User:EcoFuror/sandbox/Edsby

Edsby is a cloud-based software application that combines social networking with class and student management features. It is a learning management system for K-12 students, educators and parents.

Edsby, originally named CoreFour, was founded in April 2010 by the three original founders and architects of the FirstClass software application, cited as the first modern learning management system along with a longtime co-worker. 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.

In 2016, the product introduced data aggregation and analytics features. In 2018, it introduced ways for educators to capture and report multimedia evidence of learning.

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 per-user conventional software as a service 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.

Edsby has partnered with Microsoft and makes its service available on the Microsoft Azure cloud service worldwide. Microsoft has enhanced its OneNote application to support easy entry of grades into the Edsby gradebook.

Edsby is privately held. The company has acknowledged one funding round of around two million US dollars.

Customers
One significant Edsby site is the school district of Hillsborough County Public Schools. Edsby is deployed to all of the 215,000 students and 15,000 teachers at 260 schools in the district. Edsby replaced a more expensive system, Edline, in September 2013 for grade books and parent engagement. Educator reaction has been positive, with some end-user grousing. Another large single customer is the 122,000-student York Region District School Board, where Edsby is used district-wide for parent communication and student assessment and reporting.

District-wide deployments with other school systems include 34,000 students and 3,450 staff at Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board. The Greater Essex County District School Board has also adopted Edsby for its 35,000 students and their parents.

Awards

 * 2017 SIIA CODiE Award, Best Education Data Solution
 * 2016 District Administration Top 100 product
 * 2016 THE Journal Reader's Choice awards: Most Valuable In Your Schools & Top 10 Favorite Technologies Currently Used
 * 2016 Tech & Learning Award of Excellence
 * 2016 SIIA CODiE Award, Best Classroom Management Solution
 * 2015 District Administration Readers’ Choice Top Products
 * 2015 EdTech Digest top LMS of 2015 "Cool Tool" Award
 * 2014-2015 eSchool News Readers’ Choice Award
 * 2014 District Administration's Readers’ Choice Top 100 Products