Registrar Review - moved over from Education Edge
Updated April 30, 2021

Registrar Review - moved over from Education Edge

Kirsten Mayers | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Blackbaud Education Management Solutions

We are currently migrating from Education Edge to the new Blackbaud Education Management Solutions. We will use it across the entire organization. Currently we do still use Canvas but may eventually use the LMS. We are using it across the Lower, Middle and Upper School. We also use the Enrollment Management System for the Admissions Department.

Pros

  • Ease of use is great. Easy to view the information by parent and student and easy to schedule. Very intuitive to use.
  • Great user interface. The parents are enjoying being able to get the information in an easy format. They can easily log on and see what class their student is in and their daily attendance.
  • As Registrar, I enjoy how easy it is to update a room change or enter in new comments or notes on a student's records.

Cons

  • Reporting - Hard to print out a schedule matrix like we did in Education Edge. The new K-12 system needs a report similar to the Master Schedule in Education Edge. They have one named that, but it is nothing like the old option. The ability to print a room matrix would be great.
  • Reporting - printing out actual student schedules. Improve the ability to print an A/B schedule for students.
  • Ability to query data like in Education Edge. This is absolutely a must. The ability to get data out of the system is horrible compared to the previous Education Edge product we used from Blackbaud.
  • The biggest problem we have run into is that the new system does not support a student changing sections from 1st term to 2nd term. We use final grades, so the terms must be combined into a single Final Course Grade. This is something that Education Edge easily supported. It should have been discovered and brought up before we converted to K-12. Blackbaud should have a list of functionality that will go away when you migrate to the new system. These are both Blackbaud owned systems and they should be more responsible.
  • Adjusting Schedules is faster for me and saves time.
  • Ability to enter in notes/comments is much faster than it was in Education Edge.
  • I have no idea what we are going to do for the Transcript. The new transcript builder flat out does not work - I am surprised that a company would even release a product like this that has obviously not been thoroughly tested. I was a QA Analyst in a previous life and this would never have gotten out of the door.
To date, I have had a very good experience. The support at the conference was excellent. I was able to get help creating and updating our report card with the new report card builder.

I have had minimal need for support so far because we are still working with our consultant. He is very accessible and helpful when needed. I wish the consultants were more quickly trained on some of the new features - for example, the report card builder and transcript builder.
Needs improvement in reporting and the ability to query. The reporting leaves a lot to be desired. If it could be half as good as Education Edge that would be a huge improvement. I need the ability to print a report that has the master schedule and fits on one page. We need this by room number and by teacher - similar to what was offered in Education Edge. The current version crosses pages and does not keep the header rows of the matrix - making it impossible to read.

Integrating Blackbaud Education Management Solutions

I have had no issues with the file imports or exports. This has worked well. I feel like they could build some additional queries or reporting that would improve the data analysis that is contained with in the system. This would help more non-technical users be able to pull the information they need quickly and easily.
  • None so far.
  • Canvas - pull grades automatically into grading
I think there is some integration between these two. Still need to investigate this more.
  • File import/export
I feel like they could build some additional queries or reporting that would improve the data analysis that is contained with in the system. This would help more non-technical users be able to pull the information they need quickly and easily. I often find myself having to pull data for other users.

Using Blackbaud Education Management Solutions

10 - Admissions , Registrar, Principals office (lower middle and upper), and the Tech team. We use the enrollment management system and student information system portions the most. Eventually we may consider adding in the Learning Management system as well.
3 - 
  • Technical
  • Knowledge of entire school
  • Ability to solve problems
  • Enrollment videos
  • Creation of student advisors in the upper school
  • Manage enrollment
  • Manage student records and information
  • Communication to students and parents
  • LMS
  • Gradebook integration
We are just starting and highly invested in our journey and partnership with Blackbaud. We have committed to this system and are finding new ways to incorporate it into our everyday tasks. For example, we now track ACT and SAT scores in the test section for each student. This allows the counselors to easily look up any students test scores in an instant.
Canvas

Evaluating Blackbaud Education Management Solutions and Competitors

Not Sure
  • Price
  • Product Features
  • Product Usability
I was not here when they were making the decision but I know that price and functionality played a huge part. We wanted a comprehensive solution that would create a one-place stop for all parents and students to get information regarding their experience at our school. We are still working towards this.
I would encourage the team to list out all the business requirements needed in the system prior to evaluating any new software. There are some things that were not discovered until after we had installed the new software. It would have been helpful to know this up front and evaluate whether there were alternatives or some business processes needed to be changed.

Blackbaud Education Management Solutions Support

ProsCons
Knowledgeable team
Immediate help available
Support cares about my success
Escalation required
Need to explain problems multiple times
I am not sure if we have the premium support package. I feel that we should be able to get our issues resolved with the basic package. These are functionality issues within the system. You should not have to pay extra to get basic functionality working correctly.
Yes - Yes - we had some issues that were escalated and resolved quickly. Blackbaud seems to release new functionality right at critical times - example new scheduling functionality during prime scheduling time. If there are bugs it brings me job to a halt. Maybe should think about this prior to release.

I have one issue that has been out there for over 2 years and is still not fixed.
Once I was having trouble setting up my new yearly transcript. The support team was able to quickly diagnosis what setting I had incorrect and provide instructions on how to correct the issue. The support staff is always very friendly and helpful when thing are within their control.

Using Blackbaud Education Management Solutions

I find the user interface very friendly. It is easy to locate information that you need fairly quickly. The grading set up is a bit complex and there are so many areas that have to be set up. I feel that this could be simplified and redone. Also the athletics set up area and advisory could use an overall to be more consistent with the main functionality screens.
ProsCons
Like to use
Relatively simple
Easy to use
Technical support not required
Quick to learn
Convenient
Feel confident using
Familiar
None
  • Scheduling
  • Creating Report Cards
  • Transcripts with students that change sections during year
  • Final Grade calculations for students that change sections during the year.

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