Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
General
What is Edficiency?
Edficiency is an online software that simplifies flex period logistics for schools, allowing students to go to a different teacher + location each day during their flextime based on the biggest priority for each student. It creates daily class rosters for your RtI, enrichment, or intervention time, unique for each day, based on student and teacher requests. Then the system notifies each student of their daily assignment and shows teachers their daily roster upon logging in. It allows teachers and admin to focus on students, not logistics. Click here for more information.
What is a flex period or flextime?
A Flextime Period is a set time of the daily schedule (usually around 30 to 45 minutes) where students go somewhere different each day. Most commonly students go to different teachers for additional academic support or spend their time in a more traditional study hall, but it is also common for students to attend enrichment sessions, meet with an advisor, make up class assignments for days missed, participate in club meetings, and take part in other extracurricular activities, like playing sports. While these can look different in different schools, usually the purpose is similar: to give students more tailored academic support and express their agency by exploring their interests. To learn more about what Flextime Periods are, why they're important, and see how four schools implement them in their buildings, check out our What is a Flextime Period blog post here.
How does Edficiency work?
Teachers + administrators create sessions with choices about which students they want to be eligible or requested to attend. They also request to see individual students. At the same time, students request to see teachers. Then, while you sleep the night before, Edficiency takes all the requests and assigns students to the most important places first, and assigns the rest of students to teachers they know while balancing class sizes. That morning, students wake up with an email for their daily assignment and teachers log in to see their daily roster.
Is Edficiency easy to use?
Yes. We are excited to share that as of our 2019 survey of users, 94% of staff and 93% of students reported that Edficiency was easy to use, with many reporting that to be one of their favorite aspects of our software!
How do we access Edficiency?
You can access Edficiency through any device (e.g. computer, tablet, smartphone) that has a browser and an internet connection, though it does work best in Google Chrome. We do not currently have an app, but the website is designed to be responsive to use on each device.
How do students know where to go if that can change every day?
Students will receive an email every morning with the name of the session, teacher, and room they were assigned to for that day. They can also log in from any computer, tablet, or smartphone to find this information on their homepage. While this works in the vast majority of cases, all staff can lookup a daily assignment for any student in the building if needed.
What are the benefits of a flex period (or flex time more generally)?
Flex periods allow teachers and students to have more time together. Most often, we see interventions as the priority, but it is also common for enrichment and extra-curricular activities happen during this time. It’s often a way to avoid taking away from class time for any reason, so students are in class more. Additionally, on a recent survey, 83% of our users believed it led to an increase in student achievement, 50% believed it led to an increase in student attendance, and 73% believe it led to an increase in student engagement. For more information, check out our post on the 19 Benefits of Flex Periods.
What are the benefits of Edficiency?
Edficiency saves you time and automates the process of assigning students so your staff can focus on kids, not logistics. We intelligently place your entire student body, starting with the most important requests until every kid is assigned, even those that did not get requested by a teacher or request a session. Overwhelmingly, our schools also believe we’re easy to use.
Features, Training + Support
What happens if a student doesn't request to go anywhere and no teacher requests that student?
Don't worry. Edficiency will ensure all students have an assignment every day, even when no action is taken by that student and his/her teachers. After all special requests for the day have been honored, Edficiency will look at the remaining students needed to be assigned and the remaining seats left unfilled. Then it will assign each remaining student, working to match them with a teacher they have during the day and balancing class sizes as much as possible for teachers so none of them are over-burdened. This is part of what sets Edficiency apart from other systems.
Can groups of students be requested for or assigned to a session?
Absolutely. In fact, groups allow a lot of cool features. For instance, teachers can create groups and request the entire group for a session with a few easy clicks. Additionally, sessions can be limited to students in a certain group. Imagine you want to open up the Library to honors students. You can limit that session to students in the "honors" group. Then, when requesting sessions, only the "honors" group students will be able to see or request the Library.
Can sessions be limited to specific groups of students?
Yes! Sessions can be limited to students in a certain group. Common reasons they choose to do this would be a private study hall for only a specific group (like honors students), a club meeting, or an assembly for a specific grade of students. When students go to sign up for sessions, only those students in the associated group will see it as an option.
What training is required?
Not a lot. Office staff and teachers will need some basic training, and a "train the trainer" session will go a long way. The student interface is so simple that a 10-minute session with a classroom teacher should be more than sufficient. Additionally, you will have access to a series of training videos that address nearly every aspect of the system so that teachers can access the learning they want when they’re ready.
What does customer support look like?
We take customer support very seriously. We regularly get feedback from our schools that we are quick to respond to questions and thoughtful in implementing customer feedback or feature requests. You are always welcome to call or email us, depending on which is most convenient for you.
Data + Privacy
What information (or data) does Edficiency require to work?
Edficiency intentionally requires very little information. All Edficiency requires are names, email addresses, and ID numbers for your staff and students, as well as the locations throughout your building that you’d like sessions to take place in. Edficiency will save you more time as you make connections between this information in the system (e.g. tell it which students have which teachers or what room a teacher usually holds sessions in).
What is your data privacy policy?
We take data security very seriously, which is in part why we require little information to operate. We are compliant with the United States Department of Education’s Privacy Technical Assistance Center (PTAC) and a signatory of the Future of Privacy Forum's Student Privacy Pledge. As many states continue to develop their own data privacy agreements (DPAs), we continue to ensure we are in line with those as well. As of early 2020, we have signed agreements in Utah and California (including Exhibit E). We are also designated as Comodo Secure, which indicates that the website owner has made customer security a top priority by securely encrypting all their transactions. Additionally, you can see our full data privacy policy here.
Pricing
What does Edficiency cost?
A few factors, including frequency of use and, most significantly, the average student enrollment of your school, determine the cost for each site. We strive to be as affordable as possible while ensuring we have a great product and like to pass off savings to schools when we can. Currently, as of June 2020, we offer discounts based on the number of students on our platform across a district and credits for schools that provide referrals to schools in other districts we do not yet work with. Please click the button below if you'd like to receive a quote to better understand the pricing for your specific school site.