Edsby
 | This article contains promotional content. (September 2018) |
| File:Edsby horizontal logo.png | |
| File:EdsbyScreenshot.jpg | |
| Type of business | Private |
|---|---|
Type of site | Learning management system, analytics, social networking, data aggregation |
| Founded | April 2010 |
| Created by | Steve Asbury, Jon Asbury, Scott Welch, John Myers |
| Key people | Steve Asbury, Jon Asbury, Scott Welch, John Myers |
| Industry | K-12 education |
| URL | www |
| Registration | Required |
| Users | Undisclosed |
| Current status | Active |
Edsby is a cloud-based software application that combines social networking with class and student management features. It is a learning management system with data aggregation and analytics features for K-12 students, teachers and parents.[1]
Edsby, originally named CoreFour, was founded in April 2010 by the three original founders and architects of the FirstClass software application,[2] along with a longtime co-worker.[3] It offers K-12 school districts various online social learning tools connected to their existing legacy systems, including gradebooks, attendance-taking, parent-teacher communication features, classroom management, content management and social classroom interaction.[4]
Business model
Edsby is sold only to K-12 school districts and not available as a free version. It sells its system directly to school districts and private schools and charges a traditional per-user fee annually. Edsby synchronizes bi-directionally with school districts' legacy student information systems and other systems and creates and manages classes, students, teachers and schedules by leveraging districts' existing databases, speeding deployment and district-wide adoption.[4]
Edsby has partnered with Microsoft and makes its service available on the Microsoft Azure cloud service worldwide.[5] Microsoft has enhanced its OneNote application to support easy entry of grades into the Edsby gradebook.[6]
Customers
One significant Edsby site is the school district of Hillsborough County Public Schools. Edsby is deployed to all of the 194,000 students and 15,000 teachers at 260 schools in the district.[7] Edsby replaced a more expensive system, Edline, in September 2013 for grade books and parent engagement. The company claims to serve approximately 20 million requests every day.[8] District educator reaction has been positive, with some end-user grousing.[9]
District-wide deployments with other school systems include 34,000 students and 3,450 staff at Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board[10] and 60,000 public school students at Halton District School Board.[11] The Greater Essex County District School Board has adopted Edsby for its 35,000 students and their parents, as has the District School Board of Niagara for its 36,000 students and their parents.[5]
In August, 2017, the company announced it had added half a million more paid users.[12]
References
- ^ "New Edsby Analytics Enable Unique Real-Time Insights for K-12 School Districts". PRWeb. 2016-06-27.
- ^ Ashok Sharma. "The History of Distance Learning and the LMS". ELH Online Learning Made Simple.
- ^ "Edsby takes home the top prize". Backbone Magazine. 2013-06-06.
- ^ a b "Edsby Gets Funding to Help Districts Deploy Social Learning Tools". EdSurge. 2014-01-21.
- ^ a b "Edsby LMS Finds Home in Canadian Districts and on Azure". 2016-02-08.
- ^ "Microsoft wants OneNote to be the go-to classroom app". Engadget. 2017-06-26.
- ^ "Hillsborough County Public Schools Selects Edsby Gradebook for District-wide Deployment". PRWeb. 2013-04-02.
- ^ "Data Shows Edsby Deployment at Hillsborough County Among Most Significant Learning Management Systems in K-12". PRWeb. 2015-01-29.
- ^ "Hillsborough school district rolls out Edsby grade book system". Tampa Bay Times. 2013-09-02.
- ^ "Edsby Selected by Kawartha Pine Ridge for District-wide Deployment". PRWeb. 2015-04-14.
- ^ "Halton District School Board Chooses Edsby to Enhance Student and Parent Communication". 2015-06-16.
- ^ "Edsby Platform for K-12 Adds a Half Million More School District Users" (Press release). EducationDive. 2017-08-02.