A large school district that uses Edsby for all its students, parents and teachers is one of three places K-12 learning management systems (LMSes) are being used in innovative ways, writes eSchool News.

In an article titled 3 LMS adoptions that go way beyond the basics, the publication highlights what it thinks are interesting applications of LMS technology.

At Greater Essex County District School Board (GECSDB) in Ontario, previous use of a number of other systems required students, parents and teachers to use multiple usernames, logins, and platforms to retrieve information, the reporter writes. The district of 35,000 students, 57 elementary schools, and 15 secondary schools recently moved over to Edsby.

“My daughter had five logins during her final year of high school,” said John Howitt, superintendent. On a mission to “reduce the number of places people have to go for information,” he said the board has been working to consolidate its learning management systems. As part of that mission, GECDSB also wanted to integrate its student information system in a new, centralized LMS.

A significant factor in the district’s choice of Edsby was that it could “wrap around” the district’s existing student information system, or SIS, according to the article. District decision-makers also liked that the platform’s developers previously developed FirstClass, an email and collaboration system used by the district for 15 years.

According to the superintendent, Edsby’s groups features are even more powerful than the groups popular in FirstClass, offering “a similar ‘group’ conference capability, mixed in with a ‘bit of a Facebook-wall kind of feel,’ said Howitt.”

Using the timetable that’s built into the SIS, for example, ninth-grade science teachers are automatically placed in collaborative “groups” that allow them to pose questions about the curriculum, share resources, and interact without have to send out email messages to the entire group.

Read the article in its entirety here.