CYPHER Learning Reviews

Spaces are created for our subjects and courses and each teacher manages things according to their needs. I try to make content and sources of activities and actions that can be carried out by linking with other applications and I configure the grading aspect as well.

It has helped to make the relationship between the teacher and the student transparent in different ways. First of all, it allows the student and the teacher to know what progress the student has made. Second, in addition to the grading system, there are charts that both teachers and students can see, indicating the student's performance and their grades.

Transparency is one of the valuable aspects of the platform. I can be very transparent with students, both in terms of advancement in the subject and the production of knowledge. That is especially true in the areas of evaluations, qualifications, the possibilities for feedback and for corrections. That seems very important to me. CYPHER Learning gives me that ability and, in some cases, it motivates me to do extra work. Take, for example, a relatively mechanical quiz. Because there is an opportunity to give feedback, it makes it less mechanical and lets the students know where they were wrong and what the teacher's impression is. That seems important to me.

It has also allowed the incorporation of new tools linked to the platform. It is a day-to-day tool for me. Each step I take in the subject, whether it is virtual or face-to-face, has a corresponding feature in CYPHER Learning.

We're going through the pandemic and, with the confinement and quarantines, and even when there is a local outbreak, CYPHER Learning allows us to quickly turn to virtual education. We're embracing a type of hybrid education, and that has been fundamental during the pandemic.

It also allows me to have a source of reference for what is happening during the semester. It gives us a single record of face-to-face and virtual interactions, making it a more solid reference.

Another benefit is that it has helped save time on intervention strategies for students, especially those who need guidance. It has made that quite easy for me in particular cases. The fact that I can retrieve material from a library and upload it adaptively has saved me a lot of time and allows me to adapt to the situation.

The fact that the students have a point of reference on the platform means that classes are not fragmented. The platform allows the teacher to unify activities by focusing their students on instructions or content or activities. It creates pretty solid points of reference about the students.

It's also great that you don't have to print things. CYPHER Learning is not the only solution with this ability, as other applications allow you to do so. But we can link them with CYPHER Learning and that’s also good. The university has also included access to the international libraries and this means that students are not looking just anywhere for information but, instead, use these libraries. As a result, there have indeed been many cost savings. I prefer that students do work virtually instead of printing it.

Compared to other platforms, it is very user-friendly and intuitive, and both teachers and students can easily find what they need and use the functions without extensive training. Obviously, you need a minimum introduction to the system. 

There are a lot of built-in functionalities and many more functions than we use, things that we would need to know in detail.

In terms of automation, I have dedicated myself to doing tests or qualifications in a more automated way, but I have not delved into other things.

CYPHER Learning provides a variety of activities to help with student engagement. There are some students who are very limited when it comes to what the teacher offers them from the platform, but there are other students who exploit the resources of the platform quite well. Due to the lack of skills of some students in my country, there is no possibility of exploiting everything.

It allows the integration of different pedagogical approaches. While it is true that we cannot speak of a completely virtual scenario yet, what has been done instead is an adaptation from face-to-face to virtual. Many teachers have tried to recreate their face-to-face format, mediated by virtuality, and CYPHER Learning has been a source of material and of recorded and published classes. 

Some teachers have used other approaches, such as using the collaborative aspects that CYPHER Learning makes possible. That way, learning is not only via a shared class with explanations, but also includes activities that enable building and learning via collaboration. This is a leap that virtual education allows us. From my point of view, CYPHER Learning has both participatory and collaborative tools and this seems like a very good combination to me. It does not have everything, and it is true that there could be more applications adapted and included.

I wanted to use it as a source of communication with students, but that didn't work out very well. It is easy for educators to communicate with students, but CYPHER Learning is constituted as a formal communication tool. It shows what students and teachers say to each other, but for non-formal, practical notices, dialogues, and questions about what people did not understand, they use WhatsApp or Telegram a lot more. 

At the level of daily communications, CYPHER Learning is not the tool they use. It is only used for things like requesting permission or communicating with the whole class. The type of communication we have is quite horizontal in general, so there is a lot of non-formal communication, and that personal communication between the students and teachers is normally via WhatsApp or Telegram.

I would like to see an improvement in peer-bonding and the possibility for students to share knowledge among themselves regarding the work that they do. That would greatly help in that it wouldn’t be a one-to-many communication format. 

Another possibility would be incorporating additional applications to expand the functionalities of the platform. I don't know if they exist or not because I don't have administrator privileges, but that could be interesting.

Also, teachers do not have privileges compared to other platforms. We cannot connect applications that allow us to tune LMS or enhance it much.

Another point is that there are some jobs or tasks that cannot be seen by everybody. If someone submits jobs, I can see them but students do not have that possibility, or at least I have not discovered it.

I have been using CYPHER Learning for a year and a half to two years.

I have never had any problem with its availability. I know that there are students who have experienced problems that were linked to their browsers or to the internet access they had. But no problem has ever arisen with the platform itself. It has always worked quite well.

As an institution, we haven't tested the scalability extensively. We are a university with headquarters in four cities and the distance between them is 400 kilometers. CYPHER Learning has given us the opportunity to have a single subject with a single teacher who works in a given location and that has been a form of scalability that did not exist before. We call it "inter-branching."

We have about 20,000 students and about 2,000 teachers as well as another 500 people who are linked to other services who are probably using it. I don't know exactly how many users we have.

The university offers us this platform and all teachers and students are linked to it. Each one takes advantage of it in a different way. In certain cases and specific situations, other platforms are still used and they are not always linked to CYPHER Learning. There are teachers who prefer using other platforms for certain things.

I have never used the technical support but it is done via the platform, either face-to-face, in a phone call, or through a WhatsApp chat. From what I understand, they usually respond very quickly.

Positive

I have worked with other platforms, so when I saw CYPHER Learning it was very intuitive for me and I had no problems. It is necessary to invest a little time to understand certain modalities, but it is simple and friendly, once you know the environment.

It took me a couple of weeks to configure the essential things, while the more complex things took months.

As part of our implementation strategy, our university did three things. First, it called a local expert who was not from the institution or from CYPHER Learning, and he did the initial training. There was another training round for the teachers that went a little deeper, helping them to investigate and use the tool, especially in the field of evaluation. Finally, there was a course organized by an Argentine university that uses CYPHER Learning for pedagogical strategies.

We used an integrator at the beginning and a consultant later. Some of the training was more technical, about use of the platform itself and how it works. Other sessions were more about how to exploit it pedagogically. They were two different aspects but both were very helpful.

The consultant was a representative of the Catholic University of Salta in Argentina who gave us the more pedagogical aspects related to CYPHER Learning.

If we compare CYPHER Learning with Modul, the latter is free but the problem is that the amount of time one must dedicate to the configuration of its tools is considerable. When you translate that time into money, it has economic weight. With CYPHER Learning, everything is ready, making it simple to use without having too many deep configurations or requirements for knowledge of languages or programming.

I don't know how much CYPHER Learning costs, but if you have the budget, it is worth it.

At the beginning of the pandemic, we used a platform called Modul, which is open source, but it was less user-friendly for everyone. We also had a platform called Classroom but everything was a bit fragmented. CYPHER Learning has allowed us to unify all the teachers' and students' tasks in a single platform.

I have also used a paid platform called Docent, but with CYPHER Learning I have access to local platforms built by universities.

There are some other free online platforms and one where you have a trial version and then you can upgrade to a paid version and receive more tools. But it was very dedicated to the educational side, meaning the broadcasting of content and activities, but had very little in the way of evaluation or administrative management. In that sense, it did not provide the support we needed.

In the end, our university made CYPHER Learning the only official platform. Even if it hadn’t been mandatory, I would have chosen it anyway.

When it comes to competency-based learning I do not know if it is fully enabled in our case. I can see that the students have badges or awards, and when they have been outstanding in one subject or another, but I have not been able to see a record of the student's performance. It is likely that it is not enabled.

In terms of the staff needed to manage the LMS, we have had to dispense with some functions and enable other functions. Some administrative management has been decreased, but the level of technical support for students and teachers has increased. Some people have had to assume the roles of technological and pedagogical advisors, while others have been able to reduce their involvement in qualifications because those processes are more automatic.

It is a fairly complete product that not only allows you to manage content and educational activities but also to manage things administratively. You can create learning communities, and it enables you to link many tools. There are also many options for accessing libraries in one place. It is suitable for a university. Other educational institutions may find it too big.

Overall, it is quite good and has the essentials.

Foreign Language:(Spanish)

¿Cuál es nuestra razón de uso principal?

Se crean espacios para nuestras asignaturas y cursos y cada profesor gestiona las cosas según sus necesidades. Intento crear contenido y fuentes de actividades y acciones que se puedan realizar mediante la vinculación con otras aplicaciones y también configurar el aspecto de calificación.

¿Cómo ha ayudado a mi organización?

Ha ayudado a que la relación entre el profesor y el alumno sea transparente de diferentes maneras. En primer lugar, permite al alumno y al profesor saber qué progreso ha realizado el alumno. En segundo lugar, además del sistema de calificación, hay gráficos que tanto los profesores como los estudiantes pueden ver, que indican el desempeño del estudiante y sus calificaciones.

La transparencia es uno de los aspectos valiosos de la plataforma. Puedo ser muy transparente con los estudiantes, tanto en términos de avance en el tema como en la producción de conocimiento. Eso es especialmente cierto en las áreas de evaluaciones, calificaciones, las posibilidades de retroalimentación y correcciones. Eso me parece muy importante. CYPHER Learning me da esa capacidad y, en algunos casos, me motiva a hacer un trabajo extra. Tomemos, por ejemplo, un cuestionario relativamente mecánico. Debido a que existe la oportunidad de dar retroalimentación, lo hace menos mecánico y les permite a los estudiantes saber dónde se equivocaron y cuál es la impresión del maestro. Eso me parece importante.

También ha permitido la incorporación de nuevas herramientas vinculadas a la plataforma. Es una herramienta para mi día a día. Cada paso que doy en la materia, ya sea virtual o presencial, tiene una característica correspondiente en CYPHER Learning.

Estamos pasando por la pandemia y con el confinamiento y las cuarentenas, e incluso cuando hay un brote local, CYPHER Learning nos permite pasar rápidamente a la educación virtual. Estamos adoptando un tipo de educación híbrida, y eso ha sido fundamental durante la pandemia.

También me permite tener una fuente de referencia de lo que está pasando durante el semestre. Nos brinda un registro único de las interacciones presenciales y virtuales, lo que lo convierte en una referencia más sólida.

Otro beneficio es que ha ayudado a ahorrar tiempo en las estrategias de intervención para los estudiantes, especialmente para aquellos que necesitan orientación. Me lo ha facilitado bastante en casos particulares. El hecho de que pueda recuperar material de una biblioteca y cargarlo de forma adaptativa me ha ahorrado mucho tiempo y me permite adaptarme a la situación.

El hecho de que los alumnos tengan un punto de referencia en la plataforma hace que las clases no se fragmenten. La plataforma permite al docente unificar actividades enfocando a sus alumnos en instrucciones o contenidos o actividades. Crea puntos de referencia bastante sólidos sobre los estudiantes.

También es genial que no tengas que imprimir cosas. CYPHER Learning no es la única solución con esta capacidad, ya que otras aplicaciones te permiten hacerlo. Pero podemos vincularlos con CYPHER Learning y eso también es bueno. La universidad también ha incluido el acceso a las bibliotecas internacionales y esto significa que los estudiantes no buscan información en cualquier lugar, sino que utilizan estas bibliotecas. Como resultado, ha habido muchos ahorros de costos. Prefiero que los alumnos hagan el trabajo virtualmente en lugar de imprimirlo.

¿Qué es lo más valioso?

En comparación con otras plataformas, es muy fácil de usar e intuitiva, y tanto los profesores como los estudiantes pueden encontrar fácilmente lo que necesitan y utilizar las funciones sin tener una gran formación. Obviamente, necesitas una mínima introducción al sistema.

Hay un montón de funcionalidades integradas y muchas más funciones de las que usamos, cosas que necesitamos saber en detalle.

En cuanto a la automatización me he dedicado a hacer pruebas o calificaciones de forma más automatizada, pero no he profundizado en otras cosas.

CYPHER Learning ofrece una variedad de actividades para ayudar con la participación de los estudiantes. Hay algunos alumnos que se limitan en cuanto a lo que el profesor les ofrece desde la plataforma, pero hay otros alumnos que aprovechan bastante bien los recursos de la plataforma. Debido a la falta de habilidades de algunos estudiantes en mi país, no hay posibilidad de explotarlo todo.

Permite la integración de diferentes enfoques pedagógicos. Si bien es cierto que todavía no podemos hablar de un escenario completamente virtual, lo que se ha hecho en cambio es una adaptación de lo presencial a lo virtual. Muchos docentes han intentado recrear su formato presencial, mediado por la virtualidad, y CYPHER Learning ha sido fuente de material y de clases grabadas y publicadas.

Algunos profesores han utilizado otros enfoques, como el uso de los aspectos colaborativos que hace posible CYPHER Learning. De esa manera, el aprendizaje no es solo a través de una clase compartida con explicaciones, sino que también incluye actividades que permiten construir y aprender a través de la colaboración. Este es un salto que nos permite la educación virtual. Desde mi punto de vista, CYPHER Learning tiene herramientas tanto participativas como colaborativas y esta me parece una muy buena combinación. No lo tiene todo, y es cierto que podría haber más aplicaciones adaptadas e incluidas.

¿Qué necesita mejorar?

Quería usarlo como una fuente de comunicación con los estudiantes, pero eso no funcionó muy bien. Es fácil para los educadores comunicarse con los estudiantes, pero CYPHER Learning se constituye como una herramienta de comunicación formal. Muestra lo que se dicen alumnos y profesores, pero para avisos no formales, prácticos, diálogos y preguntas sobre lo que la gente no entendió, usan mucho más WhatsApp o Telegram.

A nivel de comunicaciones diarias, CYPHER Learning no es la herramienta que utilizan. Solo se usa para cosas como solicitar permiso o comunicarse con toda la clase. El tipo de comunicación que tenemos es bastante horizontal en general, por lo que hay mucha comunicación no formal, y esa comunicación personal entre alumnos y profesores es normalmente vía WhatsApp o Telegram.

Me gustaría ver una mejora en la vinculación entre pares y la posibilidad de que los estudiantes compartan conocimientos entre ellos sobre el trabajo que realizan. Eso sería de gran ayuda ya que no sería un formato de comunicación de uno a muchos.

Otra posibilidad sería incorporar aplicaciones adicionales para ampliar las funcionalidades de la plataforma. No sé si existen o no porque no tengo privilegios de administrador, pero eso podría ser interesante.

Además, los profesores no tienen privilegios en comparación con otras plataformas. No podemos conectar aplicaciones que nos permitan afinar LMS o potenciarlo mucho.

Otro punto es que hay algunos trabajos o tareas que no todos pueden ver. Si alguien envía trabajos, puedo verlos pero los estudiantes no tienen esa posibilidad, o al menos yo no la he descubierto.

¿Por cuánto tiempo he usado la plataforma?

He estado usando CYPHER Learning durante un año y medio o dos años.

¿Qué pienso sobre la estabilidad de la solución?

Nunca he tenido ningún problema con su disponibilidad. Sé que hay estudiantes que han tenido problemas que estaban relacionados con sus navegadores o con el acceso a Internet que tenían. Pero nunca ha surgido ningún problema con la plataforma en sí. Siempre ha funcionado bastante bien.

¿Qué opino de la escalabilidad de la solución?

Como institución, no hemos probado la escalabilidad de forma exhaustiva. Somos una universidad con sede en cuatro ciudades y la distancia entre ellas es de 400 kilómetros. CYPHER Learning nos ha dado la oportunidad de tener una sola asignatura con un solo profesor que trabaja en un lugar determinado y eso ha sido una forma de escalabilidad que antes no existía. Lo llamamos "interramificación".

Tenemos unos 20.000 alumnos y unos 2.000 profesores además de otras 500 personas que están vinculadas a otros servicios que probablemente lo estén utilizando. No sé exactamente cuántos usuarios tenemos.

La universidad nos ofrece esta plataforma y todos los profesores y alumnos están vinculados a ella. Cada uno lo aprovecha de una manera diferente. En determinados casos y situaciones específicas, se siguen utilizando otras plataformas y no siempre están vinculadas a CYPHER Learning. Hay profesores que prefieren usar otras plataformas para ciertas cosas.

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

Nunca he utilizado el soporte técnico pero se hace a través de la plataforma, ya sea presencial, en una llamada telefónica o a través de un chat de WhatsApp. Por lo que entiendo, suelen responder muy rápido.

¿Cómo calificaría el servicio y soporte al cliente?

Positivo.

¿Cómo fue la configuración inicial?

He trabajado con otras plataformas, así que cuando vi CYPHER Learning me resultó muy intuitivo y no tuve problemas. Es necesario invertir un poco de tiempo para entender ciertas modalidades, pero es sencillo y amigable, una vez que conoces el entorno.

Me llevó un par de semanas configurar las cosas esenciales, mientras que las cosas más complejas me llevaron meses.

Como parte de nuestra estrategia de implementación, nuestra universidad hizo tres cosas. Primero llamó a un experto local que no era de la institución ni de CYPHER Learning, y él hizo la capacitación inicial. Hubo otra ronda de formación para los profesores que profundizó un poco más, ayudándoles a investigar y utilizar la herramienta, especialmente en el ámbito de la evaluación. Finalmente, hubo un curso organizado por una universidad argentina que utiliza CYPHER Learning para estrategias pedagógicas.

¿Y el equipo de implementación?

Utilizamos un integrador al principio y un consultor después. Parte de la capacitación fue más técnica, sobre el uso de la plataforma en sí y cómo funciona. Otras sesiones fueron más sobre cómo explotarlo pedagógicamente. Eran dos aspectos diferentes, pero ambos fueron muy útiles.

El consultor fue un representante de la Universidad Católica de Salta en Argentina quien nos brindó los aspectos más pedagógicos relacionados con CYPHER Learning.

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

Si comparamos CYPHER Learning con Modul, Modul es gratuito pero el problema es que la cantidad de tiempo que hay que dedicar a la configuración de sus herramientas es considerable. Cuando traduces ese tiempo en dinero, tiene un peso económico. Con CYPHER Learning, todo está listo, lo que facilita su uso sin tener demasiadas configuraciones profundas o requisitos de conocimiento de lenguajes o programación.

No sé cuánto cuesta CYPHER Learning, pero si tienes el presupuesto, vale la pena.

¿Qué otras soluciones evalué?

Al comienzo de la pandemia, usábamos una plataforma llamada Modul, que es de código abierto, pero era menos fácil de usar para todos. También teníamos una plataforma llamada Classroom pero todo estaba un poco fragmentado. CYPHER Learning nos ha permitido unificar todas las tareas de profesores y alumnos en una única plataforma.

También he usado una plataforma paga llamada Docent, pero con CYPHER Learning tengo acceso a plataformas locales construidas por universidades.

Hay algunas otras plataformas en línea gratuitas y una de ellas tenía una versión de prueba y luego puedes actualizar a una versión paga y recibir más herramientas. estaba muy dedicada a la vertiente educativa, es decir, a la difusión de contenidos y actividades, pero tenía muy poco en cuanto a evaluación o gestión administrativa. En ese sentido, no proporcionó el apoyo que necesitábamos.

Al final, nuestra universidad convirtió a CYPHER Learning en la única plataforma oficial. Incluso si no hubiera sido obligatorio, lo habría elegido de todos modos.

¿Qué otro consejo tengo?

Cuando se trata de aprendizaje basado en competencias, no sé si está completamente habilitado en nuestro caso. Puedo ver que los alumnos tienen insignias o premios, y cuando se han destacado en una materia u otra, pero no he podido ver un registro del rendimiento del alumno. Es probable que no esté habilitado.

En cuanto al personal necesario para gestionar el LMS, hemos tenido que prescindir de algunas funciones y habilitar otras funciones. Se ha disminuido parte de la gestión administrativa, pero se ha incrementado el nivel de soporte técnico para estudiantes y profesores. Algunas personas han tenido que asumir roles de asesores tecnológicos y pedagógicos, mientras que otras han podido reducir su participación en las calificaciones porque esos procesos son más automáticos.

Es un producto bastante completo que no solo te permite gestionar contenidos y actividades educativas sino también gestionar cosas administrativamente. Puede crear comunidades de aprendizaje y te permite vincular muchas herramientas. También hay muchas opciones para acceder a las bibliotecas en un solo lugar. Es adecuado para una universidad. Otros tipos de instituciones educativas pueden encontrarlo demasiado grande.

En general, es bastante bueno y tiene lo esencial.

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.

I work with two levels of regular, basic education for children between the ages of three and five years. I also work in regular, basic education for primary students who are six to eight years old.

The system enables a playful, interesting, and attractive way for students to access information. Before the pandemic, the information they were presented with was seen as something rigid or routine. With CYPHER Learning, they have the possibility of being managers of their own learning. Thanks to CYPHER Learning, they have a new tool for adapting and getting ahead.

Before CYPHER Learning, the classes were a bit routine and common; even repetitive. Now, they are much more attractive. The system dusts off many things for you and reminds you that you have the capacity to do much more, to innovate from the base you already have, and this is very enriching for everyone. We all win.

Looking at the sections across the different rubrics that CYPHER Learning has allows students to have an overview. I find the way that CYPHER Learning presents all the information interesting, attractive, and easy to access. We have heterogeneous classrooms, and children have different attitudes, talents, intelligence, and emotions. Through CYPHER Learning, a teacher gets a much clearer vision.

The system helps create a sense of accompaniment, since students no longer feel alone. I listen to them as a teacher and, through CYPHER Learning, I can provide them with recommendations and make them feel safer as a student. These recommendations humanize us in their eyes.

With the five-year-old students in particular, we work a lot on the subjects of autonomy and self-help. CYPHER Learning has tools that allow them to work on that autonomy little by little. That way, when they reach primary school, they make great progress in terms of their autonomy and their development in individual and team-oriented work.

As a teacher, you have past experience, but CYPHER Learning provides you with more resources for educational work. If I want to refine the resources, it saves me a lot of time because I don't need to look for different tools to be able to share a video or upload other content. It's all together. If before working with CYPHER Learning, that kind of work took me a couple of days, now I'm talking about hours.

The work I do is not so administrative, it is more pedagogical because I am a teacher. But the platform has saved me time. In my pedagogical work, I have saved 90 percent because I have everything within reach. 

Of course, the system is all virtual; there is nothing printed out and not even any USBs are needed. Everything is within the platform.

For me, it is a great advantage to work with CYPHER Learning. It allows me to have access to students in a playful and practical way. 

The content that I upload is sent in advance so students are already familiar with my class and what I am going to work on. I indicate to students what the next topic will be, and this makes it much more effective in class. In CYPHER Learning, they can see exactly what the content will be in the following week. Of course, I do not tell them about all the content in order to create anticipation for the next class.

I am able to monitor the classes: who has entered, who has not entered yet, and who has viewed the classes.

If we are working on an assignment it allows me to upload an assessment rubric where they can see and learn about their progress.

There is also a section where they can communicate with me. They can send me messages and I can schedule consultations with them.

The platform's calendar allows me to synchronize the sessions. Apart from the sessions, I can include extra-curricular work. For example, I have an "open classroom" with students and I am able to carry out this project through the system. In that context, we could also see, using CYPHER Learning, which sections of the project we were in and learn more about it. The best thing is that not only the students who participated in the "open classroom" could access it, but also the rest of the students.

In terms of adaptive learning, through the different headings of CYPHER Learning, such as tasks and the sessions that are going to be developed, we work on the issue of inclusion, since it is open. The rhythm, style, and learning levels of the students are respected and they can access and process the information at their own pace, their own level, and according to their own interests.

Another advantage is that you have the tools to include a canvas, videos, words, and other striking and gamified elements.

As teachers, we have the option and the freedom to add content, and to work in a personalized way with the kids who need more attention. I can also make curricular adaptations to the needs of the group I'm teaching. I also really appreciate that this information is saved in CYPHER Learning. It's almost like a historical record that you can count on and access again.

All of these features are very valuable to me.

Something that bothers me is that CYPHER Learning does not allow me to upload high-resolution videos.

I would also like CYPHER Learning to constantly give training days for all the institutions that work with them. We recently had face-to-face training, but this could be done more frequently.

I have been using CYPHER Learning since 2020. 

There have been problems during the year, but they have been sporadic and they did not take long to resolve.

In our school, everyone uses it. Between administrative staff and teachers, we have about 300 people using it.

Last year, they met with us virtually. This year, they met with us face-to-face. I think there could be more continuous guidance on their part.

Positive

We used SieWeb and we continue to use it, but for other purposes. CYPHER Learning is much more practical and educational. SieWeb is much simpler.

I did not participate in the installation but I was one of the first to use it. When the pandemic started, only a few teachers began to work with CYPHER Learning. We investigated what it was about and, thanks to a CYPHER Learning consultant, it was implemented faster. The process took about a month.

In the beginning, we had training provided by the vendor. My experience with the person from Mexico who was part of the CYPHER Learning support team was good. I understood him pretty well. Then, those of us who had knowledge of the platform gave "mini-helping sessions" to the rest of our colleagues. Our school's system administrators also created tutorials in CYPHER Learning.

It seems to me that investing in CYPHER Learning means you will save a lot of time. It modernizes education, develops everyone's skills, helps us tune in with students, and humanizes us as teachers in our educational work.

Working with the children and being aware of their development, and working according to their skills, is a constant challenge. It commits us much more to our role as teachers and professionals. It also makes us better people. The work is done with full communication, as a team.

It makes things very comfortable because in CYPHER Learning you have the ability to communicate through a game, a post, a message, a poster, and other attractive ways. This helps communication to be fluid. In addition, parents have access to what we send. Depending on the area you work in, our institution has various requirements in terms of communication. If you are a tutor, communication must be continuous. If you are administrative, it varies. In my case, as a computer teacher, it is important. I think communication is essential.

The basis of helping students with their learning is focusing on their interests and approaching them in a pedagogical way to include everyone's interests. The CYP HER Learningplatform allows you to upload what you want to offer. It gives you the freedom to do the best you can and in the most creative way. It gives you all the tools. It also gives you the option to continue exploring and discovering much more.

Sometimes we exclude younger students from the use of CYPHER Learning because we think the tools are not suitable for them, but these tools have a lot to offer.

I have had a very interesting experience with a student who, for health reasons, cannot come to class. Through CYPHER Learning, she receives all the class material that her classmates receive. It is a complete package. And the system allows me to access the family and the student and benefits the child and our institution.

I would like to continue using CYPHER Learning and I would like to see many more options and updates with new features. I would recommend CYPHER Learning at any time. My advice to others is to continuously explore the tool. Familiarize yourself with the platform so that you get used to it and it enriches your educational work.

Foreign Language:(Spanish)

¿Cuál es nuestro caso de uso principal?

Trabajo con dos niveles de educación básica regular para niños de tres a cinco años. También trabajo en educación básica regular para niños de primaria de seis a ocho años.

¿Cómo ha ayudado a mi organización?

El sistema permite una forma lúdica, interesante y atractiva para que los estudiantes accedan a la información. Antes de la pandemia, la información que les presentaban era vista como algo rígido o rutinario. Con CYPHER Learning tienen la posibilidad de ser gestores de su propio aprendizaje. Gracias a CYPHER Learning, tienen una nueva herramienta para adaptarse y salir adelante.

Antes de CYPHER Learning, las clases eran un poco rutinarias y comunes; incluso repetitivas. Ahora, son mucho más atractivas. El sistema te desempolva muchas cosas y te recuerda que tienes capacidad para hacer mucho más, para innovar desde la base que ya tienes, y eso es muy enriquecedor para todos. todos ganamos

Mirar las secciones a través de las diferentes rúbricas que tiene CYPHER Learning permite a los estudiantes tener una visión general. La forma en que CYPHER Learning presenta toda la información me parece interesante, atractiva y de fácil acceso. Tenemos aulas heterogéneas y los niños tienen diferentes actitudes, talentos, inteligencia y emociones. A través de CYPHER Learning, un maestro obtiene una visión mucho más clara.

El sistema ayuda a crear un sentido de acompañamiento, ya que los estudiantes ya no se sienten solos. Los escucho como docente y, a través de CYPHER Learning, puedo brindarles recomendaciones y hacerlos sentir más seguros como estudiantes. Estas recomendaciones nos humanizan a sus ojos.

Con los alumnos de cinco años en particular, trabajamos mucho los temas de autonomía y autoayuda. CYPHER Learning dispone de herramientas que les permiten trabajar esa autonomía poco a poco. Así, cuando llegan a la escuela primaria, progresan mucho en cuanto a su autonomía y su desarrollo en el trabajo individual y en equipo.

Como docente, tienes experiencia previa, pero CYPHER Learning te brinda más recursos para el trabajo educativo. Si quiero afinar los recursos, me ahorra mucho tiempo porque no necesito buscar diferentes herramientas para poder compartir un video o subir otro contenido. Está todo junto. Si antes de trabajar con CYPHER Learning ese tipo de trabajo me tomaba un par de días, ahora hablo de horas.

El trabajo que hago no es tan administrativo, es más pedagógico porque soy docente. Pero la plataforma me ha ahorrado tiempo. En mi trabajo pedagógico he ahorrado el 90 por ciento porque tengo todo al alcance.

Y como el entorno del sistema es todo virtual; no hay nada impreso y ni siquiera se necesitan USB. Todo está dentro de la plataforma.

¿Qué es lo más valioso?

Para mí es una gran ventaja trabajar con CYPHER Learning. Me permite tener acceso a los estudiantes de una manera lúdica y práctica.

El contenido que subo se envía con anticipación para que los estudiantes ya estén familiarizados con mi clase y en lo que voy a trabajar. Indico a los alumnos cuál será el próximo tema, y esto lo hace mucho más efectivo en clase. En CYPHER Learning, pueden ver exactamente cuál será el contenido la semana siguiente. Por supuesto, no les cuento todo el contenido para crear anticipación para la próxima clase.

Puedo monitorear las clases: quién ha entrado, quién no ha entrado todavía y quién ha visto las clases.

Si estamos trabajando en una tarea, me permite subir una rúbrica de evaluación donde pueden ver y conocer su progreso.

También hay una sección donde se pueden comunicar conmigo. Pueden enviarme mensajes y puedo programar consultas con ellos.

El calendario de la plataforma me permite sincronizar las sesiones. Aparte de las sesiones, puedo incluir trabajo extraescolar. Por ejemplo, tengo un "aula abierta" con estudiantes y puedo llevar a cabo este proyecto a través del sistema. En ese contexto, también pudimos ver, usando CYPHER Learning, en qué secciones del proyecto estábamos y aprender más sobre él. Lo mejor es que no solo podían acceder a ella los alumnos que participaban en el “aula abierta”, sino también el resto de alumnos.

En cuanto al aprendizaje adaptativo, a través de las distintas rúbricas de CYPHER Learning, como las tareas y las sesiones que se van a desarrollar, trabajamos el tema de la inclusión, ya que es abierto. Se respeta el ritmo, el estilo y el nivel de aprendizaje de los alumnos, que pueden acceder y procesar la información a su propio ritmo, a su propio nivel y de acuerdo con sus propios intereses.

Otra ventaja es que tienes las herramientas para incluir un canvas, videos, palabras y otros elementos llamativos y gamificados.

Como maestros, tenemos la opción y la libertad de agregar contenido y trabajar de manera personalizada con los niños que necesitan más atención. También puedo hacer adaptaciones curriculares a las necesidades del grupo al que estoy enseñando. También aprecio mucho que esta información se guarde en CYPHER Learning. Es casi como un registro histórico con el que puedes contar y acceder nuevamente.

Todas estas características son muy valiosas para mí.

¿Qué necesita mejorar?

Algo que me molesta es que CYPHER Learning no me permite subir videos en alta resolución.

También me gustaría que CYPHER LEARNING brinde constantemente jornadas de capacitación para todas las instituciones que trabajan con su sistema. Recientemente tuvimos capacitación presencial, pero esto podría hacerse con más frecuencia.

¿Por cuánto tiempo he usado la solución?

Uso CYPHER Learning desde 2020.

¿Qué pienso sobre la estabilidad de la solución?

Ha habido problemas durante el año, pero han sido esporádicos y no han tardado en solucionarse.

¿Qué opino de la escalabilidad de la solución?

En nuestra escuela, todo el mundo lo usa. Entre personal administrativo y docentes, tenemos unas 300 personas usándolo.

¿Y el servicio de atención al cliente y el soporte?

El año pasado, se reunieron con nosotros virtualmente. Este año, se reunieron con nosotros cara a cara. Creo que podría haber una orientación más continua de su parte.

¿Cómo calificaría el servicio y soporte al cliente?

Positivo

¿Qué solución usé anteriormente y por qué cambié?

Usamos SieWeb y continuamos usándolo, pero para otros fines. CYPHER Learning es mucho más práctico y educativo. SieWeb es mucho más simple.

¿Cómo fue la configuración inicial?

No participé en la instalación pero fui uno de los primeros en usarlo. Cuando comenzó la pandemia, solo unos pocos maestros comenzaron a trabajar con CYPHER Learning. Investigamos de qué se trataba y, gracias a un consultor de CYPHER Learning, se implementó más rápido. El proceso tomó alrededor de un mes.

Al principio, tuvimos capacitaciones proporcionadas por el proveedor. Mi experiencia con la persona de México que formó parte del equipo de soporte de CYPHER Learning fue buena. Lo entendí bastante bien. Luego, los que teníamos conocimiento de la plataforma dábamos “mini sesiones de ayuda” al resto de nuestros compañeros. Los administradores del sistema de nuestra escuela también crearon tutoriales en CYPHER Learning.

¿Cuál fue nuestro Retorno de Inversión?

Me parece que invertir en CYPHER Learning significa que ahorrará mucho tiempo. Moderniza la educación, desarrolla las capacidades de todos, nos ayuda a sintonizarnos con los alumnos y nos humaniza como docentes en nuestra labor educativa.

¿Qué otro consejo tengo?

Trabajar con los niños y ser conscientes de su desarrollo, y trabajar de acuerdo a sus habilidades, es un desafío constante. Nos compromete mucho más con nuestro papel como docentes y profesionales. También nos hace mejores personas. El trabajo se realiza con plena comunicación, en equipo.

Hace las cosas muy cómodas porque en CYPHER Learning tienes la capacidad de comunicarte a través de un juego, una publicación, un mensaje, un cartel y otras formas atractivas. Esto ayuda a que la comunicación sea fluida. Además, los padres tienen acceso a lo que enviamos. Dependiendo del área en la que trabaje, nuestra institución tiene varios requisitos en términos de comunicación. Si eres tutor, la comunicación debe ser continua. Si eres administrativo, varía. En mi caso, como profesor de informática, es importante. Creo que la comunicación es fundamental.

La base para ayudar a los estudiantes con su aprendizaje es centrarse en sus intereses y abordarlos de forma pedagógica para incluir los intereses de todos. La plataforma CYPHER Learning te permite subir lo que quieras ofrecer. Te da la libertad de hacer lo mejor que puedas y de la manera más creativa. Te da todas las herramientas. También te da la opción de seguir explorando y descubriendo mucho más.

A veces excluimos a los estudiantes más jóvenes del uso de CYPHER Learning porque pensamos que las herramientas no son adecuadas para ellos, pero estas herramientas tienen mucho que ofrecer.

He tenido una experiencia muy interesante con una alumna que, por motivos de salud, no puede venir a clase. A través de CYPHER Learning recibe todo el material de clase que reciben sus compañeros. Es un paquete completo. Y el sistema me permite acceder a la familia y al estudiante y beneficia al niño y a nuestra institución.

Me gustaría seguir usando CYPHER Learning y me gustaría ver muchas más opciones y actualizaciones con nuevas funciones. Recomendaría CYPHER Learning en cualquier momento. Mi consejo para los demás es explorar continuamente la herramienta. Familiarízate con la plataforma para que te acostumbres y enriquezca tu labor educativa.

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 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.

Since we came from a previous LMS provider, pre-pandemic, primarily the use case was just for compliant courses. Every year, we require employees to take these courses as we are an insurance company.

We're heavily regulated here in the Philippines. We need to comply with certain regulations, and courses like anti-money laundering, data privacy, et cetera. On an annual basis, we have almost ten compliance courses that all of our employees need to complete.

We were not happy with the previous providers, so we started looking and we found this. Pre-pandemic, the plan was really just for compliance courses. Then, the pandemic happened and it was good that we started with CYPHER LEARNING which we actually launched right in April, about a month after the lockdown here in the Philippines.

The moment that we launched it, we launched it with a few compliance courses. However, the moment that we launched it, my manager told me we now need to start looking at how we'd be able to maximize all of the features to offer self-learning-based courses or virtual classes. That's how we've been using it.

We house all of our training materials in what we call a Campus, and that's something that I have also loved. We're able to create our own brand. It's where we upload all of our training materials. About two-thirds of the population of the organization is composed of salespeople deployed all over the Philippines. If they need to review products or policies or anything like that, we just tell them, "Oh, it's all on Campus. Go and check it out."

The effect on our service delivery is good. Primarily we service the sales team. They would come knocking on our doors, asking for training, and lately, especially last year when we've put several courses that are not necessarily compliance courses into the platform, we've been getting fewer and fewer requests for training. Initially, we thought that they didn't need us anymore, and when we checked with the head of sales, we got a report that before they actually ask us, they were advised to go and check Campus first. If it's there, they don't need to bother the training team.

There are several things that I like about the product. Although this is not something that is held by the learner, from an administration perspective, the fact that you can brand it all to your liking and the fact that people actually do not know that it's provided by a different company, is important. They thought that it was developed internally due to the fact that it would also have our color schemes, the fonts, and the logo. Our URL would not have CYPHER LEARNING in the address.

We also like the groups. People are able to be assigned to a group, whether it be a learning group or an interest group, and they can just get in there and have an open discussion freely.

Something that we also started using, but have yet to fully leverage is gamification. We really want to maximize it in our organization. We divide all of our employees into four distinct groups. These are engagement groups. We wanted them to somehow have a way to collaborate, and compete. At the end of the year, we can assign points or badges to them, and then they can get as many badges as they can. At the end of the year, they can win something for the entire team.

Although it's not directly through the portal, on a weekly basis, especially if there are active compliance courses, I'm required by the executive committee to submit a weekly report that shows who has not accessed the portal. When I do that, I can send an email to those that haven’t and follow up with them.

The reports are also something that's very helpful from an administrative perspective.

It’s very important that we follow up with those who haven't accessed the correct courses or the portal in general as it's a regulatory requirement. We need to chase people to have them complete what they need to do in a certain period of time. It's primarily from a compliance perspective that we're doing on a weekly basis. It's something increasing with traffic so that people are able to learn by themselves using the portal. That's something that will be prioritized by the incoming learning management. During the pandemic, that's what we wanted to promote, that we don't want them to come to us. The course that they're looking for is actually already available on the platform.

Initially, we only focused on sales capabilities, including training them on products and on how to sell products. However, starting last year, we also migrated all of our leadership development and people development courses. That's something for the sales training team, as well as for HR corporate training. That's also where we saw some improvements as far as where traffic is concerned.

In terms of efficiencies directly impacting operations, it’s not so much of an effect due to the portal being used primarily for skill-building, whether it's sales or leadership skills-building.

We do have a solutions competency feature. That's actually part of my KPI this year and next week I have a meeting with HR to see how we'd be able to maximize the mastery feature and link the competencies with the mastery to each of the courses. That is something that will be done this year.

The solution allows us to enable monitoring and check students in a very efficient way. I don't experience any trouble generating reports. After I've downloaded the raw file, it takes me about an hour to fix it for the purpose of submitting it to the executive committee.

It helped reduce our administrative costs in delivering training materials. Without the LMS, without Campus, people would ask for our training materials, which we're really not comfortable sharing. However, we don't have a choice as we don't have a place where we put these materials. We now have Campus. It's neatly organized. They can always just go back to Campus and review the things that they've seen.

When looking at the time and costs associated with delivering the training material, we’ve seen some savings. However, I really can't put a value on that. What we're doing now is training through MS Teams. It’s coupled with Campus since that's what we use for blended learning. We no longer have to travel. All of our salespeople are scattered all over the Philippines. Before the pandemic and before the LMS, when we trained people in different cities in the Philippines, we needed to travel there. Now, since we're doing everything virtually through primarily MS teams and Campus, we’ve saved a lot, although I'm not necessarily sure exactly how much. It’s a lot, it's really huge.

At any given time, we had four trainers who would go around the Philippines and we had about 300 salespeople who also needed to travel to the focus city where the training was. We’ve saved on the travel costs of about 300 people.

I do wish that there could be some formatting option so that I don't have to do some manual work in terms of translating the data into, for example, a PowerPoint presentation. However, each company would have its own way of reporting. That's why CYPHER LEARNING settled with Excel, the CSV file. Although I do know that there is an HTML version for the report. When I looked at it, it was not something that would meet the requirements of the senior leaders. I simply settled for doing manual work. Again, it just takes me about an hour, so that's not really a problem.

Something that was put on the back burner due to the cost was the ability to also access external learning portals, memberships, and subscriptions through CYPHER LEARNING. For example, if you have LinkedIn Learning or Udemy, you can already do that. When I told management about that, they said that's a nice feature, however, we would need to first provide subscriptions to all of the employees so that we would have that connection between Campus, the LMS, and the external learning provider. We haven't really used that, however, if we did, that would have been really great as we don't need to rely on internally produced materials since there is a lot of wealth of resources already out there. For now, we're developing our own materials, due to cost implications.

It wasn't made clear to us how to properly set it up. That's why we ended up with one organization for the entire company. Later on, a year into using Campus, we realized that "organization" can actually represent the different departments inside the company. Right now, I’m coordinating with the tech team on how to smoothly transition to that as there are also reporting and administrative access features. It would be great if the position of the department head would be able to directly monitor the completion of his teams and his own people. We can only do that if the organization is divided into different departments.

Adding packages would be an improvement. They should offer something like bronze, silver, and different packages, and could already include automatic subscriptions to these external learning platforms as well so that it's just a one-time payment to just one company instead of getting a subscription externally and linking it to CYPHER LEARNING.

There's one thing that I've been trying to see if it is doable. We're looking at individual development plans for each employee, something that would be easy to align with what we want to do. Right now, we have a separate way of doing individual development plans for each employee. What we would really love for Campus to be able to do is help us in that area. If we feel that this person is lacking in an area, there should be an employee development feature on the portal which could be set up as a way for managers to actively manage that on behalf of the employee.

I've been using the solution since early 2020, right before the pandemic.

The stability is great. We haven't had any downtime. The only issue that we've had so far is not necessarily related to the system or the platform. It's mainly the internet connection. The internet connection here in the Philippines is rather unstable. When people do complain about them not being able to continue with the course, that it's not budging or it's just buffering, we tell them, "I tested the course on my end and if it works, then automatically that means it's the internet problem." So far, the internet connection is the only problem we've had. We've never had any downtimes or any major issues with it.

Our business is expanding. Since the business is expanding, we are potentially growing two or threefold and we're hiring people that are not necessarily employees, they're third-party vendors or partners. Salespeople are also franchisees. Just yesterday I told my manager that maybe we can look into eCommerce to give access to the third-party sellers to access Campus, and also somehow learn in the process so that we can manage the headcount as I think we're only paying for five hundred people as part of our plan. We don't have any plans of extending it to the entire population of about one thousand who will come in. We're looking into also doing the eCommerce option.

Customer service is really great. When I ask a question, it would not take a day before I get an answer. Sometimes I get an answer about 30 minutes or an hour after I post the question.

My favorite part is that they assist you very well. DPOs are huge here in the Philippines. I came from a customer service environment and I’ve learned how I would want to be served as a customer. Not only do they answer the question professionally, but they also educate you as to where you can find the information or learn more about the process and anticipate what else you need. Unlike other people who would just answer your question directly and that's it, they really go the extra mile.

Positive

We switched from a different platform.

It was cumbersome and not intuitive. Although we could also brand it, we couldn't do so much with it. It didn't look like it was from the Twenty-first century. CYPHER Learning is very modern-looking, on the other hand. You have the left panel and it's easy to navigate. 

The initial setup was straightforward. In fact, part of the package was a learning session. We did go through that, however, it's focused mainly on creating courses, creating reports, involving people, et cetera. We missed that part about the organization being chopped into different departments.

We signed the contract in December 2019, and we immediately started working with the team here in Manila. We launched it in April 2020 and that's only due to the fact that we had to develop the materials for about a month, however, I'd say that in about three months, we would've been already ready if we already had the material. It took us about three months to get used to the entire system.

We did look at other options. As a requirement in the organization, we needed to look at at least three options and we need to convince the senior leaders as to why we're recommending CYPHER LEARNING. We were looking at two other providers, however, I'm not privy to the other two as I came on board when the contract was already signed.

The solution is cloud-based. We access it through the browser, and it is my understanding that it's in the cloud.

I handle a team, and part of that team is one person who is the administrator and the content developer for LMS. Unfortunately, she left last year. Looking into the solutions rule engine was part of something that I told her to do. Therefore, we haven't fully maximized the rules engine. I'm currently hiring an e-learning manager, so that's something that will be on top of her task list.

I'd advise potential users not to be afraid to test out all the features. There are things that we never thought we would be able to do. Things that we were told were there were not exciting for us in the first place, however, the moment I tried to test it out during my free time, I would tell my manager and he would just tell me, "Okay. Go and try it out and see how the learners would react and if they liked it. Let's make it BAU as part of the process." That's why, this year, we're already looking at all these other features. My suggestion is don't be afraid to play around with it, especially the ability to sell the training program.

I'd rate the solution nine out of ten. The only feature missing that I've heard of is not lacking in the LMS. There's a Learning Experience, LXP. By default, the plans that they provide already include subscriptions to external learning platforms. That means a company does not have to create its own materials. They can trust that learners or employees would be really hungry to learn. Since it's linked to external learning providers, it's easy to provide all the resources to them without even creating your own. The only thing that you need to create in an LXP platform would be compliance courses, which are unique to every company.

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.