Edsby September 2024 update

Edsby has added many new features in recent months. Our focus for September 2024 includes significant updates in key product areas: Class Groups, Gradebooks, Evidence and Report Cards.

Not all new features will be available to users immediately. It’s up to individual schools or districts/regions when or if they choose to introduce specific new Edsby capabilities. This list is here to help teachers and administrators plan, and to give end-users insight into new things you may see in Edsby soon, if not already.

To provide you with a deeper understanding of these changes, new documents and videos have been created to describe these new capabilities in more detail. These are all available in the help section of our website; click your role to see the resources available to you. Edsby support and other designated roles at customer sites can access the full list of September 2024 enhancements in a document available in the Edsby support portal.

New Features and Enhancements for Teachers

Class Groups

Classes have a new feature to support student collaboration with special groups created within a Class. The teacher can create groups that allow student participation, or to provide targeted resources to a group of students.

A teacher can also create Class Groups only visible to the teachers of the class. These hidden groups can be used to create individualized assessments.

Class Groups are accessed from a Class’ Students panel and are created through a new form. Permissions are also managed through the form, giving educators full control over group access and visibility.

In this example, the teacher has created Class Groups to enable students to collaborate on a group presentation. The teacher can access the groups by clicking on the group name.

Additionally, the teacher has created Class Groups based on the courses the students are enrolled in. These groups will be used to speed up the creation of assessments. The teacher can choose to keep these hidden from students.

Using Class Groups in assessments

The assessment form now gives the teacher the option of selecting a subset of students. If the teacher has created Class Groups, they will have the option to select one or more of the groups. If the assignment enables the students to submit a file, the teacher can choose to have one submission per group.

Edsby Evidence and single QR codes

Students can submit learning evidence to any class their teachers choose. Items submitted are immediately visible in the student’s own Learning Story and the teacher’s Evidence page. Parents only see the items once they are shared to their child’s Learning Story by the teacher.

Students now only need one QR code to submit to any class with evidence capture enabled. Students no longer need to scan different QR codes for different classes.

For example, a homeroom teacher can enable evidence submission in English, French, and Visual Arts and then provide each student with a single QR code. The code can be printed from either the English, French, or Visual Arts classes. The student scans the QR code, takes a photo or video, and then is presented with a list of valid classes. If only one class is enabled, no list is presented, the item is simply uploaded to the class.

Students submitting evidence through Edsby Capture can scan the QR code found in their Learning Story. Students can also choose to submit evidence through Edsby by selecting from a list of classes.

Idea Management System (coming soon)

An Idea Management System (IMS) is being incorporated into Edsby to enable teacher and district staff users to submit, vote for, and discuss feature requests with other teacher and district staff users and the Edsby team. The goal is a private, collaborative environment where the needs and preferences of educators and administrators can be effectively communicated and considered.

Students and parents do not have access. The system is not intended for bug reporting, so any technical issues should continue to be addressed through existing channels. Notification preferences can be set to stay updated on relevant discussions and developments.

Staff access the IMS from their personal menu in an Edsby browser login. Selecting “Suggest a new feature” will display a form to submit a new feature idea.

Edsby professional development modules

Edsby professional development curriculum has been created to support school staff, including teachers, school administrators, and attendance office personnel, in their understanding and use of the Edsby platform. These courses are presented using Edsby, within Edsby, and are self-paced, allowing participants to engage with the material at a time and pace that suits their schedules. More courses are to be developed over time.

Available modules are presented through the Group Recommender panel, ensuring that they are visible and readily accessible to those who may benefit from them. Once initiated or completed, modules appear in a user’s Group list for future reference.

Art Boards (coming soon)

Art Boards will soon be introduced as a richer way to capture evidence of student learning, as a dynamic new tool for educators. This feature will support templated activities, enabling a structured approach to documenting and sharing student work. Designed for versatility, Art Boards will be usable beyond the primary levels, making them suitable for various educational settings. Whether incorporated into lessons, shared through feed posts, or used in personal messages, Art Boards will provide a flexible and engaging way to enhance teaching and learning experiences.

AI assistant for teachers (coming soon)

Edsby has developed a new Teacher AI Assistant, a set of tools to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of educators in their daily tasks. These tools are available exclusively to staff. The development of this set of features has been guided by a commitment to security and privacy, prioritizing the protection of user data.

The AI tools offer a range of capabilities designed to assist educators in various aspects of their work. These include writing assistance that provides grammar and spell check, tone adjustments, content generation, and writing critique. Additionally, the assistant can generate progress narratives, summarize conversations, and translate languages, making it a versatile resource for educators.

In this illustration, the teacher has copied curriculum codes into a Note and used the AI assistant to create a student friendly version to post as the course outline.

Within the Grader, the teacher has asked for a list of spelling and grammar issues present in the student’s submitted PDF file.

These AI features are integrated into key areas such as class and group feed posts, replies, the gradebook, grading processes, report card comments, content building and quiz sheet generation.

The Teacher AI Assistant is currently in a limited beta phase and will be offered as an add-on service when available.

More information about Edsby’s Teacher AI Assistant here.

This feature is the first deliverable in Edsby’s larger vision of AI described here.

New Features and Enhancements for School Administrators

Correcting archived Report Cards Sheets

Corrections can now be made to archived Report Card Sheets. If the sheet is published, it can be corrected and republished. Republishing the sheet does not generate a notification. If the sheet was either submitted or approved, it can be returned to these states, but not published.

The Senior Admin or Office Head must first access the archives and then navigate to the Report Cards Zoom. Reporting periods from previous years are visible in the picker.

Attendance enhancements

Planned absences

Ongoing and upcoming planned absences are now included in a student’s Attendance List View.

Sign out

When the student is signed out, the current period’s attendance sheet will be updated to show an absence starting at the sign out time.

Changes to the Assistant Teacher role

The Assistant Teacher has been adjusted to better suit school-based employees who work in the classroom but should not have access to personal or academic information about students at the school.

• The Assistant Teacher can be added to a Class and when assigned the class-based role of Assistant has a read-only view of the class. The names of Assistants do not appear in the Teachers panel of the class.
• The role can be added to groups and will see any groups open to All Staff. This role cannot create groups.
• The role does not have access to any Zooms.
• The role can view the School page but cannot submit an article.
• The role can view the Profile page of any staff, student, or parent either through a search or by clicking on a name. The Profile page contains the user’s name and photo.

New class-based role added

A new class-based role called Assistant provides read-only access to a class. If a Teacher is assigned the class-based Assistant role, they can take attendance but will otherwise have read-only access. This can be useful for mentoring purposes.

Assigning the Assistant class-based role is the recommended choice for School admins or teachers when granting class access.

View of a class for the user role of Assistant Teacher and the class-based role of Assistant

When assigned to a class as an Assistant, the Assistant Teacher can view a read-only version of the class feed, Planner, Content, and Seating Plan. The Assistant Teacher has a reduced mini-profile. The availability of the Send Message option is controlled by the District.

View of a class for the user role of Teacher and the class-based role of Assistant

When assigned to a class, the Teacher can take attendance and view a read-only version of the class feed, Planner, Content, and Seating Plan. Those assigned the class-based role of Assistant are not listed in the Teachers panel. The mini profile is based on the Teacher role and remains unaffected by the class-based role.

This public document is an abstract of September 2024 Edsby platform enhancements. If you are a designed Edsby representative at an Edsby customer, view more complete details in a document at the Edsby support portal here.