Teacher Quickstart

Edsby is designed to meet the needs of K-12 teachers with tools that are purpose-built to help teachers keep track of what’s important. Edsby fosters parent engagement, classroom management, and assessment and reporting practices.

Jump to a Section

Getting Started

Edsby Mobile App
Logging In
Setting Up Notifications

Home Screen

News
Personal Calendar
Recent Activity

Classes

Printing a Class Roster
Creating Content in Your Class
Using the Content Builder

Assessing Student Performance

Attendance
Gradebook
Evidence of Learning
Learning Story
Portfolio
Report Cards

Edsby Messages
Edsby Groups
Zooms

My Students Zoom
My Parents Zoom

Sending Bulk Messages

Getting Started

Downloading the Edsby App

In addition to accessing Edsby through a desktop or mobile browser, teachers can keep up-to-date with Edsby on their mobile device by using the Edsby Mobile App freely available on Google Play and the App Store.


Click here for more information on using the Edsby Mobile App.

Logging In

Every Edsby system has a unique URL, or Edsby server address, like http://xxxx.edsby.com, where xxxx is unique to the school or district. This server address is also required for logging into the Edsby Mobile App.

In most cases, the username and password you use for other logins in your organization should work as your login credentials.

Ask your school if you need your school or district’s server address or your login credentials.

Click here for more information on logging into Edsby.

Setting Up Notifications

With so many things happening inside Edsby, it is important to stay organized and up-to-date.
Edsby makes this easy by enabling various notifications to ensure teachers are notified of the important things happening within their school, Classes, Calendars, and Groups.

Access your Notification Settings by clicking the drop-down arrow next to your name in Edsby. Select Settings from the menu.

Select Notifications from the menu.

This provides a form to select and update Notifications regarding your:

  1. Messages
  2. Edsby Activity Digest
  3. Personal Calendar
  4. Organization
  5. Classes
  6. Groups

You can choose to receive notifications through Email, Edsby, or straight to your mobile device.

Click here for more information on setting up Notifications.

Home Screen

The Home Screen is the hub of a teacher’s Edsby experience.
From here, you can check upcoming events and assessments in the Classes you teach, the school news, and new posts in Classes or Groups.

The Home Screen includes:

  1. Navigation Bar
  2. Access to the District page and School page
  3. Classes you are teaching based on those assigned in the SIS
  4. Any Applications associated with your account
  5. The News River
  6. Groups you are a member of
  7. Recent Activity regarding your students
  8. Your Personal Calendar that merges all events from your Classes, school, and Groups
  9. A panel with links to your On Calls and Duties, Students, Parents, Report Cards, and all Classes at the school

Navigation Bar

The Navigation Bar is displayed at the top of every page in Edsby and provides quick links for your Edsby Mailbox, your full-screen Personal Calendar, the Launchpad, Notifications, Edsby Analytics, and your Personal Folder.

  • The Mailbox includes all incoming and outgoing conversations from your Edsby inbox. When you receive a new message, a red bubble will appear on the mailbox icon.
  • Your Personal Calendar when accessed from the Navigation Bar, includes all dated events from Classes, Groups, and the school or district. It also includes upcoming assessments from Classes.
  • Key third-party websites and applications are integrated into Edsby through the Launchpad for quick access. Some examples include the school website, O365, and Google Docs.
  • If enabled through your Settings, new Notifications will appear next to the bell icon with a red bubble counter. Clicking the bell shows the notifications and removes the red bubble.
  • Edsby Analytics (if available at your school) enables teachers to gain academic insights from live Gradebook, standardized test results, LMS usage, and other school data.
  • The Personal Folder stores Rubrics and Question Sheets that have been saved from assessments in Edsby, as well as documents uploaded to the folder by the teacher. It does not get archived, so anything teachers upload to this folder will always be easily accessible to them in Edsby. Click here to learn more about the Personal Folder.

Clicking on your name in the right corner of the Navigation Bar opens a list of functions. You can change your Password, Language Preferences, and Notification Settings by selecting Settings.

When exploring Edsby for the first time, many of the features can seem overwhelming.

Click the blue question mark at the top right of any screen to start a tour. The tour will give a basic overview of the current page.

News

The News River at the top of your Home Screen combines the news from your district and all schools you teach at.

To submit an article to the News River, navigate to the School Page, and click Submit an Article.

For more information about submitting articles, click here.

Personal Calendar

Each teacher has their own personalized Edsby Calendar.
A triangle symbol in the calendar indicates the class, event, or assessment is in progress.

The Personal Calendar on your Home Screen includes:

  1. Assessments from Classes
  2. Scheduled Classes
  3. Class Events
  4. Personal Events you have created
  5. Group Events
  6. School Events

Take Attendance quickly for your class in session by clicking the Take Attendance button below the class name in your Personal Calendar.

Create a personal event by clicking the blue plus sign and filling out the form. This event is only visible to you.

Your Personal Calendar collates all calendar items from your classes, groups, and school. Other Calendars, for example, a Class Calendar, will only show events relevant to that class.

Each colour in an Edsby Calendar indicates specific events, assessments, or classes.

Scheduled Classes
Assessments or Class Events
Group Events
School Events
Personal Events

Recent Activity

The Recent Activity feed in the middle of the Home Screen below your My Groups Panel displays any observations made by staff members in the school about your students or any changes to the personal information of your students including medical alerts or IEPs.

Classes

On the left side of your Home Screen is the Classes Panel.
This panel provides a brief overview of the classes you teach, including:

  1. Name of Class
  2. Course Code
  3. Unread Counter indicating the number of new posts in the class
  4. Your picture
  5. Button to capture New Evidence for students in the class
  6. Report Card button to access the class Report Card if available

Access all Class Journals by clicking the pop-out arrow.

Enter a Class by clicking its name.

Inside a Class

The Class is the heart of how Edsby helps students and teachers. Every class includes an effective way for teachers to engage with students, create class content, and share important information.
Each class includes:

    1. A Teachers Panel
    2. Pinned Items
    3. Students Panel
    4. Content Panel where you can create class Content
    5. Class Feed
    6. Links to the class Evidence, Perspective, Planner, Attendance, Report Card, and more
    7. Class Calendar
  • Journal Panel displaying the most recent journal entries
  • Class Library for uploaded media

 

Printing a Class Roster

Edsby makes it easy for teachers to print a roster of their class.

Click the pop-out arrow in the Students Panel. Click Roster.


Set how many columns you want and if you would like to show column titles.
You can add titles or leave them blank to write in later.

When the template is correct, click Print.

Creating Content in the Class

The Class Feed enables teachers with access to quickly create notes, polls, events, assessments, or journal entries.

Notes

Notes are the most basic posts in the Edsby classroom. Consider posting a note to remind students to bring certain materials to class, study for their upcoming test or even link students to a Youtube video to supplement what they have learned in class.

Notes support images, documents, and links. Videos, Files, or Links added to Notes will be embedded in the Class Feed, meaning they can be accessed directly in the feed without having to go to the external resource.

Journals

Journals are useful for publishing day-to-day class content to keep students on track of what is happening right now in class and what needs to be done in the future.

Consider using the Journal to create a weekly summary of what is being taught and what students are working on. Include questions parents can ask or other suggestions for ways parents can extend learning at home.

Or consider creating Journals to outline units in each class. Include what will be taught, learning goals, or any expectations.

You can create Journals for the current day or for a day in the future. Journals made for the future will not appear in the class feed until the set date. Specify this in the Class Date section of the Journal form.

Assessments

Teachers can use Edsby to create assessments that are automatically linked to the Edsby Gradebook. The Assessment Form helps teachers organize everything pertaining to an assessment in one place – including learning goals, success criteria, relevant documents, and even learning standards (common core standards or ministry expectations).

Select File Upload to enable students to submit their assignments directly into Edsby. Any submissions made by students will automatically be linked to the class Gradebook.

Click here for more information about the Assessment Form.

Assessments can be made from the Planner, Class Feed, or the Content Builder. Click here for more information using the Planner.

Events

Events are the perfect way to share the date, time, and location of class and school activities with students. Consider creating events for field trips, special occasions, or scheduled extra-help sessions for a particular course.

Create a class event to add to the Class Calendar by clicking Event at the top of the Class Feed or by clicking the blue plus in the Class Calendar.

Note:

If you teach multiple classes and would like to post the content you create to more than one, try cross-posting by clicking the drop-down arrow at the bottom of a content form and selecting which classes to post to.

Using the Content Builder

The Edsby Content Builder enables teachers to create rich course content with embedded Edsby Objects in Classes.

Click Content to open the Content Builder. Click Edit in the top left to edit the Class Content.


Clicking the + next to an item in the Class Content provides you with a list of content items that can be added underneath the selected item including: units, sections, assessments, pages, links, lessons, journals, polls, and files.

Click here for more information on using the Content Builder in your class.

Click here for more information on Edsby Classes.

Assessing Student Performance

The Attendance, Gradebook, Evidence of Learning, Portfolio, and Learning Story tools make it easy for teachers to keep track of student performance.

All information Edsby has on a student’s performance in class is summarized for you to conveniently access while writing Report Cards.

Attendance

The Class Attendance Sheet is easily accessible from the Attendance button at the top of the Class.

Additionally, if the Class is in session or has already occurred, a button to Take Attendance will appear in your Personal and Class Calendar.

Mark the absent (A) and late (L) students by clicking the appropriate box. Add any needed comments. Any planned absences for students will be visible in the attendance sheet.

Click the Present column title to automatically mark the rest of the students as Present.

When you are finished, click Share with Office to send the Attendance Sheet to administration.

Click here for more information on attendance and planned absences.

Gradebook

Whenever you create an assessment in the Class Feed, Content Builder, or Planner, it is automatically added to the Class Gradebook.

You can grade assessments through the Gradebook and assign a performance indicator to each student.

You can also access student submissions, communicate with individual students regarding an assessment, and give feedback or comment on student work through the Gradebook.

The Overall Average in the Gradebook is calculated automatically, by considering the results and weighting of each assessment.

Click here to learn about changing the weighting in your Gradebook.

You can also create additional summary columns in your Gradebook. Learn about them here.

The Gradebook feed on the right of the page will keep you up-to-date on student submissions and questions for assessments. Unread notifications are highlighted in yellow.

Clicking on a notification opens a pop-up window with the student’s question or submission.

Click the name of an assessment in the Gradebook to bring up the detailed page of the assessment.

Click here for more information on using the Gradebook.

Evidence of Learning

Edsby’s Evidence of Learning system supports the assessment, evaluation, and reporting practices of K-12 teachers by providing purpose-built tools to capture learning evidence.

You can capture new evidence by clicking the New Evidence button in the Classes Panel.

Or, on a mobile phone or tablet, you can capture new evidence by clicking Evidence in the top of a class and clicking New Evidence.

Once gathered, evidence can be organized, analyzed, and shared with students and their parents.

Click here for more information on using evidence in the classroom.

Learning Story

When you first capture a piece of learning evidence regarding a student, it is private to the teacher.

However, you can share the evidence with the student and their parents if you choose. Students and their parents can view this evidence in the student’s Learning Story.

In the New Evidence form, select ‘Share with Student and Parent’.

The student’s Learning Story is accessible by clicking Learning Story under their Classes Panel on the browser.


On mobile, it is accessible by clicking Learning Story below the student’s name.

Portfolio

Sometimes academic and personal development is not fully represented through a grade.

This is where a student’s Portfolio comes in! Students and their teachers can upload outstanding class work, extracurricular accomplishments, or even a student’s goals to their Portfolio. A rich Portfolio becomes a great tool to reference for parent-teacher interviews.


Access a Student’s Portfolio by hovering over their name and clicking View Portfolio in their Mini-Profile.

Report Cards

During reporting periods set by Administrators, Report Cards on Edsby become available for editing and submission.

Access a specific class Report Card by clicking the Report Card button in the Classes Panel.

To view the Report Card sheets for all classes you teach, use the Report Cards Zoom.

Click a Report Card to open the sheet.

Edsby synthesizes all information entered by the teacher about a student and makes it conveniently available in the Report Card. This includes Gradebook grades, Observations, Standards, Evidence of Learning, and the student’s Attendance record.

To learn more about importing, creating, and inputting saved comments within Edsby Report Cards, click here.

When you are finished filling out the Report Card, click Submit to Office.

Once the Report Card sheet has been submitted, you can continue to make changes by clicking Unlock for Editing. However, once the due date has passed, you need to contact the Office to have the Report Card sheet unlocked.

During the Report Card editing process, the Report Card may be returned for Correction by the Office. This will unlock the sheet for editing again.

Click here for more information on completing Report Cards.

Edsby Messages

Edsby enables teachers to message students and other staff members in the school through Edsby Messages.

Access your Mailbox by clicking the envelope icon in the Navigation Bar.

You can compose a new message by clicking the Compose icon in the Mailbox.

You can also send bulk messages to groups of your students or their parents. Click here to learn more.

Edsby Groups

Groups help teachers, students, parents, and other staff focus on an activity or subject matter.

Groups are used for collaboration, communication, sharing resources, scheduling, and capturing group knowledge.

Your My Groups Panel on your Home Screen shows all groups you are a member of. Any unread group posts will be indicated by a red bubble.

Events from the Group Calendar are included in your Personal Calendar.

To browse more groups in the school, click Find More at the bottom right of your My Groups panel. Groups can be open or closed.

Closed groups have a lock next to the group name.

If a group is open, you can freely enter the group. To join the group and be notified of new posts, click Join in the top right of the group.

To join a closed group, click the group and fill out the request. A moderator of the group will review and confirm your request before you can officially join the group.

Review the status of your request in your Mailbox.

If you have been invited to a group, you are provided with options to Accept or Decline.

Note: There are some instances when you may be automatically added to a group like Staff Room, a study group for a specific class you teach, or a Lost and Found group. You cannot unsubscribe from groups you have been automatically subscribed to.

Creating a Group

Teachers and school administrators can create groups. After clicking Find More, click Create.

Fill out the group setup form.

Inside a Group

Groups include:

  1. Moderators
  2. Important Pinned Items
  3. Knowledge Base (the title can be changed later)
  4. Group Feed
  5. Active group Members – if enabled by the moderator, you can view all members of the group by clicking ‘View All Members’
  6. Group Calendar
  7. Library

Click here for more information on creating, managing, and using Edsby Groups.

Zooms

Edsby Zooms are dynamic lists of students and their parents involved in either the teacher’s classes or groups they are the moderator of.

These lists can be organized using filters.

Teachers have access to the My Students Zoom, My Parents Zoom, and Report Cards Zoom. These are found on the right side of the Home Screen.

My Students Zoom

The My Students Zoom provides important information about each of your student’s current class, academic performance, and activity on Edsby.

You can also see when the parents of your students have last accessed Edsby.

Some students may have risk indicators, which help teachers identify those who may be struggling at school. This includes failing classes (1), receiving a Needs Improvement for their subjective performance indicator in class (2), and repetitive lates or absences (3).

Click here for more information on the My Students Zoom.

My Parents Zoom

The My Parents Zoom shows the parents of all students who are part of your classes or groups.

Contact information, the parent’s relationship to the student, and their last activity in Edsby are included in the Zoom.


One of the best ways to create lists of parents is to filter by class.
Filtering by class makes it easy to send bulk messages to parents of children in the filtered class.

Sending Bulk Messages

To send bulk messages, filter to the desired subset of students or parents.

Click the drop-down arrow and select Message Parents.

In some cases, you may want to send the same message to select parents or students from your classes or groups. Click the gear at the top right corner of the screen after filtering and select who to send the message to.

Then, click the drop-down arrow and select message options.

Click here for more information on the My Parents Zoom.