment Teams. Learn more in our article on the Resource Center.

Search, Calendar, and App Center

On the right side of the navigation bar are three icons relating to Search (magnifier icon), App Center (four boxes icon), and your Calendar (calendar icon). Search allows you to find courses, groups, and people in Schoology. The App Center delivers powerful access to apps that you can install to integrate content and services with Schoology. The Calendar aggregates events from all of your associated courses, groups, and organizations, along with your personal events.

Messages, Connections, and Notifications

Also on the right side of the navigation bar you have icons relating to Messages (envelope icon) and Connections & Notifications (bell icon). Any time someone sends you a message, wants to connect, or does something that pertains to you or your affiliations, it will be made easily accessible in the top right corner of your screen. Everything is chronologically ordered and clickable to make managing them simple.

Course Profile

1. Navigation Panel — The navigation panel on the left side of your course pages allows you to access the different areas of your course, such as your Materials, Gradebook and Attendance. This column also contains your Course Options menu where you can find Course Admin tools, such as View Course As, the Recycle Bin, and your course Privacy Settings. At the bottom of this column you will find your Course Access Code, which you can distribute to your students so they can register for your course. Click Here for instructions to help your students register using Course Access Codes. 
2. Center Column — This column shows the page you are viewing based on the left side navigation. You can set the default landing page for your course to either Materials (as in the screenshot above), or Updates. 
3. Reminders & Upcoming — Similarly to the Reminders & Upcoming column on your Home page, this area displays grade and submission activity, along with all your assignments, due dates, and calendar events in chronological order. However, unlike the Home Page view, the Reminders & Upcoming area in a course only displays events and due dates for that particular course.

Group Profile

You'll notice that your Groups look very similar to Courses. Groups are more about communication and resource sharing. They can be set up for students as well as educators to connect with each other, enabling individuals and teams to work together to improve education on a variety of levels.

1. Navigation panel — The navigation panel on the left side of your course pages allows you to access the different areas of your group, such as Updates, Discussions and Group Resources
2. Center Column —This column shows the page you are viewing based on the left side navigation.
3. Upcoming —The Upcoming column shows your group events in chronological order. Clicking on the Calendar icon in the Upcoming column allows all Group members to see the shared Group Calendar in the month view.

Resources

The Resource Center is a centralized place where all of your instructional and professional development materials are kept. It is closely tied to your courses and your groups.

You can import files, create new resources, and copy or move them into any or all of or your courses quickly from the Resource Center. You can also share resources with your groups and download them from our Public Resource Library. Any course materials, folders, and even entire courses can be copied in your resources for use on a later date

1. Navigation Panel — This allows you to navigate around the Resources area of Schoology. 
   1. Personal: This contains the files, course materials, learning objectives and question banks you have saved to your Resources. Only you are able to access this area.
   2. Public: Public Resources allow you to share resources with the rest of the Schoology community. 
   3. Groups: You can access items you share in the Resources area of your Groups from this area, or by navigating to the Group itself.
   4. Apps: Install and access Resource Apps here.
   5. Assessment: View, administer, and organize Managed Assessments (if available).
2. Menu Column — This column shows the menu of contents of the Resources area you are viewing based on the left side navigation.
3. Resources View — This is where you can create, view, edit, and manage all your instructional resources.