Edsby is an innovative, cloud-based platform purpose-built for K-12 that incorporates learning management, data aggregation and insightful analytics.
Edsby gives school districts, regions or national governments better student, teacher and parent engagement, improved educational outcomes and new insight into educational effectiveness. Unlike standalone LMS, data warehouse or business intelligence systems, Edsby has the tightest, most innovative connections to a district’s SIS/SMS and other key systems and data. It respects regional policies, terms and standards and data sovereignty needs. And, designed specifically for K-12, it includes features that make it great for junior grades, not just senior ones.
Pain Points/Needs:
Attendance Management; Augmentative & Alternative Communication; Classroom Management; Common Core Standards; Communication Utilities; Document Library; File Sharing; Gradebooks; Group Communication; Learning Management System; Learning Tools Interoperability; Lesson Plan Creators; Lesson Plans; News; Parent Collaboration; Portfolio Creators; Professional Development; Reporting Systems; School & University Info; Social Networking; Student Assessments; Teacher Collaboration; To-Do Lists; Video Content; Wiki Creators
Platform:
iOS, Android, Web
Walkthrough:
Once you’ve set up the account you can easily access the awesome features of the tool. Below I’ve explained how to go about it for each of the user:
From their home dashboard students can view their classes and respective grades, relative club or sports groups, upcoming assignments or school events, recent activities, class schedule and time table, and recent peer or teacher messages. The ‘pinned items’ or ‘library’ dashboard takes you to teacher-posted files, pictures, videos, links, and course plans relative to their classes. Via the messaging tool, student users can message each other, their groups, leave comments on posts, or privately message their teacher.
Teacher users view Edsby-organized, relevant, and recent conversations, upcoming class and school events, their class schedule, and an overview of student profiles, grades, and progress from their home dashboard. They post grades for students using the gradebook tool. They use the course plan template tool to create units, lessons, files, and assessments which are automatically uploaded to their respective students’ ‘Library.’ Using the messaging tool from their home dashboard they can message parents and students privately. Using drop down menus, teachers add homework and other assignments to the class calendar; Edsby automatically notifies students and places reminders on student dashboards. To view any student profile in more detail, teacher can search their name in the search bar at the top of their home dashboard interface, or hover over their picture in a comment or message feed to go directly to their student profile.
Parents view school events, important parent information, student school work and coursework all from their home dashboard. They use the messaging tool to message teachers and other parents.
For School Leaders and District Administration:
Administrators view all collected district student, parent, and teacher information from their ‘panorama’ dashboard. Similarly to teachers, they need only type in a student name in the search bar or click a student or teacher’s profile picture to be taken directly to their profile. From here they view calculated grade averages, student attendance records, and student class schedules. Using the calendar tool, administrators can schedule an absence for themselves or teachers, notifying the office and other administration staff ahead of time. From their home dashboard they can reset student usernames and passwords as in need, or contact parents and teachers via the messaging tool. From their ‘Zoom’ dashboard, administrators can also view administrative information for a particular school in the district such as the availability of maintenance workers, classes in session who have not submitted attendance records or free teachers who can substitute for other teachers. They use ‘facet’ on the left of their dashboard interface to set metrics. Faculty, staff, and groups who meet these metrics will appear in the dashboard feed for administrators to contact. Administrators can export all information from Edsby to Excel or other external document systems.
Pricing:
An amount of USD 5 per student an year is the annual license fee, plus one-time setup costs (connection to district student information, customization of Edsby report cards to match district report cards, etc.) of approx. $15k USD. Various options are available for additional cost, such as data archiving, parent/teacher conference scheduling, etc.
Usability:
Students, Teachers, Parents, School Leaders and Administration can use the platform in following ways:
Students: Use Edsby for checking grades and homework, collaborating in classes and access to their academic schedules, including extracurricular activities.
Teachers: Use Edsby for publishing course materials, performing assessments, recording attendance and sharing grades with students and simplifying parent communication.
Parents: Use Edsby for understanding students’ performance and workload, and communication (including approvals) with their schools.
School leaders: Use Edsby for identification of at-risk students, parent approval workflows, printing report cards and more.
District Administrators: Use Edsby for realtime analysis of student success district wide and resource planning.
Awards and Accolades:
– 2016 SIIA ETIN Trendsetter with Traction
– 2016 Microsoft Education Partner of the Year Finalist
– 2016 SIIA CODiE Award – Best Classroom Management Solution
– 2016 EdTech Digest Annual Awards Finalist – Best Learning Management System & Best Parent/Student Solution
– 2015 District Administration Readers’ Choice Top Products
– 2015 Getting Smart 28 Learning Platforms Smart List
– 2015-2016 Top 10 Next Generation Learning Management Systems
– 2015 EdTech Digest Annual Awards – Best Learning Management System
– 2015 SIIA CODiE Award Finalist – Best Classroom Management Solution
….. And many more.
In our opinion this is a cool tool that keeps parents, students, teachers and administration in a loop paving ways to stay informed for the overall wellbeing of students. The ease to use is another point that makes it a big hit among all.
Videos/Tutorials:
