CYPHER Learning Reviews

We operate an online education platform that sells courses to audiences all over the world. We have a global audience, and we use CYPHER Learning as our primary learning management system. CYPHER Learning is our only LMS.

CYPHER Learning is a web-based application, so there is no need to deploy it. However, there is also an app that can be used to access the portal.

CYPHER Learning has allowed us to spend less time administering content. We no longer have to worry about whether our website is functioning or whether the content is being delivered as intended. That's what CYPHER Learning is for. They streamline the delivery of content, so we know how to set up classes, courses, assessments, and diplomas. CYPHER Learning also takes on a lot of the administrative burden from our organization, including customer support.

We use the gamification feature in relation to certification, but we are not yet taking full advantage of it. We are definitely looking into it.

CYPHER Learning has helped us reduce our training costs by approximately $2,000 per person trained.

CYPHER Learning has helped to reduce costs related to printing our materials.

We wouldn't be able to do what we do without CYPHER Learning. It's hard to quantify how much CYPHER Learning has helped increase profits, but it's essential to our business. Without CYPHER Learning, we wouldn't have a school.

The entire system is incredibly valuable, but one of the reasons we chose CYPHER Learning was the social interaction features, such as forums, student groups, and messaging. We hadn't seen these features in other learning management systems. The assessment management is also amazing. Overall, the system is well-designed. However, the social features were the deciding factor.

CYPHER Learning should definitely offer live video conferencing integration. We currently need to outsource this service, which means we cannot run webinars from within CYPHER Learning. This is definitely on our wish list.

The initial setup process is a bit cumbersome, but it is not impossible to complete. The company's support is excellent, so we were able to get help with any questions we had. 

The platform had a bit of a learning curve for our team, but our users, who tend to be older, were able to use it seamlessly. The average age of our users is over 50, so they are not always tech-savvy. We have had very few issues with our users being able to use the platform. Overall, the platform is user-friendly for our users, but it could be more user-friendly for administrators.

We learned some of the rules for assessments and completion the hard way. For example, if we change a role, it is not applied automatically. We have to manually update the role. We needed to verify that people had completed all the requirements to be issued a certificate. We changed the role halfway through the process because we found out that there was a gap and people were falling through the cracks. However, we had to manually correct the already-issued certificates. Therefore, the change of rules does not apply retroactively. We need to test anything that is conditional, especially completion rules.

I have been using CYPHER Learning for six years.

The solution is highly stable. In the six years we have been using CYPHER Learning, we have not experienced any downtime or crashing.

CYPHER Learning is very scalable. We are somewhere in the middle of its scalability range. This was one of the reasons we chose CYPHER Learning, as we were at the bottom of its scalability range at the time, and there is still room for us to grow comfortably without having to switch platforms.

The technical support is incredibly responsive, helpful, and respectful. They have their own support forum, where many questions have already been answered. However, if we need help, the support team has always been quick to respond and provide assistance.

Positive

The initial setup was a five out of ten. I had a general idea of the course structure, and I built it up one lesson at a time, exploring as I went. I didn't do a lot of forward planning, other than planning the course itself and then trying to use the platform to achieve that goal. I didn't start by looking at what the platform could do and then model the course on that.

The implementation was completed in-house with the help of technical support.

I give the solution a nine out of ten.

We are not yet ready to use CYPHER Learning's ability to recommend courses or assignments to learners based on their job titles or a set of competencies. This is because we sell the courses from our website. Instead, we are currently creating pathways for learners manually. This is something we want to explore further in the future, but we have not had the capacity to do so yet.

We have eight tutors that use CYPHER Learning within our organization.

There is maintenance required for the content, such as our courses. However, the platform itself does not require any maintenance, which is a great benefit of using CYPHER Learning. All of the platform's functionalities are provided by CYPHER Learning itself.

Users should know what they want to achieve with the platform, and they should also take the time to explore all of the platform's capabilities. Once users are set up, which is our current challenge, it can be difficult to add features like gamification or competency-based learning if they were not part of the original plan. Therefore, users should have a clear idea of their goals, but they should also be flexible and willing to adapt their strategy as they learn more about the platform.

We use CHYPHER Learning to deliver all our apprenticeship programs. All of the apprentice learners are added to the platform and follow several courses. We also provide access to employers so they can monitor the learners' progress.

We find that learners are much more invested in CHYPHER Learning compared to other LMS platforms we used in the past. The people who use the platform to learn and do their assignments are the ones who benefit the most from the system. It enabled us to engage with learners more than the previous systems we used.

We do a little gamification, but the problem is that our learners start at different times throughout the year. We have rolling programs, but some gamification features aren't relevant if one person starts in October and another in February. The person who started earlier will be ahead on any leaderboards, which isn't helpful. Gamification doesn't affect our learners' progress much because we haven't used it as much as we'd like. The interface isn't too important because of the nature of our rolling programs. 

We look at how we can extend what learners do based on their job roles. If they complete particular assignments well, we introduce other topics based on what they achieve. 

I don't think it has reduced our training costs. We still primarily do face-to-face instruction. Also, our goal for CYPHER Learning isn't necessarily to save money. We use it to enhance our programs. However, it saved us money on printing materials. 

The most valuable feature is competency tracking. All apprentices follow particular programs where they have to demonstrate competencies, skills, knowledge, and behavior standards. The ability to track and measure their progress against the norm is functional. By aligning the work that our learners submit and the learning resources, we get an excellent picture of where they are in their progression.

We're judged on those people's ability to achieve those competencies. We must ensure they meet the standards because they will be independently assessed after finishing the program. 

I've got one bespoke request with CYPHER Learning, but it's not an overall product improvement. I'd like a way to set deadlines for assignments to be submitted by learners' onboarding programs based on their enrollment dates. For example, if a learner starts in October, and we want the assignment submitted 30 days after that. 

We've been using CHYPHER Learning since October 2020.

CYPHER Learning is a solid platform. I rarely have problems with it. We had a caching issue a few months back, but we've had no problems aside from that. 

Adding more students to CYPHER Learning is simple. You just need to pay more money.

I rate CYPHER Learning's support a ten out of ten. I've contacted them several times and always gotten satisfactory answers. 

Positive

I built a custom solution a while ago. It was great, but keeping it updated was painful, and people constantly asked me questions about it. We also used Moodle and Lodash in the past.

I used CYPHER Learning in its previous form when it was called EDU 2.0. After that, I built my own system, but it was too much of a hassle. Finally, in 2020, I decided I would switch to another solution. I tested out Moodle, but it wasn't very good for competency-based learning, so I adopted CYPHER Learning. 

CYPHER Learning is a SaaS platform. We subscribe to it and add learners as needed. The setup is straightforward, but there are a few advanced features that you need to get your head around if you want to extend the way the platform works. I've done lots of work with webhooks and APIs to extend the platform and integrate our data systems. It's quite simple to log in and use the platform. There is no maintenance on our end. 

We are funded by the government, so we're capped at what each program costs. Students who use CYPHER Learning give us positive feedback, and the improved experience helps increase the number of learners. Getting learners to engage with the platform is always a challenge. They go on there, do the work, and leave positive feedback. It's great. 

We're considered a business, so we don't get education discounts. However, I am funded by the government the same way that a college or a school is funded. I don't have the kind of flexibility to pay these prices. It's a little bit more than I want to pay, but I'm okay with it.

I rate CYPHER Learning a ten out of ten. Before implementing CYPHER Learning, make sure you need all of its features. A lot of it is modular, so you can pick what you want.

We use it for grading and all my class assignments.

I used it during COVID. So, we had distance learning where we were doing Zoom, then I would still have the students do their assignments in CYPHER Learning during the distance learning.

I put the date in when I wanted students to be able to see an assignment. Then, I would have all the assignments in CYPHER Learning, but I wouldn't let the students see it until the day it was assigned.

I particularly like the discussions, which have been good for student engagement. Students can log in, and if we are having a discussion online, they can read everyone else's responses. They can also respond to what was said. I would have them comment on the other students' thoughts based on the discussion, and that was excellent. Organizationally, it was excellent because it is how I run my class, where all assignments are in CYPHER Learning. 

A lot of it has to do with just knowing your students and what their needs are. If I come across a student in CYPHER Learning, who is in my class, then I can grade according to whatever their specific needs are. I can help them in a class according to what their needs are.

Once you get your class set up in CYPHER Learning, you can reuse assignments or go to the library and find assignments. Once everything is in CYPHER Learning, you can reuse it, which is awesome.

I like the survey, quiz, and discussion features. The grading program is pretty good too. I do a lot of essays in my class. So, I will have prompts where students need to think critically about a reading, then they must write an essay about it. So, they are writing essays in CYPHER Learning, then I am grading them in CYPHER Learning. That is super helpful. This is why the discussion, quizzes, and surveys are super helpful, and probably the assignments that I give the most often.

Another feature that I like is having one class with three child classes. When I assign it to my parent class, then it gets assigned to all my child classes. All my students do the same assignments, but I might modify how I grade the assignment according to their needs.

It is easy for educators to communicate with students using CYPHER Learning. Students often message me through CYPHER Learning. Also, I can comment on students' assignments, then they are able to respond to the comment that I put in CYPHER Learning. There is an email feature. So, if a student sends me a comment, then I also get an email about it, which is also helpful. It is important for teachers and students to have dialogue regarding expectations. Also, students can ask questions about assignments and I can clarify information for students.

One thing that has been a problem is that CYPHER Learning doesn't save the students' work while they are doing it. For example, if you are on a Google Doc, and you close your Google Doc, then you come back, the work that you did has been saved. However, in CYPHER Learning, if for some reason the student clicks out of CYPHER Learning and goes back in, whatever they typed isn't saved. That is an area that they need to improve. A lot of my students may write an essay, but if they are two paragraphs in and their iPad crashes or something, when they go back, they are like, "All my work is gone." So, this would be an area that I would recommend for improvement in CYPHER Learning. It needs to auto save, and it doesn't auto save. That is definitely a weakness.

I have been using it for four years.

For four years, the stability has been good.

Our entire district uses CYPHER Learning. As far as that goes, it is good. Also, it is nice having a library where people save stuff and see what other people are doing.

There are approximately 1,500 teachers and 13,000 to 14,000 students who are using CYPHER Learning.

The product is being extensively used district-wide.

If I had questions, I was able to get my questions answered. We were able to give feedback to CYPHER LEARNING about different questions or features. CYPHER LEARNING was usually able to address whatever the questions or issues were, which was helpful. The auto saving thing is something that hasn't been addressed that I am aware of. So, that is an ongoing issue that hasn't been resolved.

I would give the technical support nine out of 10. Usually, they get back to me pretty quickly with a solution, for whatever the issue was.

Positive

Prior to CYPHER Learning, we didn't have an online solution. It was just old school.

The initial setup is pretty straightforward. If I can learn it, anyone can learn it.

It is pretty intuitive. You need to set up your lessons. Since you will need to set them up somewhere, I feel like CYPHER Learning was pretty intuitive as far as what I needed to do as far as setting it up.

Any way you slice it, you will need to prepare your lessons. So, it doesn't take any longer in CYPHER Learning than it would any other way. It is a lot easier to have all your stuff in one place than to have a million papers flying around as well as having to grade papers. Having it all online is definitely better.

We have one tech coach at our school. If you have a tech question, you can go and ask them, then they will figure it out and help you. Anytime you do something new, you need professional development and training. So, we have tech coaches who help people to implement. So, if you are new, you can ask questions of the tech coach. 

The tech coach piece is good, providing ongoing support for teachers while they are implementing. That is a tip that is good protocol. That way, people aren't getting frustrated with it. At first, certain teachers didn't really like the grading thing. They were like, "Oh, I like Easy Grade Pro, and I want it to be Easy Grade Pro." I am like, "It's not like Easy Grade Pro, so just get over it."

When I do a survey, CYPHER Learning is helpful because then I can more quickly peruse students' responses. I don't have to go through question by question. Grading-wise, it has certainly helped, when giving a survey, to streamline my grading for that assignment.

I am sure there was some type of analysis that went into choosing CYPHER Learning. However, in the end, when the district selected CYPHER Learning, everyone was happy with it.

There is not much gamifying through CYPHER Learning. I do a lot of other activities in my class through other solutions, like Blooket, Quizizz, and Kahoot!. That is how I do gamification in my classroom.

Overall, it is a good learning management system and provides a good way to organize your class.

I would rate the solution as nine out of 10. The auto-save thing is the reason why they are not getting 10 out of 10.

We offer transformative health programs. We offer self-paced and cohort-based learning experiences online for health and wellness.

We are using its latest version.

CYPHER Learning is extraordinarily intuitive. It allows us to customize the design and the look-and-feel of all of our pages inside of a course. 

It also allows us to direct students automatically from one task to the next, including creating their own reflections and personal goals. So, it really does support student agency, as we call it, as well as student success in completing tasks on their own.

We are able to see who has not accessed the portal and follow up with those people. It is important for us because retention is one of the factors in evaluating the efficacy of a course.

It enables us to monitor and check student progress. We don't use the mastery tool so much, but we do use the gamification tool where they get a set of scores or points once they complete something, and that badging system helps us track the completion. We've steered away from the grading tool and stuck with more of what I always call the rewards.

We love a couple of things. We love the group feature allowing students to have peer-to-peer learning experiences. In our case, it is for students, but this feature could also be useful for a business to provide peer-to-peer learning experiences for employees. The group tool provides an opportunity for students to connect with their peers inside of their own digital space. One of the aspects that we love about the group tool is that it allows students to leave the course but engage in a digital space where they access materials that are personalized to their group.

We also like gamification. It allowed us to give our users scores and have a friendly competition to motivate their learning success.

Another great feature is that it allows you to change the naming conventions of the tools. I've never seen an LMS that allows you to do that. All organizations have their own vocabulary, and this is just an extraordinary feature that gives you so much freedom to customize the platform to align with your organization's look-and-feel and vocabulary. 

Their Support Forum was exemplary. I got answers within 25 minutes of my questions, and they were personalized to me, which made the Support Forum highly valuable. I love the fact other people could see the question and the answer I got, and I could see theirs.

I'm an instructional designer, so from a designer standpoint, it is important to have a user-friendly resource folder that allows us to organize our artifacts for easy access to pull into multiple pages and modules. The second feature that I need is an easier capacity to edit pages with images and customizable headings. 

I started in November of 2019.

It is highly stable.

It is absolutely scalable. Currently, we have 10 courses, and we could easily go way more.

In terms of its users, we have a curriculum director who oversees content quality, and then we have course builders. Sometimes, the curriculum director takes on the course builder role, which means aligning the content into a cohesive format in CYPHER Learning. We have an admissions director who looks at the analytics to help us look at retention and other continuity needs.

In terms of its usage, we're currently in a little bit of a holding pattern. We've done an initial launch, and we're now assessing and bringing on more content experts. So, we're back in what we call build mode with a plan to launch in the fall another set of courses.

Their Support Forum is fantastic. The initial onboarding was easy with great technical support and relationship building with Alexia. I got a chance to get to know her really well because she's a designer. If I didn't get what I needed at the Support Forum, I could reach out to her directly. I would rate their support a 10 out of 10.

Positive

I am an instructional designer. So, I work with lots of learning management systems, but in particular, for this project, I didn't work with any other solution.

It was straightforward. The company provided us with excellent onboarding training.

The build took a long time, but that was not because of CYPHER Learning. I could probably build a full course in a week if I had all the content with me. 

We implemented it on our own. In terms of maintenance, the curriculum director and the course builder both tag team to support the technical ends. They also need to communicate with the content experts of the courses to manage student expectations and technical needs. We had to set up a Google email account to make sure students had a place to get help.

We absolutely will see an ROI when we launch.

Their plans are based on enrollment numbers. We're at the silver level with 100 active learners. So, you're really beholden to how many learners you're going to accommodate. There are no extra costs in addition to the standard licensing fees.

I evaluated Thinkific, but it was nowhere near the level of features and customization that we needed.

Maybe I'm being biased, but you definitely want to hire or have a course designer with the skills of course design and the understanding of how to leverage all the features that are available in an an LMS. The other piece of advice is to be very thoughtful and intentional about your initial setup by asking how it aligns with your goals and outcomes.  For example, we needed to think about the naming conventions of each feature to match our organization. So, instead of calling them courses, we called them journeys. Instead of calling them groups, we called them communities.

The biggest lesson that I have learned from using this solution is to collaborate and work as a team to build the platform, and iterate, iterate, iterate.

We connect it to HubSpot, which is for our tracking of marketing, but in CYPHER Learning, we haven't done a lot of automation. We also haven't used the competency-based learning feature. We're very new, and we do intend to use it, but we aren't there yet. We do use gamification and badging. 

I would rate CYPHER Learning a nine out of ten.

We use CYPHER Learning to train our employees and the public.

CYPHER Learning is hosted on our users' website. Our users can access it by logging in.

Several of our internal teams have joined the program, and they create training modules, which we then upload to CYPHER Learning and make available to everyone. CYPHER Learning has now put us in the position to provide better internal training than ever before, thanks to this tool that makes it easier. Since we have employees in multiple locations, we are now able to train our entire team more efficiently.

We have seen a small reduction in printing costs, but I foresee more savings as we ramp up our training.

I like that CYPHER Learning can accommodate all types of media, including video and audio. It is also easy to use. 

I really like that we can add third-party apps to make CYPHER Learning more useful. 

The assessment tools are one of the reasons we chose CYPHER Learning, so we could provide instructional feedback for incorrect assessment answers.

The customization is very good because it allows us to completely brand the product so that it is our brand.

I really appreciate the ability to provide feedback for assessments. However, the user interface for this feature is not very user-friendly. I think it could be improved by making it easier to understand.

CYPHER Learning has a lot of resources for finding answers. They have a search tool that allows us to search for answers on our own. However, I think it would be helpful if the resources were more structured in a how-to format. This would allow us to find the information we need without having to talk to a trainer or tech support. I think the current feature is good, but there could be more self-learning opportunities for how to use the product.

I have been using CYPHER Learning for almost eight months.

CYPHER Learning is stable. We have not had any issues.

CYPHER Learning is highly scalable. We are not using all the seats available yet.

The technical support is quick. I usually receive a response within just a few hours. If the support is not quite able to answer my question, they are very quick to respond to my follow-up questions. Once, a junior analyst answered my question, and then I think a senior analyst came in and added to the explanation to make it clearer. I'm not sure if it was to correct the junior analyst or to provide additional assistance, but it was impressive.

Positive

The initial setup is straightforward. However, it is a very full-featured system, so it has taken a lot of training to learn how to use it effectively. CYPHER Learning has provided excellent training materials, and our IT department has been very helpful in setting up the system and connecting it to our other systems. Overall, I think the setup process has been fairly straightforward.

We had several meetings with our IT and project management teams. It took some time to convince them of the benefits of using CYPHER Learning. I am on the education team, and our job is to train both internal and external users. We held several meetings and demos to explain what we wanted to use CYPHER Learning for and why we chose it. Once we had their buy-in, it was just a matter of getting the paperwork and approvals in order. Now we are in the process of creating half a dozen courses. We are still in the early stages of implementing CYPHER Learning, but we are excited about the possibilities.

Three people were involved in the deployment: two from the education team and one from IT.

The implementation was completed in-house.

We are still in the development phase. At this time, we are not seriously considering generating revenue through courses. Instead, we will be relying mostly on savings, travel expenses for training, and other expenses. As a result, I cannot say that we have seen a return on investment yet. CYPHER Learning is still in the investment phase.

We were happy with the pricing for CYPHER Learning. As a nonprofit, we received a discount. They were also able to work with us on some other questions we had. This was one of the reasons we chose CYPHER Learning. The price was fair for all the features we received.

We evaluated dozens of solutions and considered all of their features, prices, and reviews. In addition to CYPHER Learning, we narrowed down our choices to Moodle and Tovuti LMS. 

We selected CYPHER Learning primarily because of positive customer reviews and a competitive price. Customer reviews praised its ease of use, and the price was fair for the features we received. Additionally, CYPHER Learning appeared to have plenty of room for us to grow into. The features were robust enough that we would likely not use them all at first, but we would learn to use them as we needed them. CYPHER Learning seemed like it would challenge us, and it has. 

I give CYPHER Learning a nine out of ten. There are a few tweakable areas but I have no regrets about selecting CYPHER Learning.

We currently do not use the competency-based learning features of CYPHER Learning. However, one reason we chose CYPHER Learning is because it has the capacity to support our future growth in this area. Therefore, it is something we may use in the future, but not yet. 

We do have some audit automation as far as emails, reminders, and things like that, but not specifically gamification.

Since CYPHER Learning is a new system in our organization, we have not yet seen a reduction in our training costs. However, we anticipate a reduction in training costs as we begin to train employees remotely and no longer have to fly trainers to different locations.

We currently have 50 users, and we expect to have many more as we increase our training volume.

CYPHER Learning has not required any maintenance as of yet.

CYPHER Learning is a very powerful tool with many features. However, this also means that it has a steep learning curve. If we don't have a lot of time or are not comfortable with technology, CYPHER Learning may not be the best solution for us. However, if we are looking for a scalable and powerful tool that can grow with our needs, CYPHER Learning is a great option. Just be aware that it will take some time to learn how to use it effectively.

We've been using it for the delivery of our learning materials as well as for assessments of our students. Similarly, if training has to be conducted for our employees, including faculty members and school staff, all the materials are readily available in our LMS.

We have saved a lot as far as courier services are concerned. In the past, before CYPHER Learning, we would burn our materials onto CDs and send them out across the country via courier. With the LMS, all our materials are uploaded and they are almost instantaneously available for access within our school.

Apart from those costs, it has saved us time. We had a procedure where our materials would be posted on OneDrive and then one person was responsible for accessing and distributing them in each of our schools. With CYPHER Learning, we have been able to cut out that step. Now, when we develop the materials in our headquarters, the faculty members are able to access them instantaneously. By removing that interim step, we have saved man-hours. Administratively, CYPHER Learning has helped us save time.

It has also definitely helped us to save costs related to the printing of materials because we no longer print our materials. Teachers and students get access to them through their devices.

We also make use of other solutions to help address higher-order thinking skills, and CYPHER Learning supports that. Activities that help our students achieve or acquire higher-order thinking are very important because that's how we make sure that we prepare our students. That's how we ascertain that we are delivering quality education to our students and that they are really achieving the intended learning outcomes of the particular program they are enrolled in.

There are several valuable features. One is the competency mapping. This helps us, as faculty members and developers of learning materials, track and monitor which competencies our students have acquired, based on the outcomes that we wanted them to have at the end of a particular module or term.

And tagging classes and assignments with competencies is user-friendly, from the feedback I get from my team. There are options for whether it is a required module or assignment. Is it something that they can do on their own? It can be tagged such that it will only be given on a particular day. All of these types of tagging features are available. You just upload your materials and tag them to be, for example, self-paced or on a particular schedule. Then you just leave it and it unhides a particular module when a student has to complete it.

The tagging and the achievement of competencies, together, are almost always seamless. When you tag a particular competency in the mapping in a module, the student really has to achieve it. The competency mapping will show if they have reached a particular level of competency, because the mapping of achievements is color-coded. Teachers know when a student is still in the red zone, orange zone, or has reached the green zone. The modules in CYPHER Learning are well thought out. This feature is user-friendly for the teacher, and the students, as the end-users of the materials, are also able to see their progress.

Also, there are different types of learning materials that we can put in the LMS. Some are web-based, meaning we can embed a URL in the system, and it automatically leads the student or the user to the online materials we're going to use.

And on the dashboards, we are able to see the progress of our students, such as whether they have been able to do their assignments or homework and submit everything that they have to submit.

In addition, the adaptive learning is a feature that I really appreciate. Especially when the pandemic happened and classes were mostly asynchronous, we populated our library of materials. If a student had not yet reached a particular grade or level to proceed to the next module, we gave them additional modules to watch, read, and practice on, to better understand things. They would not proceed to the next level or module until they were able to earn a particular score. That's how we apply adaptive learning. This feature was something that we always wanted CYPHER Learning to have, but they went full-scale with it only recently. It has really helped us make sure that everybody is on the right track in mastering, or at least acquiring, fundamental knowledge and skills before they proceed to the next module.

We also do make use of the solution's competency-based learning, which is another feature they just introduced recently. It will help bridge the gap between what industries need when our students graduate and they join the workforce, and what we teach them in the classroom. It's something that we are exploring at the moment, and it's something that we've always wanted to have. The goal is that the students, when they graduate, will be able to show a portfolio of the competencies that they needed to acquire during their time with STI.

Communication through CYPHER Learning is just like on any other multimedia platform. Anything that has to do with schoolwork or official communication has to go through the CYPHER Learning or Microsoft Office. CYPHER Learning is like their Facebook for school. This communication is very important because there are a lot of things that come from our headquarters that have to cascade to the schools. The LMS helps us eliminate the transfer of communication from one person to another. When there are announcements that have to be done network-wide, CYPHER Learning helps ease that communication between head office and the entire network. We don't have to worry about the possibility that something was never relayed to the students or faculty members.

Most of our wish list for CYPHER Learning has already been addressed. One that we are still asking them for is to include competencies from different industries, since they have industry partners. These would be the competencies that these industries need so that we can make sure that we are developing our students toward those competencies or skill sets. 

Also, because the competency mapping feature is very well thought out, our wish list also includes that when our students graduate, they are able to print, download, or access the competencies that they have achieved in the four years that they studied with us at STI. That portfolio could then be shown when they apply for a job, and employers would see that it has been mapped out according to the industry's standards.

I have been using CYPHER LEARNING since 2016.

It's scalable because when we have requests they're able to find solutions or they tell us it's something they're considering. CYPHER LEARNING is able to address the needs of its clients.

We have 91,000 users of CYPHER Learning. There are 63 campuses of STI that are using it. You can just imagine how confident we are with CYPHER Learning because 91,000 of our students are using it every single day of their lives at school.

As far as our learning materials and assessments go, we really make use of the platform and, therefore, students have to use it. Everything is there. Teachers should be giving their assignments through CYPHER Learning, but of course, sometimes they don't. But the idea is they should be using it.

CYPHER LEARNING has very good customer support. Sometimes, because of their number of customers, it takes a little bit longer for them to reply to us. Sometimes, it takes them a week to reply to us, but those are rare cases. Most of the time, when our team chats with them, they are able to get back to us pretty quickly. Very seldom do they need to ask me to escalate an issue to one of their senior staff. They're able to address our concerns.

Positive

We didn't have a previous solution.

We have seen ROI because we have been able to cut down on time, courier services, freight, and the time it takes for things to travel from one campus to another. It is really the time savings that have been very good and important for us.

CYPHER LEARNING is very flexible when it comes to pricing. They hear out their customers and see where they can help them as far as cost is concerned. They look at long-term relationships and partnerships with their clients. It's very easy to talk to them regarding the cost and tell them why we can only afford a particular price bracket. When we explain that to them, they are able to adjust. At the end of the day, they are really looking to build and keep relationships and partnerships with their clients.

We evaluated two or three other solutions. And we are still evaluating different solutions when they approach us, but CYPHER Learning still stands when it comes to modules, features, benefits, and costs.

If you're looking into a product like this, you first have to understand what you want from an LMS. There is no one-size-fits-all for a particular institution. You have to list what your non-negotiables are, and then make sure that the provider is able to give you the things on that list.

It's also very important when you are deciding on an LMS that the team presenting it to you knows what they're talking about and that they'll take care of you. Some will present a solution to you, but when you ask a question they're not confident in their answers. That's a red light for me.

As for gamification, it is something that helps students learn, but we have discovered that it's not a silver bullet. You cannot gamify everything. It is something that helps engage students in their learning, however, it cannot be the only approach. You really have to know what your objectives and outcomes are and then include gamification. Otherwise, it will just be something that the students will take advantage of, and they will no longer learn. It becomes repetitive for them.

Gamification is nice because it drives and motivates students, but you have to vary gamification modules with other types of delivery. We tried dashboards and leaderboards, but sometimes students aren't motivated by those either. You have to strike a balance. It's nice to have, but are we able to achieve the intended learning outcome?

We have to keep on exploring things because CYPHER Learning has a lot of modules that we can utilize. And I really appreciate their management. They're so easy to talk to. When we need something, they're able to discuss it with us and help us find solutions. They're very easy to talk to, as long as they understand where you're coming from.

Overall, it's a very well-thought-out solution. I am thankful to Graham [the founder] and the team at CYPHER LEARNING. They're very dynamic. They keep their ears to the ground regarding what their clients need. It's a very stable company.

Our working hypothesis was that in a scenario where the school would be closed to in-person classes for a long time due to COVID, we would need a professional online education system. We approached it as if we were never going to see face-to-face education again.

We feel that while other institutions have suffered a little more from the effects of the pandemic, the fact that we adopted and developed a platform that is very professional from the beginning, and exploited its resources to the maximum, enabled our institution to maintain a high level of education. We believe that in this year's national assessments, our school will continue to achieve first-place results.

We have been able to deliver our entire curriculum online for a year and a half. CYPHER Learning quickly solved the issue of having a means to deliver the curriculum. We have been able to focus, in the midst of the pandemic, on the well-being of the students, their emotional health, and support for parents. The level of learning has been quite high and the level of emotional control of the students is optimal.

We also feel that students feel safe. Something that has been quite surprising is the use of technology in the first grade with six-year-old students. We were a little skeptical about the technology issue for such young students. But with a little initial help from the parents, those students have become fluent in the use of the technology, like any other tool, and they move around it with ease. The level of autonomy that children can achieve is impressive.

The students flow with the platform, as it has a gamification process and stimuli. It engages very well with the essence of positive behavior reinforcement and allows me to recognize good work by students when it is done through the platform. And the synchronous work students do enables them to objectively see their own level of performance. They are also aware of being recognized by their teachers for their work, and this increases their engagement with the program.

The gamified learning environment allows us to create curricular spaces that are different from the traditional courses that the curriculum has. A teacher, for example, can decide to create a new workshop or specialization course for students who are interested in a specific subject. The teacher simply opens the channel and registers the students. They can choose that students from different grades interact with each other by sharing a course or a workshop, and this is interesting and novel.

CYPHER Learning has also significantly reduced paperwork for me, as well as the need for printing. There is less spending on paper supplies and CYPHER Learning is complemented by other tools that allow me to interact with students immediately. It has reduced my printing costs by about 60 percent.

Above all, what it has done is provide our team with more time available to focus on teaching and learning processes. It could help me reduce staff, but we have preferred to use the time it has freed up for our teachers to reinforce them in the pedagogical area. This is how we believe we will achieve better results.

The first point is the ease of use. It is a very easy platform to use, especially for students and families, with a very friendly layout.

It also has a series of support systems, including communication with parents, students, the ability to invoice for online courses, and other qualities that make the system very versatile and facilitate a teacher's work.

It has a good level of integration with different applications.

This LMS also allows us to do "differentiated instruction." It is a very effective tool for creating specific tactics that allow me to work with advanced students and with students who have learning difficulties. In this way, each student has an educational program focused on their personal characteristics. Thanks to this, our school has exceptionally high results on the Ministry of Education tests.

CYPHER Learning’s adaptive learning helps provide students optimal, personalized content based on their goals and performance. I really like this ability to adapt to the development of students. It is a contemporary feature, which should be pursued as an important educational process. It is making our work much easier.

The reports are fundamental. They have been super useful for personal follow-up with students. The fact that the system helps me to track the students in the delivery of work and the achievement of competencies allows our educational team to interact with the parents and children for cases in which special, focused help is necessary. This is very valuable. We have noticed in internal tests that students have achieved educational requirements though the distance-education system, and that the students are working hard. In other words, students who were experiencing some sort of void are filling that void by using this platform.

The fact that teachers can track student progress on a competency basis through a mastery grid makes our work much easier. Students are evaluated by their competencies, which is vital for us. It adapts very well to a modern teaching and assessment system. The assessment done with the platform meets contemporary demands and gives the school the opportunity to apply them. This is most advantageous.

It practically gives us another language for communication. As a director, I like to recognize students when they have achieved a good result or participated in a championship. Through CYPHER Learning, I am able to send them messages and I usually receive an immediate response from the students. In this way, as a director, I can quickly reach many people with a message of encouragement. It goes along with promoting positive behavior. This also includes students who have difficulty. If not for CYPHER Learning, I would have to go through a much more complex process to communicate with them.

CYPHER Learning provides a variety of activities to help engage students and develop their independence. We are a technological society that uses technology intensively. Introducing students to this system, beginning to automate certain teaching processes, and making it easier for students to access resources is something that is very relevant to the 21st century.

Furthermore, the solution's intervention strategies for students, especially for those who need guidance, are a great strength of this LMS. The fact that the platform allows me to create my own line of work helps a lot and enables students to achieve results and be recognized by the system for their successes. It is a fabulous tool. I put the work in place and students are quickly reacting and working. I can attend to it personally and help students advance in context.

The solution’s ability to bridge the learning gap for students is absolutely a great outcome and advantage. When students receive rapid feedback, they are always eager to excel in their studies and to advance. You create topics in which the level of difficulty increases, the student achieves the desired results, feels happy, advances, and the teacher can quickly recognize this.

I would like to see greater integration with some programs that are not natively integrated. Google is a standard. Everything integrates with it. Integration with Google is a key task.

Also, it would be interesting to have it integrate with the International Baccalaureate. There is a platform called ManageBac that has this type of integration. If CYPHER Learning would use that as a reference, it would increase its functionality and scalability.

We have been using CYPHER Learning for two and a half years.

We have never had stability problems with CYPHER Learning. Any downtime due to updates has always been preceded by notices, and the time the platform was in update mode was quite short so it has never been an obstacle.

When we started CYPHER Learning, it was as an individual school but we quickly scaled with CYPHER Learning so that all three schools in our group were incorporated. We made adjustments to share domains and the growth process went perfectly. If we had to open new offices, everything would be perfectly integrated.

Currently, we manage about 1,500 students as well as 180 teachers. In addition, there is administrative staff.

We are using it intensively at the moment because here, in the Peruvian system, if someone gets sick, the students and teacher in that classroom must go into lockdown for five days. That makes CYPHER Learning perfect for us.

We still have a long way to go to exploit all the resources that CYPHER Learning gives us. We know that it is a very extensive and powerful platform from which we have seen great benefit, but we can continue to explore and take much more advantage of it.

We have greatly appreciated the support we have received from the CYPHER Learning team. That has been vital for us. When we made the decision to work with CYPHER Learning, their staff was able to give us 24-hour assistance and, in four days, we had 85 percent of the school on the platform.

Positive

When it looked probable that the country would be affected by COVID and that we would not be able to have in-person classes, we first used Google Classroom and another platform. We then understood that we needed to have a professional platform.

We evaluated different platforms and we found that what CYPHER Learning offered was very interesting. The layout is very friendly and the tools are quite powerful. We also felt that there was a high level of support. For these reasons, we built our distance-learning system with CYPHER Learning.

The initial setup was easy, especially due to the support we received. In fact, when the lockdown came, we were making the decision to switch to CYPHER Learning but we had not yet registered our students. We were only at the stage of registering the lesson plans and the grading systems. They then suddenly announced that the lockdown was coming into effect in the next 24 hours. We had to register the students in bulk and we had difficulties transferring the CSV files. But with the help of CYPHER Learning's technical support, the problems were solved in a matter of two or three hours and, on the same day, we registered all our students in the system.

Overall, we had the system running in four days. Evidence of CYPHER Learning's versatility is in the fact that that was how long it took to have our school's entire educational system registered. It took us a total of seven days because we wanted to do internal tests, but that was proof, for me, of how flexible this solution is.

Once we created the environment, we had to integrate another school and this was done without any problems.

The deployment involved our head of technology, me as the director of studies, our three elementary and high school coordinators, and two support teachers who are strong in technology and academics.

Everything was done with the support of CYPHER Learning. We had some training which was admirable because, as we understood at that time, CYPHER Learning had a lot of pressure worldwide. We felt taken care of in every way.

We have also received communication from CYPHER Learning on the upgrades and developments.

CYPHER Learning is much more profitable. I know of other institutions that went with other solutions that took a long time to implement. With CYPHER Learning, I did not have to create layouts or environments and I did not have issues of organization or coordination. The management abilities CYPHER Learning provides allow you to quickly define grades, sections, groups of students, and to decide the layouts for each one. It is much easier.

For us, the return on investment was when the parents accepted the platform and recognized the work that was being done in the school during the lockdown. We did not experience a paralysis in education. We only had four days without classes, which was time we needed to refine the platform. When we started using CYPHER Learning, we had students working 100 percent. Some schools opted for synchronous teaching which is very tiring. We opted for mixed synchronous teaching and that helped prevent students from becoming tired, as well as their parents. The students could get the best out of themselves.

CYPHER Learning's price is good.

I don't think there are any other tools that could be better than the internal systems we have slowly and strategically built in CYPHER Learning. Before implementing, you have to be clear about your educational objectives and how your educational system operates internally. You need to have your pedagogical system organized. For an institution that is in the process of making changes, and looking for an opportunity to improve, this could be a very good opportunity.

What I have learned from using CYPHER Learning is that technology allows us to personalize and differentiate education much more. It helps us to achieve learning objectives more easily, when we use it well. It also provides great engagement for students with technology. High-achievers and students with difficulties are also better taken care of and given special attention.

Foreign Language: (Spanish)

¿Cuál es nuestra razón de uso principal?

Nuestra hipótesis de trabajo fue tener en mente la posibilidad de un evento en el que la escuela tuviera que cancelar las clases presenciales durante mucho tiempo debido al COVID. Necesitaríamos un sistema de educación en línea profesional. Lo abordamos como si nunca más fuéramos a optar por la educación presencial.

¿Cómo ha ayudado a mi organización?

Sentimos que mientras otras instituciones han sufrido un poco más los efectos de la pandemia, el hecho de que adoptamos y desarrollamos una plataforma que es muy profesional desde el principio y explotamos sus recursos al máximo, permitió que nuestra institución mantuviera un alto nivel de educación. Creemos que en las próximas evaluaciones nacionales de este año nuestra escuela continuará logrando resultados de primer lugar.

Hemos podido completar todo nuestro plan de estudios en línea en un año y medio. CYPHER Learning resolvió rápidamente el problema de tener un medio para impartir el plan de estudios. Hemos podido enfocarnos en medio de la pandemia en el bienestar de los estudiantes , en su salud emocional y el apoyo a los padres. El nivel de aprendizaje ha sido bastante alto y el nivel de control emocional de los alumnos es óptimo.

También sentimos que los estudiantes se sienten seguros. Algo que ha sido bastante sorprendente es el uso de la tecnología en los primeros grados con alumnos de seis años. Éramos un poco escépticos sobre el tema de la tecnología para estudiantes tan jóvenes. Pero con un poco de ayuda inicial de los padres, los estudiantes dominan el uso de la tecnología como cualquier otra herramienta, y se mueven con facilidad. El nivel de autonomía que pueden alcanzar los niños es impresionante.

Los estudiantes fluyen con la plataforma, ya que tiene un proceso de gamificación y estímulos. Se relaciona muy bien con la esencia del refuerzo positivo de la conducta y me permite reconocer el buen trabajo de los alumnos cuando se realiza a través de la plataforma. Y el trabajo sincrónico que realizan los estudiantes les permite ver objetivamente su propio nivel de desempeño. También son conscientes de ser reconocidos por sus profesores por su trabajo, y esto aumenta su compromiso con el programa.

El ambiente de aprendizaje gamificado nos permite crear espacios curriculares diferentes a los cursos tradicionales que tiene el currículo. Un profesor, por ejemplo, puede decidir crear un nuevo taller o curso de especialización para los estudiantes que estén interesados en un tema específico. El profesor simplemente abre el canal y registra a los estudiantes. Pueden elegir que alumnos de diferentes grados interactúen entre ellos compartiendo un curso o un taller, y esto es interesante y novedoso.

CYPHER Learning también me ha reducido significativamente el papeleo, así como la necesidad de imprimir. Hay menos gasto en suministros de papel y CYPHER Learning se complementa con otras herramientas que me permiten interactuar con los estudiantes de inmediato. Ha reducido los costos de impresión en aproximadamente un 60 por ciento.

Sobre todo, lo que ha hecho es dotar a nuestro equipo de más tiempo disponible para centrarse en los procesos de enseñanza y aprendizaje. Me podría ayudar a reducir personal, pero hemos preferido utilizar el tiempo que le ha liberado a nuestros profesores para reforzarlos en el área pedagógica. Así es como creemos que lograremos mejores resultados.

¿Qué es lo más valioso?

El primer punto es la facilidad de uso. Es una plataforma muy fácil de usar, especialmente para estudiantes y familias, con un diseño muy amigable.

También cuenta con una serie de sistemas de apoyo, entre los que se encuentran la comunicación con padres, alumnos, la posibilidad de facturar cursos online, y otras cualidades que hacen que el sistema sea muy versátil y facilite el trabajo del docente.

Tiene un buen nivel de integración con diferentes aplicaciones.

Este LMS también nos permite hacer "instrucción diferenciada". Es una herramienta muy efectiva para crear tácticas específicas que me permiten trabajar con alumnos avanzados y con alumnos que tienen dificultades de aprendizaje. De esta forma, cada alumno tiene un programa educativo enfocado a sus características personales. Gracias a esto, nuestra escuela tiene resultados excepcionalmente altos en las pruebas del Ministerio de Educación.

El aprendizaje adaptativo de CYPHER Learning ayuda a proporcionar a los estudiantes contenido óptimo y personalizado en función de sus objetivos y rendimiento. Me gusta mucho esta capacidad de adaptación al desarrollo de los alumnos. Es una característica contemporánea, que debe ser seguida como un importante proceso educativo. Está facilitando mucho nuestro trabajo.

Los informes son fundamentales. Han sido súper útiles para el seguimiento personal con los alumnos. El hecho de que el sistema me ayude a hacer un seguimiento de los alumnos en la entrega de trabajos y el logro de competencias permite que nuestro equipo educativo interactúe con los padres y los niños para los casos en que sea necesaria una ayuda especial y enfocada. Esto es muy valioso. Hemos notado en las pruebas internas que los estudiantes han logrado los requisitos educativos a través del sistema de educación a distancia y que están trabajando duro. En otras palabras, los estudiantes que experimentaron algún tipo de vacío están llenando ese vacío al usar esta plataforma.

El hecho de que los profesores puedan realizar un seguimiento del progreso de los estudiantes en función de las competencias a través de una cuadrícula de dominio hace que nuestro trabajo sea mucho más fácil. Los estudiantes son evaluados por sus competencias, lo cual es vital para nosotros. Se adapta muy bien a un sistema moderno de enseñanza y evaluación. La evaluación realizada con la plataforma responde a las demandas contemporáneas y le da a la escuela la oportunidad de aplicarlas.

Prácticamente nos da otro lenguaje para comunicarnos. Como director, me gusta reconocer a los alumnos cuando han logrado un buen resultado o han participado en un campeonato. A través de la plataforma CYPHER Learning, puedo enviarles mensajes y generalmente recibo una respuesta inmediata de los estudiantes. De esta manera, como director, puedo llegar rápidamente a muchas personas con un mensaje de aliento. Va junto con la promoción de un comportamiento positivo. Esto también incluye a los estudiantes que tienen dificultades. Si no fuera por CYPHER Learning, tendría que pasar por un proceso mucho más complejo para comunicarme con ellos.

CYPHER Learning ofrece una variedad de actividades para ayudar a involucrar a los estudiantes y desarrollar su independencia. Somos una sociedad tecnológica que utiliza la tecnología de forma intensiva. Introducir a los estudiantes en este sistema, comenzar a automatizar ciertos procesos de enseñanza y facilitar a los estudiantes el acceso a los recursos es algo muy relevante en el siglo XXI.

Además, las estrategias de intervención de la plataforma para los estudiantes, especialmente para aquellos que necesitan orientación, son una gran fortaleza de este LMS. El hecho de que la plataforma me permita crear mi propia línea de trabajo ayuda mucho y permite que los estudiantes logren resultados y sean reconocidos por el sistema por sus éxitos. Es una herramienta fabulosa. Subo los trabajos a las plataformas y los estudiantes reaccionan y trabajan rápidamente. Puedo atenderlo personalmente y ayudar a los estudiantes a avanzar en el contexto.

La capacidad de la solución para cerrar la diferencia de aprendizaje de los estudiantes es absolutamente un gran resultado y una gran ventaja. Cuando los estudiantes reciben retroalimentación rápida, siempre están ansiosos por sobresalir en sus estudios y avanzar. Primero se crean temas en los que aumenta el nivel de dificultad, después el alumno logra los resultados deseados, se siente feliz, avanza y el profesor puede reconocer estos logros rápidamente.

¿En qué necesita mejorar?

Me gustaría ver una mayor integración con algunos programas que no están integrados de forma nativa. Google es un estándar. Todo se integra con él. La integración con Google es una tarea clave.

Además, sería interesante que se integre con el Bachillerato Internacional. Hay una plataforma llamada ManageBac que tiene este tipo de integración. Si CYPHER Learning lo usara como referencia, aumentaría su funcionalidad y escalabilidad.

¿Por cuánto tiempo ha usado la solución?

Llevamos dos años y medio usando CYPHER Learning.

¿Qué piensa sobre la estabilidad de la solución?

Nunca hemos tenido problemas de estabilidad con CYPHER Learning. Cualquier tiempo de inactividad debido a actualizaciones siempre ha estado precedido por avisos, y el tiempo que la plataforma estuvo en modo de actualización fue bastante corto por lo que nunca ha sido un obstáculo.

¿Qué opino de la escalabilidad de la solución?

Cuando comenzamos a trabajar con CYPHER Learning, era usado solamente en una sede, pero escalamos rápidamente con CYPHER Learning para que se incorporará las tres sedes de nuestra institución. Hicimos ajustes para compartir dominios y el proceso de crecimiento fue perfecto. Si tuviéramos que abrir nuevas oficinas, todo estaría perfectamente integrado.

Actualmente, gestionamos alrededor de 1.500 estudiantes y 180 profesores. Además, hay personal administrativo.

Lo estamos usando de manera intensiva en este momento porque aquí, en el sistema peruano, si alguien se enferma, los estudiantes y el maestro de esa sala deben estar confinados durante cinco días. Eso hace que CYPHER Learning sea perfecto para nosotros.

Todavía nos queda mucho camino por recorrer para explotar todos los recursos que nos brinda CYPHER Learning. Sabemos que es una plataforma muy extensa y potente de la que hemos visto un gran beneficio, pero podemos seguir explorando y sacarle mucho más provecho.

¿Cómo es el servicio de atención al cliente y el soporte?

Hemos apreciado mucho el apoyo que hemos recibido del equipo de CYPHER Learning. Eso ha sido vital para nosotros. Cuando tomamos la decisión de trabajar con CYPHER Learning, su personal pudo brindarnos asistencia las 24 horas. En solo cuatro días, teníamos el 85 por ciento de la escuela en la plataforma.

¿Cómo calificaría el servicio y soporte al cliente?

Positivo

¿Qué solución usé anteriormente y por qué cambié?

Cuando parecía probable que el país se vería afectado por el COVID y que no podríamos tener clases presenciales, primero usamos Google Classroom y otra plataforma. En ese momento entendimos que necesitábamos tener una plataforma profesional.

Evaluamos diferentes plataformas y descubrimos que lo que ofrecía CYPHER Learning era muy interesante. El diseño es muy amigable y las herramientas son bastante poderosas. También sentimos que hubo un alto nivel de apoyo. Por estas razones, construimos nuestro sistema de aprendizaje a distancia con CYPHER Learning.

¿Cómo fue la configuración inicial?

La configuración inicial fue fácil, especialmente debido al soporte que recibimos. De hecho, cuando llegó el confinamiento, justamente estábamos tomando la decisión de cambiar a CYPHER Learning pero aún no habíamos registrado a nuestros estudiantes. Estábamos solo en la etapa de registrar los planes de lecciones y los sistemas de calificación. De repente anunciaron sobre la confinación nacional que entraría en vigencia en las próximas 24 horas. Tuvimos que registrar a los estudiantes de forma masiva y tuvimos dificultades para transferir los archivos CSV. Pero con la ayuda del soporte técnico de CYPHER Learning, los problemas se solucionaron en cuestión de dos o tres horas y, en ese mismo día, registramos a todos nuestros alumnos en el sistema.

​​En general, tuvimos el sistema funcionando en cuatro días. La prueba de la versatilidad de CYPHER Learning es que ese fue el tiempo que tomó tener registrado todo el sistema educativo de nuestra escuela. Nos tomó un total de siete días porque queríamos hacer pruebas internas, pero esta fue la prueba, para mí, de qué tan flexible es esta plataforma.

Una vez que creamos el ambiente, tuvimos que integrar otra escuela y esto se hizo sin ningún problema.

El despliegue involucró a nuestro jefe de tecnología, a mi como director de estudios, nuestros tres coordinadores de primaria y secundaria y dos maestros de apoyo que controlan el área de la tecnología.

¿Y qué me puedes decir sobre el equipo de implementación?

Todo se hizo con el apoyo de CYPHER Learning. Tuvimos una formación que fue admirable porque, como entendíamos en ese momento, CYPHER Learning tenía mucha presión a nivel mundial. Nos sentimos atendidos en todos los sentidos.

También hemos recibido comunicación seguida de CYPHER Learning sobre las actualizaciones y desarrollos.

¿Cuál fue nuestro Retorno de Inversión?

CYPHER Learning es mucho más rentable. Sé de otras instituciones que optaron por otras soluciones que tardaron mucho en implementar. Con CYPHER Learning, no tuve que crear diseños o entornos y no tuve problemas de organización o coordinación. Las capacidades de gestión que proporciona CYPHER Learning te permiten definir rápidamente grados, secciones, grupos de alumnos y decidir la disposición de cada uno. Es mucho más fácil.

Para nosotros, el retorno de la inversión fue cuando los padres aceptaron la plataforma y reconocieron el trabajo que se estaba haciendo en la escuela durante el confinamiento. No experimentamos una parálisis en la educación. Solo tuvimos cuatro días sin clases, tiempo que necesitábamos para afinar la plataforma. Cuando comenzamos a usar CYPHER Learning, teníamos estudiantes trabajando al 100 por ciento. Algunas escuelas optaron por la enseñanza sincrónica que es muy agotadora. Nosotros optamos por la enseñanza síncrona mixta y eso ayudó a evitar que los alumnos se cansaran, al igual que sus padres. Los alumnos podían sacar lo mejor de sí mismos.

¿Cuál es mi experiencia con los precios, el costo de configuración y las licencias?

El precio de CYPHER Learning es bueno.

¿Qué otro consejo tengo?

No creo que haya otras herramientas que puedan ser mejores que los sistemas internos que hemos construido lenta y estratégicamente en CYPHER Learning. Antes de implementarlo, debe tener claro cuáles son sus objetivos educativos y cómo funciona internamente su sistema educativo. Necesitas tener tu sistema pedagógico organizado. Para una institución que está en proceso de cambios y buscando una oportunidad de mejora, esta podría ser una muy buena oportunidad.

Lo que he aprendido usando CYPHER Learning es que la tecnología nos permite personalizar y diferenciar mucho más la educación. Nos ayuda a lograr los objetivos de aprendizaje más fácil cuando lo usamos de forma correcta. También proporciona un gran compromiso para los estudiantes con la tecnología. Tanto los alumnos de alto rendimiento como los estudiantes con dificultades están mejor atendidos y reciben una atención especial.

At the university where I work, we use the platform for everything related to undergraduate training. This is for the 30 career paths that we have at the university for approximately 5,000 students.

Right now, CYPHER Learning is being applied at the undergraduate level, but we are planning to increase and migrate it to the university level.

At the pedagogical level, we have applied a cascade strategy. They gave all teachers three weeks to learn how to use CYPHER Learning in the midst of the pandemic. So, we selected one to two teachers to be trained with CYPHER Learning and represent each of the careers, then they replicated that training to approximately 15 teachers each. This way, teachers in the same area trained their colleagues.

Our previous platform had forums, but CYPHER Learning has been able to help a lot with this. For example, I use the discussion and debate manual with students who usually are not very participatory but very critical and analytic in the platform. That is how I discovered that these are very good students. These activities are quite meaningful because students have greatly appreciated the use of the platform, which provides them with a certain order. Also, teachers can give them direct feedback, comments, and even voice notes on the platform.

CYPHER Learning has allowed all our teachers to conduct more actions, and each action can be handled at the teacher's convenience.

I like that you can choose your home screen widget. We have a centralized calendar that sends a reminder to students about tasks that are due.

The truth is that the organization of the platform helps me a lot. I have been able to identify students in the classroom who may need a little more time to present work. CYPHER Learning allows me to extend the dates of a task’s presentation, while I can leave the same date for other students. The flexibility of having a task hidden, or where I can provide a new space so they wont lose points, is quite useful. This way, the university is more considerate of students who take more time to learn.

I find the automation and adaptive learning purposes of CYPHER Learning quite interesting. However, we haven't been shown much about the automation menu. This year, there was an update with the widgets. It seems to me that it can be used quite well as soon as they inform us. Our students used it autonomously, but not everyone has seen the benefits. As a teacher, I have had to personalize the functions on the panel and its synchronization. Without having explored it, I would not have seen the importance.

There is improvement needed in regards to notifications for updates. I don't know if it is the responsibility of the university and its administration or making adjustments to CYPHER Learning's communication, such as having a message about updates on the platform. 

We don't receive any notifications about updates to the solution's adaptive learning. We find out when it is already there in the solution.

The gamification option is a section that we have not learned because we have not been able to specify a training space for the use of this gamification tab. However, it would be good to have training and learn about how to use it.

It is super easy to be able to locate my students and send them a message. I just can't send a message to all my students, as it doesn't allow me to send messages through an email list. The search engine for people is a bit more complicated than gmail.

I have been using it since August 2020.

There have been two moments where CYPHER Learning failed us a bit. One was due to an update that took two hours and another that took ten minutes. After that, we haven't had any major problems.

We are the only university in the country using CYPHER Learning as a platform. It is a fairly complete platform that allows teachers to have a new experience within a new space. Thanks to this solution, teachers are prepared to use different types of platforms.

We have 510 teachers and 5,000 students at our headquarters. We have a monitor role, which allows us to enter teacher subjects or enter the student profiles to see their progress. There is also an administrator role which allows us to do modifications to different platforms. At the headquarters level, there are about 30 people who do monitoring and only one administrator.

Whenever I have had a doubt, I accessed the forums and FAQ. In most cases, it gave me the answers. I have realized that a lot depends on the administrator and his actions. In general, the forum has helped me a lot.

I would rate the customer service/technical support for this solution as 10 out of 10.

Positive

We used to have Moodle, which is a better-known platform, but we had an out-of-date version. With CYPHER Learning, we massively updated right in the middle of the pandemic and were able to organize all our subjects.

When we previously had Moodle, a teacher had to request that their space would be created on the platform, as it was not mandatory, and between 15% to 20% of the subjects were used as a repository for information. Whereas, since the pandemic and deploying CYPHER Learning, it has become an obligation. The university has established that the use of CYPHER Learning is mandatory. Therefor, every time academic programming is done for each semester, all teachers (by default) already have their subject created and students admitted to CYPHER Learning, Administratively, this has helped us a lot because they already link the university's programming with CYPHER Learning, so students who have signed up for a subject appear in the system.

Since July 2020, we have been training all teachers and conducting follow-ups for each subject. As every semester passes, we continue to show the platform to new teachers. So far, we have had between a 65% to 70% implementation of CYPHER Learning.

We have rubrics for all the teachers. Their learning units and sections are all created in them. With these rubrics, we check the level of teachers, then we send feedback to each of the teachers via email.

When we started the training, they taught us the initial configurations. It did not seem complicated to me. Now that we have the qualification tables, which we requested not to be modified, it seems much easier.

We already had some university staff who were in charge of all the teachers. However, due to the implementation of CYPHER Learning, we had to ask for help from a consultant. The consultant has helped us a lot. He has divided the work between the staff, making tasks easier.

At the national level, the technology coordinator has two people at his headquarters, then he has one person at each branch. There should be six people total at the national level.

CYPHER Learning has helped save me about 40% of my time on intervention strategies for students, especially those who need guidance. There are a lot of teachers who always teach the same subject, so they can modify aspects based on a student’s need. It provides automatic feedback as well as the ability to attach documents and videos, which can be very helpful.

CYPHER Learning has helped us save on costs related to printing materials and textbook acquisitions. For example, we have a library department that has been able to include eBooks in CYPHER Learning. We, as teachers, have had the opportunity to have the latest editions of books, and you can only access those eBooks from our platform. The presentation of work through the platform also helps us a lot in saving on paper.

CYPHER Learning is a bit more expensive than our previous solution.

We evaluated Blackboard and checked out the latest versions of Moodle.

Before using the training that the platform offers you, have a meeting with the mentors about the main needs of your institution. Each university is different and managed differently. It was difficult for us to understand how the basic training translates to what we specifically needed because CYPHER Learning is very big. For the first time, I would advise the formation and implementation processes of the platform to be in consensus with the main entities of the institution.

In general, a gamified learning environment depends a lot on the teacher's usage. I have been able to share material and include external activities, which can be carried out with a SCORM as well as do other activities.

Before, the platform was optional and not mandatory. Therefore, the task of monitoring has increased with this solution.

I believe that asynchrony has allowed me to create spaces that are not only in obligatory synchronous spaces, such as physical classes. I have had contact with my students outside class hours, being able to provide direct feedback and organize their ideas. I can know when they have completed tasks without seeing them personally. This has been one of the best lessons and treasures of this platform.

It is very useful when learning to exploit all CYPHER Learning's tools.

I would rate this solution as 8.5 out of 10.

Foreign Language: (Spanish)

¿Cuál es nuestra razón de uso principal?

En la universidad donde trabajo usamos la plataforma para todo lo relacionado con la formación de pregrado. Esto es para las 30 carreras que tenemos en la universidad para aproximadamente 5,000 estudiantes.

En este momento, CYPHER Learning se está aplicando a nivel de pregrado, pero estamos planeando aumentarlo y migrarlo a nivel universitario.

¿Cómo ha ayudado a mi organización?

A nivel pedagógico hemos aplicado una estrategia en cascada. Les dieron a todos los maestros tres semanas para aprender a usar CYPHER Learning en medio de la pandemia. Entonces, seleccionamos uno o dos maestros para capacitarse con CYPHER Learning y representar cada una de las carreras, luego replicaron esa capacitación a aproximadamente 15 maestros cada uno. De esta forma, los docentes de la misma área capacitaban a sus colegas.

Nuestra plataforma anterior tenía foros, pero CYPHER Learning ha podido ayudar mucho con esto. Por ejemplo, utilizo el manual de discusión y debate con alumnos que suelen ser poco participativos pero sí muy críticos y analíticos en la plataforma. Así descubrí que estos son muy buenos estudiantes. Estas actividades son bastante significativas porque los alumnos han valorado mucho el uso de la plataforma, que les proporciona cierto orden. Además, los profesores pueden darles retroalimentación directa, comentarios e incluso notas de voz en la plataforma.

¿Qué es lo más valioso?

CYPHER Learning ha permitido que todos nuestros maestros realicen más acciones, y cada acción se puede manejar a la conveniencia del maestro.

Me gusta que puedas elegir tu widget de pantalla de inicio. Tenemos un calendario centralizado que envía un recordatorio a los estudiantes sobre las tareas que vencen.

La verdad es que la organización de la plataforma me ayuda mucho. He podido identificar estudiantes en el salón de clases que pueden necesitar un poco más de tiempo para presentar el trabajo. CYPHER Learning me permite extender las fechas de presentación de una tarea, mientras que puedo dejar la misma fecha para otros estudiantes. La flexibilidad de tener una tarea oculta, o donde puedo proporcionar un nuevo espacio para que no pierdan puntos, es bastante útil. De esta manera, la universidad es más considerada con los estudiantes que les toma más tiempo aprender.

¿Qué necesita mejorar?

Encuentro bastante interesantes los propósitos de automatización y aprendizaje adaptativo de CYPHER Learning. Sin embargo, no se nos ha mostrado mucho sobre el menú de automatización. Este año hubo una actualización con los widgets. Me parece que se puede utilizar bastante bien en cuanto nos informen. Nuestros alumnos lo usaron de forma autónoma, pero no todos han visto los beneficios. Como profesora he tenido que personalizar las funciones del panel y su sincronización. Sin haberlo explorado, no habría visto la importancia.

Se necesita una mejora en lo que respecta a las notificaciones de actualizaciones. No sé si es responsabilidad de la universidad y su administración o hacer ajustes en la comunicación de CYPHER Learning, como tener un mensaje sobre actualizaciones en la plataforma.

No recibimos ninguna notificación sobre actualizaciones del aprendizaje adaptativo de la solución. Descubrimos cuando ya está allí en la solución.

La opción de gamificación es un apartado que no hemos aprendido porque no hemos podido concretar un espacio de formación para el uso de esta pestaña de gamificación. Sin embargo, sería bueno tener capacitación y aprender sobre cómo usarlo.

Es súper fácil poder localizar a mis alumnos y enviarles un mensaje. Aunque no puedo enviar un mensaje a todos mis alumnos, ya que no me permite enviar mensajes a través de una lista de correo electrónico. El buscador de personas es un poco más complicado que gmail.

¿Por cuánto tiempo he usado la solución?

Lo uso desde agosto de 2020.

¿Qué pienso sobre la estabilidad de la solución?

Han habido dos momentos en los que CYPHER Learning nos ha fallado un poco. Uno se debió a una actualización que tardó dos horas y otro que tardó diez minutos. Después de eso, no hemos tenido ningún problema importante.

¿Qué opino de la escalabilidad de la solución?

Somos la única universidad del país que utiliza CYPHER Learning como plataforma. Es una plataforma bastante completa que permite a los docentes tener una nueva experiencia dentro de un nuevo espacio. Gracias a esta solución, los docentes están preparados para utilizar diferentes tipos de plataformas.

Contamos con 510 docentes y 5.000 alumnos en nuestra sede. Tenemos un rol de monitor, que nos permite ingresar a las asignaturas del profesor o ingresar a los perfiles de los alumnos para ver su progreso. También hay un rol de administrador que nos permite hacer modificaciones a diferentes plataformas. A nivel de sede hay unas 30 personas que hacen el seguimiento y un solo administrador.

¿Cómo es el servicio de atención al cliente y el soporte?

Siempre que he tenido una duda he accedido a los foros y la sección de preguntas frecuentes. En la mayoría de los casos, me da las respuestas. Me he dado cuenta de que mucho depende del administrador y sus acciones. En general, el foro me ha ayudado mucho.

Calificaría el servicio de atención al cliente/soporte técnico para esta solución con un 10 de 10.

¿Cómo calificaría el servicio y soporte al cliente?

Positivo.

¿Qué solución usé anteriormente y por qué cambié?

Solíamos tener Moodle, que es una plataforma más conocida, pero teníamos una versión desactualizada. Con CYPHER Learning, actualizamos masivamente justo en medio de la pandemia y pudimos organizar todos nuestros temas.

Cuando antes teníamos Moodle, un docente tenía que solicitar que se creara su espacio en la plataforma, ya que no era obligatorio, y entre el 15% y el 20% de las asignaturas lo utilizaban como repositorio de información. Desde la pandemia y el despliegue de CYPHER Learning, se ha convertido en una obligación. La universidad ha establecido que el uso de CYPHER Learning es obligatorio. Por lo tanto, cada vez que se hace la programación académica de cada semestre, todos los docentes (por defecto) ya tienen su materia creada y los estudiantes admitidos en CYPHER Learning, Administrativamente esto nos ha ayudado mucho porque ya vinculan la programación de la universidad con CYPHER Learning, entonces los estudiantes que se han apuntado a una asignatura aparecen automáticamente en el sistema.

¿Cómo fue la configuración inicial?

Desde julio de 2020, estamos capacitando a todos los docentes y realizando seguimientos para cada materia. Como cada semestre pasa, seguimos mostrando la plataforma a los nuevos docentes. Hasta ahora, hemos tenido entre un 65% y un 70% de implementación de CYPHER Learning.

Tenemos rúbricas para todos los profesores. En ellos se crean todas sus unidades de aprendizaje y secciones. Con estas rúbricas, verificamos el nivel de los maestros y luego enviamos comentarios a cada uno de los maestros por correo electrónico.

¿Y el equipo de implementación?

Cuando comenzamos el entrenamiento, nos enseñaron las configuraciones iniciales. No me pareció complicado. Ahora que tenemos las tablas de clasificación, que solicitamos que no se modifiquen, parece mucho más fácil.

Ya teníamos algunos funcionarios de la universidad que estaban a cargo de todos los maestros. Sin embargo, debido a la implementación de CYPHER Learning, tuvimos que pedir ayuda a un consultor. El consultor nos ha ayudado mucho. Ha repartido el trabajo entre la plantilla, facilitando las tareas.

A nivel nacional el coordinador de tecnología tiene dos personas en su sede, luego tiene una persona en cada sucursal. Deben haber seis personas en total a nivel nacional.

¿Cuál fue nuestro retorno de inversión?

CYPHER Learning me ha ayudado a ahorrar alrededor del 40 % de mi tiempo en estrategias de intervención para estudiantes, especialmente para aquellos que necesitan orientación. Hay muchos profesores que siempre enseñan la misma materia, por lo que pueden modificar aspectos en función de la necesidad del alumno. Proporciona retroalimentación automática, así como la capacidad de adjuntar documentos y videos, lo que puede ser muy útil.

CYPHER Learning nos ha ayudado a ahorrar en costos relacionados con materiales de impresión y adquisición de libros de texto. Por ejemplo, tenemos un departamento de biblioteca que ha podido incluir libros electrónicos en CYPHER Learning. Nosotros, como docentes, hemos tenido la oportunidad de contar con las últimas ediciones de libros, y solo puedes acceder a esos eBooks desde nuestra plataforma. La presentación de trabajos a través de la plataforma también nos ayuda mucho en el ahorro de papel.

¿Cuál es mi experiencia con los precios, el costo de configuración y las licencias?

CYPHER Learning es un poco más caro que nuestra solución anterior.

¿Qué otras soluciones evaluaron?

Evaluamos Blackboard y comprobamos las últimas versiones de Moodle.

¿Qué otro consejo tengo?

Antes de utilizar la capacitación que te ofrece la plataforma, ten una reunión con los mentores sobre las principales necesidades de tu institución. Cada universidad es diferente y se administra de manera diferente. Fue difícil para nosotros entender cómo se traduce el entrenamiento básico en lo que necesitábamos específicamente porque CYPHER Learning es muy grande. Para la primera vez, recomendaría que los procesos de formación e implementación de la plataforma sean consensuados con las principales entidades de la institución.

En general, un entorno de aprendizaje gamificado depende mucho del uso que haga el profesor. He podido compartir material e incluir actividades externas, que se pueden realizar con un SCORM así como hacer otras actividades.

Antes, la plataforma era opcional y no obligatoria. Por lo tanto, la tarea de monitoreo se ha incrementado con esta solución.

Creo que la asincronía me ha permitido crear espacios que no son solo espacios de sincronía obligatoria, como las clases físicas. He tenido contacto con mis alumnos fuera del horario de clases, pudiendo retroalimentarnos directamente y organizar sus ideas. Puedo saber cuándo han completado las tareas sin verlos personalmente. Esta ha sido una de las mejores lecciones y tesoros de esta plataforma.

Es muy útil a la hora de aprender a explotar todas las herramientas de CYPHER Learning.

Calificaría esta solución como 8.5 de 10.