CYPHER Learning Reviews

We were searching for a learning management system that had unusual features to meet our requirements, including the ability to sell our course.

A significant improvement is the performance we get. Our other system has performance issues. Sometimes, it takes that system ages to upload the content, to set up users and enroll a course, et cetera. With CYPHER Learning, it's just a matter of clicks and the system reacts immediately. And there is definitely very solid IT performance in the back end. It's a huge time saver. 

The system is also responsive, which is highly appreciated among our clients and customers, as well as our staff, as they can do everything on their mobile devices.

In terms of administrative work and costs, with CYPHER Learning, they are about a quarter of what they were. In the dental business, it's necessary to have hands-on training, but we also have a lot of remote training activities, so we still have a certain collection of tools to provide everything, but we are on our way to integrating everything under one roof with CYPHER Learning.

When looking for a solution, we defined a certain set of must-have features as well as some advanced features that would be good to have. And CYPHER Learning has both. 

The core functionality includes

• an intuitive, multilingual user interface
• responsive design
• proper content and user management
• support for blended learning
• flexible testing and assessment options
• integration with customer-relations management
• payment gateways
• reporting and e-commerce functionality

E-commerce is still one of the exotic features, meaning that not all LMS providers offer it. It is critical for us. We have had no trouble implementing payment gateways with this system and it works out-of-the-box without any special tricks. This is probably the most critical feature for us.

It also was important that we have a multi-portal architecture so that we could run several systems under one roof. And stability and performance were important to us. We have another solution to compare it with and we were searching for improvements over that solution's performance.

The system offers a lot of features and they are very well structured. I have been involved in software development for over 30 years and, from that perspective, it's a great system. It would be really challenging to make it simpler. I get along with the system very well, and colleagues of mine, without any IT or software development background, also get along quite well with it. It's very user-friendly.

The advanced features include

• artificial intelligence-driven features
• social learning support
• mobile delivery methods 
• real-time learning analytics.
  

So far we have only made one suggestion. There is a great feature that enables self-registration for a user and it comes with an access code. Unfortunately, there is only one access code and it works for all portals. We would appreciate a dedicated access code for different portals. So far, this is the only feature we would appreciate having, but we can live without it.

We have been using CYPHER Learning for over 15 months.

We are still in the setup phase, not full deployment. The system is in place and we already have some portals, but we are still not completely alive.

It has the highest possible stability. We have had no downtime, connections lost, or any data loss. The system is absolutely stable and reliable.

It's probably the most scalable LMS I have ever seen.

We already have a number of small, dedicated portals for our subsidiary. We also set up a dummy LMS portal for our top customers, to show them how it can work. And we have a little pilot group of 25 people who are testing what we are uploading.

We get great support. We have one person from the sales team who is extremely skilled, and we also have a dedicated technical assistant. He is extremely skilled in all technical questions, but he also provides us with great best practices. We can also get questions answered from the community, which is quite huge, and from help material.

Positive

We had several systems in the house because some providers bound the sharing of content with their own LMSs, so we could only get the content if we took their systems. We still have some old LMSs from a "previous life", so to speak. And we have a learning management system as part of a document management system. But the key needs haven't been covered by these systems and that is why we picked up another one, and we are working on content migration to shut down one of our learning management systems.

One of the reasons we bought this solution was because the system is in place as soon as you enter the credit card number. It's a SaaS and, compared to other systems that are deployed over a certain period of time, we received everything out of the box from the very beginning. It was absolutely straightforward. 

The only part that was challenging was a lack of knowledge of best practices, given that there are so many ways to set it up. But from a technical perspective, there were absolutely no issues. We messed up a couple of things, but those were our fault. The system provides extremely good information videos as well as some printed material and documentation. That was more than enough for us.

The deployment itself took about two days. The only thing we had to do was customize the colors and put up some images and that was it.

As I already had some experience with learning management systems, and we have four systems in-house, based on this experience, we knew what to do fairly well. It was a real pleasure to realize that the system provides a better solution, compared to others. We didn't need to cap existing workflows.

For the deployment and maintenance, one person is needed. I was responsible for the overall process: evaluation, negotiation, deployment, and completion.

We have already generated so many savings with this platform that it's paid out, and it's not a huge investment. I hardly believe it could be less expensive. The value for money is unbeatable.

For us, it's great savings in terms of money. The system is not cheap but it's affordable. The pricing is fair. And CYPHER LEARNING has flexible plans, depending on the number of active users there are, and not on the number of licenses. This allows us to cover all our needs with a lower number of users. If we don't have a lot of active users we pay less, and if we have a lot of action in the system, we pay more, which is absolutely fine.

There are no costs in addition to the standard licensing fee. The cherry on top was that we received all the functionality with the simplest plan, the one with the minimal number of users. It couldn't be any better.

I evaluated 52 systems. After the first round, I selected 16, and in the last round, there were seven. I had extensive hands-on experience with all seven and CYPHER Learning beat them all.

My advice is that you should definitely know what you're searching for because there are so many learning management systems. A good source to start with is first-hand reports. It's also a question of experience. Some people know some learning management systems from previous lives or previous jobs.

The solution enables us to see who has not accessed the portal but that feature is less important for us because the information we provide is for people who are searching for it, so there is no pressure from our side. There is a need on the user's side to access it. 

Also, its competency-based learning feature is far beyond our needs. We would like to implement this in the near future because the feature itself is awesome, and the way it's implemented is great, but our needs are more simple at the moment.

I have already had several calls from potential CYPHER Learning customers. it's such a great product and they have such lovely people, so it's a pleasure to help them acquire more customers.

We use CYPHER Learning as the core of our online learning platform. We are using it not only to deliver training courses for our customers but also for our employees.  

CYPHER Learning was the key enabler in transforming our traditional classroom-based training services to a fully digital online service providing more options to our customers and, at the same time, providing better insights to us.

With help of online training, we can directly access our customers worldwide and get instant feedback about our own performance as well. 

MATRLIX LMS offers plenty of customization options, so we managed to brand it as our own storefront for training services. Via API connection, we managed to integrate it into our company business systems.

CYPHER Learning is capable of supporting the administration, delivery, and management of all kinds of training activities, including online self-paced, online trainer-led, online hybrid, and classroom trainer-led courses. We also use it to deliver certification exam tests and distribute e-books with great success.

The in-depth reporting feature of CYPHER Learning enables us to better understand the training needs of our customers and monitor the performance of our training services.

Gamification is a great tool for inspiring registered users to remain active and learn more.

We have a huge user base and a large number of courses in our catalog, so there is always room for improving catalog screen loading times.

Due to the complexity of our business, we would welcome more options for access rights management.

It could offer more configuration options for e-commerce and be more flexible in product portfolio presentations.  

We have been using CYPHER Learning as an online learning platform since 2020.

Our company is a training boutique dedicated to courses for adults. We are a team that varies between two to ten trainers and offers courses for 15 to 80 participants.

We use CYPHER Learning to deliver asynchronous remote online courses. The courses we offer are for adult training in the professional field or personal development.

The courses offered are based on a specific calendar or are courses that can be taken at your own pace.

We also use CYPHER Learning to generate the web page (portal) where we have the product catalog and through which we sell our online courses.

We were able to build a whole learning ecosystem. 

The lessons we offer in each course can be both in written format and in audio or video format. This dramatically helps participants to choose their best way of learning.

In addition to the lessons provided, I developed various assignments. We also built a valuable relationship between trainers and participants through various features of the platform: rubrics, feedback, notes, mastery, and skills.

The platform allowed us several integrations with other systems. Also, translating menus into different languages helps our participants a lot.

There are many facilities offered by CYPHER Learning. 

For us, the biggest feature of the platform is that we can build competency systems. Thus, through the courses, we can certify the different skills of our participants. Within the platform, these competencies are linked to each learning module and each assurance. This allows us very good control over the competencies demonstrated by the participants.

We use the grading system a lot, and that's why the platform's rubrics and automatic scoring systems are very useful. Together with the ability to customize each notification and set rules applicable to each assignment, we can provide immediate and consistent feedback to participants.

We also use gamification to generate motivation for learning through play.

There needs to be greater granularity of user packages. We don't always have 100 users per month. However, we pay for 100.

We need a better solution for controlling inactive users. For example, any active user who connects to the platform generates costs for us, even if he is no longer an active participant. This means that we cannot be in control of the monthly costs unless we deactivate the user. Except if we do it this way, he loses contact with us.

The platform proposes a report-building system; however, this system is cumbersome and not intuitive.

We've been using the solution since 2013.

I used an alternative solution previously. I abandoned that solution since the platform had become a closed one that can no longer be used publicly.

I recommend a good calculation of costs per user. They will need a different solution (CRM type) to maintain the relationship with the old users, otherwise, they will be charged every time the old users connect to the platform again.

I have evaluated other platforms as well. At the moment, I don't remember them. It was nine years ago. That said, since then, I have not looked for another solution.

CYPHER Learning is a solution that understands the needs of a trainer and those of a participant in different courses. These needs are covered by a wide and almost complete range of facilities and solutions.

Therefore, it is important to expect constant changes in features and interface. CYPHER Learning is constantly working on updates, and the change is done automatically, suddenly, and without much notice.

Customer service (if you don't have a dedicated one) is forum-based only, and responses can take anywhere from one hour to two days, depending on the time zone.

Our company provides aligners to align your teeth, instead of braces. We have a network of doctors and we use CYPHER Learning for our academy where we have courses on how to do specific things with aligners and to explain the treatment. We use it to explain orthodontic procedures and we have a list of courses that we share with our doctors.

There are a few benefits we have seen. First, it helps us create a more seamless onboarding journey for any doctor. We've integrated the LMS with our CRM system and whenever we have a new doctor in the CRM system, they automatically get login instructions for our academy. They then have to go through certification for our treatment. After that, they can move on to the other courses and start submitting their aligner cases for their patients. CYPHER Learning enables this cycle and it has made the journey more seamless for new doctors. 

And for doctors who are already in our CRM, of course, it helps us in giving them the knowledge they need, because some of them lack some skills. Instead of doing one-to-one calls and support with our clinical team, now they can watch specific courses and get the knowledge they need.

The solution has saved us costs because we used to have many one-to-one calls with the clinical team and commercial teams. Some of the courses now substitute for that. They can go ahead and watch them instead of speaking to one of our team members.

And there are some new features that are important for us. The branded mobile app is one because, now, everyone is surfing on their mobiles instead of their computers. That's going to be a value-add. And while we haven't utilized the point system a lot yet, when we give specific points to specific courses and then link that to our loyalty program, it's going to make a difference.

Some of the features we like are the 

• usability of the interface
• group feature 
• points system.

The usability makes it easy for our doctors to find whatever they're looking for. The groups help them interact with each other, creating a kind of network and a place of engagement. It's not just a platform to go and learn and get out. It's a place where they can actually interact with other doctors and share experiences.

It also enables us to see who has not accessed the portal and we send them reminders to log in. And for those who, for example, have already enrolled in one course, we try to upsell them to enroll in more courses and complete them.

That follow-up ability is very important internally because we need to see more interaction with the academy. We want our doctors to have the knowledge they need to use the treatment. We believe that the academy has the right skills and knowledge that they need, so we try to push as much as we can for them to go into the academy and learn as much as they can from the courses we offer.

Improvement is needed to the reporting options and system because sometimes it's not very accurate. We feel that there are not enough aspects to report on. We need some more advanced reporting.

There should also be some more customization for admin roles and what specific things an admin should have permissions on, instead of having just one kind of admin role.

I have been using CYPHER Learning for six months.

It's pretty stable. In the six months there has not been any downtime for the platform.

I think it's pretty scalable, even if you have different organizations or if you want to white label it.

We have 350 active doctors in our academy. We have done some interviews and surveys and their feedback about it is pretty good.

We onboard new doctors every month and we're trying to increase utilization from our current doctors. We've invited around 1,000 doctors. We're putting together plans on how to increase usage from the doctors who haven't logged in, and from those who have logged in to enroll in more courses.

CYPHER LEARNING's support replies very fast. Most of them are very knowledgeable and get back to you on-point. It's excellent.

Positive

We used to work with Mindflash LMS. We switched because we were not fully utilizing their features and we wanted to find a platform that suits our new requirements. CYPHER Learning fit those better and at a really convenient price.

The initial setup of CYPHER Learning was very straightforward. The process of onboarding it was very easy. Whenever I had a question, I posted it on the support forum and they were very responsive and fast in replying to what I needed. They always solved whatever problem I had. And generally, the platform itself is very intuitive. You don't need major IT skills or other skills to upload your content to it. It was very simple.

It took about a week to deploy it.

We had all our content ready, so we just created the branding for the platform. We uploaded that and our content and we built the logic behind the courses. For example, some courses should be completed before others. And then we imported the contacts from our CRM to the academy, which automatically sent them their login instructions.

For now, we're offering our courses for free, so we're not monetizing them. But if we look into the return from a different aspect, we're arming our doctors with the knowledge they need to increase their patient case submissions to us. They're going to be feeling more confident to submit cases and start treating them with aligners, which is going to be beneficial for us.

We've looked into many solutions. Generally, CYPHER Learning fit our needs and the pricing was a very important factor in our decision.

Our company is both a reseller of CYPHER Learning solutions in South Africa and we use it ourselves.

One of our clients has implemented CYPHER Learning into their company. They have different divisions, contractors, and outside partners all learning on the platform. It is great for them to make training available to everyone across the globe. Through features such as creating organizations within the platform and using filters, they can make content available to the relative parties.

CYPHER Learning also offers the ability to make a course part of compliance. This offering has numerous settings which work well. Through notifications, learners are reminded about upcoming training which needs to be completed.

Administrators are also able to report on various data sets with very little effort.

Learning and development within this company have reached new heights.

CYPHER Learning is a cloud-based solution. This means you don’t have to do any updates. It is an easy system to understand with great UI/UX.

It is easy to report on learners’ progress and their competencies.

There is also a gamification aspect in the platform, which we really enjoy.

When CYPHER Learning partners with an outside product/service (which you can find via the App Center), there are usually a few issues where the two systems don’t communicate correctly. Perhaps a bit more testing before it gets released.

I have been using CYPHER Learning since April 2020.

It is very stable. I have no complaints.

The scalability is quite good. This solution is excellent for small, medium and enterprise companies.

We have clients with +3,000 users on the system. And they have stretched it like bubble gum, using the solution creatively and getting great results.

They really have a fantastic support team.

You can ask questions/advice and they reply quickly and with relevant feedback.

Positive

Setup from scratch is quite straightforward. If the company has multiple divisions, some upfront planning and mapping of the overview are advised.

If you are migrating from another system, it is advisable to first understand how the two systems are similar and different from each other.

It is hard to put a price on having been able to map out training paths and carry on with developing the last couple of years during the pandemic.

If you go for an open-source solution, the development costs add up and the customisation process can be frustrating. Although CYPHER Learning is not cheap, especially from a South African point of view, because of the exchange rate, you definitely get your money's worth. CYPHER Learning has an online support team who always helps and guides you with any issue/question. Their response time is speedy as well.

One of our clients moved from Moodle to CYPHER Learning. They moved as there was a lot of custom development which needed upkeeping on Moodle. CYPHER Learning is an out the box plug and play solution with automatic integrated updates.

The LMS is constantly being improved through new developments, integrations (new partners) and better UX/UI.

I would definitely recommend the CYPHER Learning, it's a great solution.

CYPHER Learning was especially helpful during the pandemic. All of the features were useful including creating and evaluating assignments, creating classes, creating child classes, badges, gamification, and more.

We are always doing training sessions, and whenever we think to use different features, such as the Portfolio, we include them in our training sessions. For instance, we do a training session for teachers before the school year starts. Then, if there are requests for retraining in the middle of the school year, we try to put those interested into the program.

We provide our users with content and basic tools through the CYPHER Learning Help Center. There is an icon in the system that leads to their help desk, and this is what we ask our teachers to use, especially during the training sessions. If they have issues or concerns about using any of the features that CYPHER Learning offers, we try to emphasize the use of the help icon to resolve them.

The most valuable feature is the ability for us to create personalized lessons. This is better suited to our students and learners than offering content or a subject that is already built into the system. This is one of the main things that I am looking for in an LMS.

When we create personalized classes, the concept of a child class is important. This is because we have our basic education but each course has several sections. In CYPHER Learning, a good feature is that we can create a child class based on a parent class. We don't need to create a new class and then upload new lessons or assignments.

When we create assignments and give them to the students, the system checks the answers based on the input made by the teachers.

The user interface makes the platform easy to use and manage.

We recently had a conversation with their team to discuss some of the changes that we wanted to see in the product.

There are some analytics issues that need to be resolved, including the item analysis.

We have had problems with synching some of the lessons.

The grading system itself is something that we discussed with them because it's not well-adapted in our use case. The list of students needs to be organized according to gender. The list of students in the product contains both male and female students, whereas, in our grading system, we list the male students followed by the female students.

The grade book needs to be improved because that is one of the most valuable features. It's how we assess our students.

The assessment tools should also be improved. It would be helpful if it could be set up in such a way that the students will be able to take an online exam. This will help to develop their higher-order thinking skills.

Perhaps they can integrate the course evaluations.

We have been using CYPHER Learning for more than two years.

CYPHER Learning is a stable platform. They provide their system maintenance notice ahead of time and for us, it means that we are able to announce it to the organization or to the institution ahead of time.

CYPHER Learning is committed to the stability of the system.

We are deployed across multiple locations. This school year, we have basic education from kindergarten through grade 12. We also have two college campuses with different departments, and this is in two different cities.

We have a total of 719 faculty, which are composed of teachers and other employees. We have a total of 15,316 students that also use the solution.

In our organization, some of the faculty are also enrolled in postgraduate study. They are able to use an exemption in this case and use their teacher's account.

Another aspect of scalability is upgrading. Specifically, we are able to level up. We were originally just using the basic features but now we are upgrading our horizons. We are including features such as portfolio, assignment, and other assessment tools. We did not stop growing after the first year.

We were also able to integrate other applications, such as Google Meet. We would like to use Zoom but Google Meet is the most convenient for us.

We are working toward using the Most Essential Learning Competencies (MELCs) next. Essentially, we didn't stop with what we had learned during the first two years. We are leveling up. Whatever products or features are being proposed or posted in the product news, we are trying to use them.

Their support is available 24/5 and they are excellent. They're very responsive.

They also have a support tracking system that shows the progress with respect to resolving an issue.

Overall, I would rate the support a nine out of ten.

Positive

We did a simple evaluation but otherwise, we did not use another LMS solution.

I was involved in the initial setup, but the majority of it was handled by our IT department. For the first year after our implementation, things were good. We did not experience challenges during the initial setup or immediately afterward.

Our implementation was done in stages, and training began with the core group. As a part of the core group, my training session was conducted by the CYPHER Learning team in the Philippines. After that, training was done for teachers in select groups. Not all of them were completed during the first year.

We selected different groups such as basic education from grade five to senior high, as well as selected courses in the colleges or in the bachelor's degree. Then, we also had postgraduate study. All of the teachers for these groups were trained during the first year.

During the first year, we also leveled up our training. We went from basic training to level two training, or perhaps intermediate training. The following year, we added courses and grade levels.

The next groups to be added were grades three and four. For the college courses, we added all of them. In fact, all of the higher education was added during the second year of our implementation.

From that point, our teachers have a training session before the school year starts, and we regularly upgrade the faculty members on the use of the system.

For our students, we create tutorial videos. These are particularly helpful for new students and transfers. We want them to be able to easily use the system.

Finally, as part of this process, we conduct training sessions specifically for newly hired teacher personnel. This is done in coordination with the HR department and with the approval of our vice president of academic affairs.

We have our IT specialist, who is also part of the team.

We have a team of five people that are responsible for maintenance, each of whom has their own role. We create accounts for teachers and students. We are also involved in creating training sessions, reactivation of archived accounts, and technical support.

If it is not a serious issue, we handle the technical support. However, if it is required at a higher level, then teachers are referred to consult the help icon.

The members of the team have their own regions. There is one for each of the two cities and three for higher education. Our IT technician is in addition to these five that maintain it. As we expand the use of our system, we expect this to increase as well. Also, as we continue to build, we are expanding our horizons.

For example, we are tapping the teachers and faculty members that we know are well-versed in the use of CYPHER Learning. For each of the five of us in the team, we are tapping perhaps two or three more per organization. In my case, with basic education, I have two from the elementary department and two from senior high. Then, from other colleges, I think there are two or more included in our team.

As an LMS coordinator, I cannot guarantee that we have seen ROI. However, my feeling from using the system is that we are getting a return on our investment.

We currently have a two-year contract with the vendor.

We have compared pricing with different vendors and found that CYPHER Learning was the most reasonable. It is not the most expensive platform of its type but it has a lot of good features, which is the most valuable thing for me. It gives us what is most useful for online teaching.

There are no additional costs for CYPHER Learning itself. However, we had an extra product that was built into the platform, and there was an additional charge for this.

Some of us worked with Moodle to assess it, although it was not used for a large number of students. In my case, I used Moodle for three sections just to do a dry run. However, I was not able to get value from it because I didn't find it to be a user-friendly platform. That's why we had to move to another LMS.

Our administration regularly looks into other learning platforms, although we are currently locked into a two-year contract so I don't expect that we will change solutions.

The first year after we implemented this solution was good. Our faculty members and students were excited to use the system. However, as the years have gone by, there have been problems or challenges that have arisen.

My advice for anybody who is considering this product is that they have a good design layout, and they have features such as course export, wherein we are allowed to export into different formats. This is something that is needed by the teachers. The e-portfolio is also good. Generally speaking, I recommend CYPHER Learning because there are components that have proven to be useful in managing activities, especially nowadays that we are in an online teaching, flexible learning delivery model.

Compared to other platforms, it is easy to use, manage, and navigate the interface. You do not necessarily need a tutor or training to learn to use it. It is convenient for the purpose of conducting assessments and using other tools. It helps to convey lessons and give information for both students and teachers, whether the sessions are synchronous or asynchronous.

The biggest lesson that I have learned from using this solution is that you should never stop learning. Don't stop exploring CYPHER Learning because otherwise, you'll depend on what has been taught during the training. You won't explore their new products and you will be left behind. If there are new products or features released, you should try them for yourself. If you find that they are productive and useful, then include them in future training sessions.

Most of our staff are grateful to have CYPHER Learning as our learning management system. There are still some features that we haven't used, including the portfolio and the grade book. We may look into the portfolio, as they have already enlightened us on how to use it to empower our work.

I would rate this solution a ten out of ten.