Edsby

Pros

Clear and easy to use.
Accessible in mobile and regular format.
"One-stop shopping" for your educational communication: space for anecdotal and numerical grades, ability to communicate directly with students and or parents, attendance entry and communication with the office.
Edsby allows parents to monitor their child's completion of assignments, grades, and what has happened each day in class. Students who are away on family vacations or sports trips can keep track of what happens in class. Teachers can post handouts as well, giving students the ability to complete homework even if they forget a binder at school.
Simple and clear format.

Cons

I am generally pleased with how Edsby works. Any complaints I have are with small details. For example, the reportcard portion of Edsby lacks some of the features of a dedicated gradebook program. Also, I asked the customer service message board if there was a way to print out the curriculum expectations that we select for assignments (which are already in Edsby) at the end of semester, but have not received a response - customer service was much more responsive a few years ago.

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

I like the ability to be able to copy an assignment to multiple classes rather than creating it multiple times. I also like the ability to create assignments student can complete online with auto grading. That is a huge time saver.

Cons

There were quite a few things that could be improved. The reporting of progress alerts was not the best and the presentation of a line graph as the first view for students as opposed to actually seeing the list of assessments with scores was always problematic. Many students never figure out to click on the next tab and never had a good grasp on their scores. Also, there were some features that were really handy that I NEVER knew about in 3 years of using this product, until all the e-learning took place and there became a sea of information to sort through. Although overall a decent product, I could continue...

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

Edsby offers a very successful communication tool to schools. Edsby links, Administrators, Teachers, Students and Parents with day to day knowledge of the academic and personal progress of students.

Cons

With COVID 19 is would be great if Edsby could integrate Edusafe Screening with their program.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Switching to Edsby