Edsby Reviews

Pros
I appreciate the interconnectedness of all features and the flexibility of features. The features strongly support teaching practices through Ministry outlined documents such as "Growing Success". The Classroom (Parent & Students), and gradebook are very powerful features. The team is quick to apply feedback to make improvements to workflow and many time-saving features. Edsby offers the ability to collect qualitative data and process it quickly and easily in a manner that students, teachers and parents can understand. The capacity of the calendars and classroom river feeds far surpass many other platforms currently available. Students can have access to a modern classroom and new ways of learning that will support their learning immediately and in the real world.

Cons
The software often has bugs, and difficulty running some scripts. The platform sometimes creates redundancies through teachers and students. The number of redundancies sometimes make it difficult(slow) to use the platform efficiently. Ex. The form to adjust staff assignments and student assignments cannot be edited by admin since it can only be opened to all schools. Staff have access to more student records and other staff records that they should not. Looking forward to a sufficient solution to this problem and more consideration for classrooms that have different structures (ex. Special Education, students with modified schedules or schedules that are continuing to change).

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 7/10

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.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 9/10

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.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
Last year I started putting all my lesson information (Learning Objective, Bellwork and Classwork) in the Journal - every day. I declared the Unit for every lesson. This was in lieu of just posting to the student wall. The HUGE benefit was that since I am teaching the SAME class I did last year I am able to go to my class from last year, go into the journal, and Copy an entire Unit to my current class! It copies everything including assessments. It does give me the option to de-select any posts I do not want to copy forward; and I can choose to copy specific posts weather it be multiple posts or a single post. Once it is copied forward to my new class, I modify it as needed for my current class. All content is copied forward including active links and uploaded files (videos, documents, etc.)

Cons
I don't like that I have been unable to "Paste" the previous year's journal on a specific date; so I move the post to the correct date by dragging and dropping to the correct date. I would like to see more flexibility with it's printing of rosters - print EACH class with one click instead of having to go into every class. Also perhaps have a way of automatically add column headings of Mon-Fri …

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 8/10

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.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
Edsby is an all in one solution. I use it for quizzes, rubrics, grade managing and reporting, sharing authentic online resources and scheduling. I love the fact that I can have students write a self-correcting quiz that automatically shows up in the Gradebook module. I have instant access to all my students' contact information, allowing me to easily contact them through messaging. Even though Edsby has a file management system, I can easily integrate Google Drive and other tools within it. It has made one step to closer to the paperless classroom easier. Edsby allows my students and I to stay organised and content and structure can easily be imported into the next school semester/year.

Cons
Some glitches are still present in the quiz maker where auto-saving sometimes corrupts the layout of the quiz. Attached files in quizzes get removed when transferring quizzes between folders. The end of unit/cycle names aren't visible in some-drop down menus if they are too long. Self-populating expectations no longer show up when you enter the expectation codes corresponding to them in the assessment creator. All these are minor glitches that can be ironed out through the customer service ticket system.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
Meets our government regulatory compliance requirements. Awesome gradebook. Solid report cards. Pulls parent contact information, student contact information, teacher contact information, rooms and schedules from our SIS nightly. Changes are not updated in real time, but are updated within one day.

Cons
New features and updates are rolled out seemingly at the last minute. (ie 7pm notification of an overnight upgrade). Does not match the school year. Pull integration only with our SIS. Rigid roles. Parent account creation for parents that we want to authenticate with AD is problematic. Support department is only 2 people. Attendance is difficult. Does not allow users with multiple roles, ie teacher who is also a parent. Developments don't necessarily match school year. Lacks a threaded discussion board. Planning does not support backwards design. Calendars do not at this point have iCal feeds. No internal auditing of planned absences, so if a planned absence exists for a group or a class, if there is a change in the enrollment of the group or class, the planned absence is not modified for the user who changed enrollment. No list of known issues.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 8/10

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.

Rating breakdown

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.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 9/10

Rating breakdown

Pros
-Edsby effectively aggregates all my school-related info in one place - the class page is the most useful in showing lesson content, unit plans, daily journals, and upcoming assessments on one page -I can (obsessively) check my current grades for any class at any time -It's easy to keep up with school news and extracurriculars in different groups -Office Online integration enables me to view Word/PowerPoint/Excel documents without having the desktop apps installed

Cons
-Certain features from the August 2018 update are undeveloped, such as the Emoji confidence indicator and document preview in the Content library -The iOS app feels slow and buggy; it can take several seconds to load some class pages or groups

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 9/10

Pros
I like the fact that I can communicate with students and parents in terms of due dates, test dates, missed work (I post what I do in class everyday and attach any assignments), as well as progress in the course (missing assignments, marked assignments, etc.).

Cons
I don't like how I can't enter multiple mark sets at time. I also wish there were attendance sheets with dates at the top (not the blank mark sheets). I also wish we could make our own names for what goes in the mark bucket (the drop-down list is good, but I wish I could choose the names of some of my items - example: "Fitness" for phys ed class). I wish there was a save function for report carding because I've had it happen where I've lost my internet connection and therefore, lost my recent comments for students.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 8/10

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.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
I like the organization of the Course plan as I appreciate the daily record of my notes and resources. I appreciate the interactive aspect of the wall for classroom participation. It's helpful that handouts can be posted to reduce photocopy waste especially since students often interact comfortably with online text.

Cons
The online platform that I used to use for my class website was a lot more visually appealing. The Grade book aspect is a little not-userfriendly and has less functionality that the previous program I used. I would REALLY appreciate the ability to separate formative assessment from summative. For example, I like to use the online multiple choice questions the gauge their thinking as we go; however, when I am looking at their marks, I do not want them to be included. It is significant enough that I will either stop using the online quizzes or I will choose another software for keeping track of marks.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 8/10

Pros
The all-in-one functionality of Edsby is most helpful. Grade book, attendance, announcements, calendar, parent and student records/communication, seating plans, library of course material and bulletins for overarching course goals.

Cons
The Library does not serve me. I have to reupload my course material every time I teach the course, even if I'm teaching the same course twice in the same semester. I have to delete auto-posted files from the feed that end up in the library otherwise it will become quickly over-run, confusing and ineffective as a communicative tool.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 8/10

Pros
Gradebook Messages Posting of Class content for reference Parent accounts

Cons
Unexpected changes - I know they get announced to us, and this is part of development How cumbersome it can be for parents to create an account and link to their students The mobile apps need upgraded in view and performance

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 9/10

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.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 9/10

Pros
Edsby is very handy for grading and communicating with teachers, students and parents. It is essentially a social media platform that has been designed for a school community. I really like how functional the grade book is and how students can see their grades in realtime. The messaging and search features are also excellent and help keep everyone up to speed.

Cons
There are some bugs in some of the newer features like quizzes and polls.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 8/10

Rating breakdown

Pros
Edsby does an incredible job of making it easy to allow students and parents to see what is happening in class as access documents from class while away from school. It is a great place for teachers to be able to record grades, conversations and observations, which is required by the ministry. It is very user friendly and allows for most of the school needs to be in one place.

Cons
The grade book is wonderful to have, however many of my staff would love to be able to print out individual documents to share with parents or an easy way to print out the grade book.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
It has everything in one: class lists, marking, calculating, parent communication, groups for student communication, at a glance information.

Cons
I kept may marks on Edsby and had a student move away out of province. His profile immediately disappeared. When there were questions and issues about his marks from the new school, I was unable to provide history. When I wrote for support, I received no response.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
As the School IT Admin, Edsby takes care of many details that I do not have to. This frees me to deal with local on-site concerns. As a teacher, I absolutely love the Gradebook, the Classroom Journal, and the Library. These features allow me to have all of my materials in one place. I can go online just about anywhere and access my work. The journal also allows students to stay up-to-date if they are away, and they can have access to any work that was covered that day.

Cons
As a teacher, I really appreciate integration of student work and the Gradebook. Unfortunately, I have had too many experiences when students are unable to submit their work from their Google Drive.

Rating breakdown

Pros
User friendly and intuitive. It's a great communication tool to connect with parents, too, as they can see feedback. I like that I can make observations about students and record anecdotal notes.

Cons
Uploading documents to attach to lesson plans rarely works--I often type a whole lesson and then when I try to attach resources it doesn't work and I have to eventually close and then my lesson isn't saved. I don't like that I can't print my lessons, either. I've asked several times for this to be an option.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 7/10

Pros
What I like most about Edsby is the ease of use for teachers and students. This year, I've been working to save time and money with limiting photocopies. By posting work on Edsby, the students can view the assignment without printing. The students can complete the assignments and submit it online without any additional system. This software works great and it is a great communication tool.

Cons
It is difficult to modify grades on a mobile device. In addition, I've request a gradebook filter so that teachers do not have to view the entire gradebook. It would be nice to have a filter for each grading period.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
The program is visual and easy to use. There is an APP so students have easy access to information AND less paper is required eg. homework handouts, timetables. etc. The parents can easily access their child's school information (attendance, marks, etc.)

Cons
One can't do a search within the posts in a group Information doesn't always sync correctly from our main database.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 9/10