Edsby Reviews

Pros

The ease and familiarity of a social media platform with the security and transparency of educational software. I can respond to my students questions from anywhere in the world at anytime and I know that our interaction is transparent for their security and mine.

Cons

The gradebook takes some getting used to and doesn't have all of the functionality of a dedicated platform.

Pros

The company is based in Ontario, Canada and focuses on K-12 education which is exactly where my school lands. As a result, many of the changes and customization are geared towards my school. Most the major LMS companies are based in the US so their focus is naturally there.

Cons

It seems like the number of customer service staff has not grown at a rate that can accommodate the number of clients that Edsby is accumulating. This has resulted in excruciatingly slow response times, especially around September and October.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Choosing Edsby

Switched From

Reasons for Switching to Edsby

Pros

Generally intuitive and clear. Student and parent contact info is easy to find. Posts are easy to make.

Cons

It is remarkably easy to get lost or miss important items as a user of any type (teacher, student or parent). There is no ability to prioritise certain classes or threads, and the only way to post items is in the rolling general chat thread. The pinned item space is a limited area in the left margin, so to find anything you have to (1) go into the correct class/course and (2) scroll down past all other posts (including student chatter) to hopefully find the right thing in the timeline.
If students or teachers are registered for multiple classes, there is no way to pin, prioritize or re-organize the order of classes, either for yourself or for your students. This means that 'Homeroom' is buried under a mountain of inactive classes or classes I'm no longer teaching.

Pros

The set up is very easy, the functionality is incredible, and the end user experience is great. Whenever I show new teachers how to use Edsby, they are amazed at how simple it is and just how many features they can use to enhance their classroom experience.

Cons

There are a few customizations that would be helpful - the messaging feature could be improved with the storing of messages in folders for easier access for example.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Choosing Edsby

Reasons for Switching to Edsby

Pros

Its the best platform for students. We don't need to provide Mailbox to the users. They can see all school activities on Edbsy. They can communicate with anyone in organization.

Cons

Sometimes it gets really slow. In general support is great but when we need a timeline to resolve the problem, they don't have it. It takes some times to get the new release out.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Switching to Edsby

Pros

1. Intuitive layout
2. Very user-friendly for both teachers and students
3. The ability to incorporate various attachment formats such as .jpeg hyperlinks and .wmv files

Cons

I wish when accessing assignments for marking in the grade book the list on the right-hand side would show I have marked it and not require I click on the assignment on the list on the right in order to affect the number of unmarked assignments. I open the assignment and add comments by clicking on the assignment from the list on the grade book screen.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Switching to Edsby

Pros

The connections that it allows among families, students, teachers and administrators.

The overall look makes sense with grades on one side, the feed in the centre and the courses and libraries on the other side. It is easy to read and fairly intuitive.

As an administrator, I like that I can see most everything so with one piece of software, I can get a good sense of what is going on overall but I also can get granularity, as I need.

I like the ability to Broadcast messages.

I like the ability to get an overview of a student, current as well as past, and a peek into the future re: courses and grades.

The Report Card feature works well.

Cons

NUMBER 1 by far: There are no administrative master switches to do things such as turn off all grades or make them universally the same for all classes. There are certain times of the year that the look for parents and students should be the same. I either have to get each teacher to do it or give someone access to get it done for everyone. This is annoying.

The inability for Edsby to change from day to day re: schedules - so attendance is often difficult to get correct. There is not enough flexibility to do so on our end. So the entire product looks shoddy to parents and students because times are rarely correct. It is tough for our attendance person to determine who is at school and who is not.

The calendar is cumbersome. It takes too long to enter items and it is no easy to read. We have to use a separate calendar system.

Messages are difficult to sort through (though the new sort feature is a great addition).

Looking at past semesters is not easy. There are too many clicks. A single screen with all past grades and links from it would be much better.

Pros

Edsby is a one-stop shop for educators. It combines all the basic everyday functions, like taking attendance, updating daybooks/lesson plans (journal), and assessing learning, into one convenient place. The journal feature is especially useful as it allows students to follow along with a course if they are absent, saving teachers from needing a "what you missed" folder. In the journal entry, teachers can type up the class agenda, include links to resources, and attach any necessary documents. For evaluation, the Edsby Gradebook allows teachers to set up course breakdowns at the beginning of the year (easily copy from one section to another) and then create a wide variety of assessments that directly get entered into the Gradebook or formative assessments that allow educators and students to track learning over time without impacting a grade. Edsby also allows users to select various methods of assessing learning, such as letter grades, percentages, learning skills, creating rubrics, or simply entering a "mark out of". Then a variety of reporting formats are available, including generating a report of incomplete assignments or filling in report card comments. Edsby also allows for creating whole courses that can be shared between teachers, a feature I am still exploring. Outside of courses, Edsby's groups allow for collaboration between teachers and students. Professional Learning Communities are especially useful and allow teachers to share resources.

Cons

Though Edsby's messaging feature is convenient for communicating with students and parents, the interface is not as well organized or sophisticated as other messaging platforms. Not being able to sort chats, rename a group message, or thread messages makes it difficult to organize messages.
The Edsby phone app is also difficult to use. The interface is clunky, making it difficult to navigate to the pages one is looking for.

Pros

Edsby is an educator's dream tool for the classroom. It is an online system that provides the opportunity to plan, create, support and stay connected to each student and their family. Uploaded grades in the Edsby grade book are live as they are shared with a click so students have access to their overall grades at all times. Students have access to their results all semester long versus waiting for midterm and final reports. This enables students to access their learning outcomes and goals while gaining a better understanding of course weighting. As an educator, you can send a broadcast out to students and their parents to update them on upcoming field trips, projects and learning goals. A daily journal keeps students focused on what needs to be submitted as well as insight for students who may miss a day of classes. Edsby interconnects every aspect of learning in the classroom into one multifaceted online program to support the entire educational journey for both the student and the teacher.

Cons

The learning curve was not that hard and it did not take long to integrate this into our school community Looking back it was worth the effort to get everyone on board.

Pros

As a parent, I want to be able to see everything my students are doing quickly and easily. Edsby allows easy access to all of my students (I have 4 at 4 different schools!) from one dashboard for any grade level. It doesn't matter if I'm on the mobile app or in the browser, the information is easy to access. I can also reach out directly to their teachers. Recent updates have also enabled push notifications about class updates and messaging. My students enjoy it too as it makes it easy for them to keep up to date on what's going on in their classes - NO MORE SURPRISES!
As a district software administrator, Edsby is incredibly easy to manage. The super search feature allows me to quickly and easily access student or teacher information when assisting schools with troubleshooting questions. Granular permissions make sure that the correct people have access to the correct information and not more than they need. EdsbyLink ensures that data imports match our current Student Information System.

Cons

New features come fast! Its hard to keep teachers informed of new features as they arrive and help them use the features to their fullest capabilities.

Pros

I loved the pedagogical documentation features.I can take a picture or a video of my student and all their hands on work. This is work that when my students would finish, it would be lost, the manipulatives would be placed in bins and their thinking would not be documented unless I would go around and had enough time to take anecdotal notes for all students on that project. Edsby saves me time, helps me organise my students work, values students voice and participation, helps record all of the assessment as learning done in the classroom.

Cons

I feel that the planner feature needs a lot of improvements. I would love to do all my planning online and then have a potential supply have direct access to them before coming to my classroom. It would also be a great tool to creating equitable working environments where all teachers use the same planners and are not "judged" on their technological literacy.

Pros

Layout is standard across the board for every subjects for students.

Cons

Every time, when you move a unit, the assignments due date within the unit change to a default time due at 12:00 am. Best if the assignments due time default to at the end of the school date (3:45 pm or 4 pm) make more sense.

When updating entries in "Planner" the screen does not stay at the date that was updated. Instead, it moves to the beginning of the school year. Very annoying that I have to scroll back down.

Pros

VERY Student Friendly. Kids can easily navigate and find work

Cons

I wish the weighting of assignments and not just the points that could be scored.

Pros

Easy to use and view all schoolwork. Stay on top of my children's daily work and know what their grades are.

Cons

When you open an individual class it will not allow you to view the graph and assignments at the same time. Instead you have to go back to the class to open them individually. It makes viewing much slower. It would be easier if once at the class you could view both.

Pros

It's pretty easy to use. Similar layout to Facebook, which most parents are familiar with. Students can login pretty easily and get around.

Cons

Tech glitches: signing on via iphone app, parents being able to post replies to posts, parents getting personal messages sent, etc.

Pros

Edsby gives us the ability to connect learners, parents and teachers so that all parties can rally behind the learning and experience of students. It is easy to use and yet has depth which allows our savvy teachers to continue to discover and share features.

Cons

There are always ways in which Edsby needs to adjust to new circumstances, but they are quite adept at responding to these new challenges.

Pros

Students can get assignments and information from the class. Parents can view when assignments and tests are due. Parents and students can follow their progression in the class, which prevents surprises at the end of the semester. Easy messaging system for staff, students and parents.

Cons

Sometimes students rely on the information on Edsby too much and don't take responsibility for their own keeping track of assignments. As an administrator, it seems like I can't get rid of old groups which then clutters the management page of groups

Pros

I like preparing exams on the site that can be graded automatically and sent to the grade book. I like that they can be timed or not. The fact that a teacher could build a huge library of tests that simply are dropped in to the right spot at the right time is very efficient.

Cons

There are a lot of steps and boxes to tick when using the exam bank capability.

Pros

Teachers can take attendance and send it to the office easily. I like being able to send messages to students and parents.

Cons

It is hard to find a thread of conversation in messages and I am not able to forward a message to someone or add a person to the conversation thread. It is sometimes difficult to maneuver from student to student when comparing or updating information. The same for parents.

Pros

I like the features that allow me and my students to communicate feedback and check progress of activiites. Students and I can record multimple evidences of learning and create conversations based on the evidence gathered.

Cons

Sometimes uploading times and response of server is slow.

Pros

I like that there were options for students to have digital assignments. I like the “poll” options. I like that it is easy to communicate with my students and other teachers.

Cons

I would have liked to make a way to transfer grades when a student transfers classes.

Pros

I love that teachers, students, parents, and school staff can easily get updates from school administration, check attendance, see grades and course material, all in one place. The user interface is very intuitive, and a great way to disseminate news. It's also a great place for teachers to upload assignments and course material - and the students can access it from anywhere!

Cons

Students want to know how many community involvement hours they have, and Edsby has no means of tracking and communicating this.

Pros

Easy navigation and addresses most pressing needs a school has regarding communications and tracking. Plays nice with Maplewood!

Cons

Customer support is almost always excellent...but there are times when responses have been slow or problems lingered.

Pros

Gradebook is a game changer. The fact that it self-populates at report card time is amazing.

Cons

There are frequent problems with sending attachments to students.

Pros

Edsby is a LMS that in its most simplistic usage allows effective recording of grades and other classroom information. Once in place, it’s a constant communication tool between staff/parents/students with a user friendly interface.

Cons

It requires a dedicated trainee or a decent amount of tech support to customize beyond the most basic usage. Most end users outside the school never access most of the additional features. It is not easily used as a replacement for easier and faster SMS communications.