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Instructional Designer
Real User
Top 20
Accommodates all types of media and allows us to completely brand the product
Pros and Cons
  • "The customization is very good because it allows us to completely brand the product so that it is our brand."
  • "I think it would be helpful if the resources were more structured in a how-to format."

What is our primary use case?

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

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

How has it helped my organization?

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

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

What is most valuable?

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

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

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

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

What needs improvement?

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

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

Buyer's Guide
CYPHER Learning
December 2024
Learn what your peers think about CYPHER Learning. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: December 2024.
824,067 professionals have used our research since 2012.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using CYPHER Learning for almost eight months.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

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

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

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

How are customer service and support?

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

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

How was the initial setup?

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

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

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

What about the implementation team?

The implementation was completed in-house.

What was our ROI?

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

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

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

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

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

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

What other advice do I have?

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

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

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

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

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

CYPHER Learning has not required any maintenance as of yet.

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

Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
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Apprenticeship Coordinator at Academia ISIS
Real User
Helps streamline our student evaluation activities and enables us to reach more people
Pros and Cons
  • "It is a platform that has everything. It is very powerful and intuitive. And because it is so user-friendly, it allows anyone without any knowledge of LMS platforms to make a course, publish it, and monitor it."
  • "One of the things that I would like to see improvement on is detecting duplicate users by identifying them by their names and not only by their email addresses. Many people change their email addresses but we don't know that they have. This can result in unnecessary duplication of user accounts."

What is our primary use case?

We are an NGO that includes an academic program for updating health training for health professionals, such as doctors. MATRIX LMS is the tool that helps us with this.

Additionally, we use it for employees of our organization to take compliance courses.

How has it helped my organization?

One of the ways that MATRIX LMS has improved our organization is through cost savings. Our organization has an academic program to train health professionals. Face-to-face training comes with an expense, whereas having courses filed in the platform allows us to reach larger numbers of people at the same time. I would estimate it has helped us save 40 percent on our costs. And with regard to training facilities or travel involved in training, it saves us 100 percent. 

Doctors and health students must have some forms available and with this platform they have them available online with no need to print them out, resulting in cost savings. In addition, all the evaluations are also archived in the platform. We have to do evaluations at the beginning and the end of each course and the system is an instrument that streamlines our activities.

Another benefit is that students have the content available whenever they need it. Because we work with health teachers, and these people need things in a certain format and they also have to know how to fill that format out, MATRIX LMS allows us to host those formats there and highlight them, along with instructions on how to use them, and the content is always available.

What is most valuable?

I am in love with MATRIX LMS. For me, it is a platform that has everything. It is very powerful and intuitive. And because it is so user-friendly, it allows anyone without any knowledge of LMS platforms to make a course, publish it, and monitor it.

One of the things that I like most is the preparation of the courses and the resources that the platform has to carry them out.

Another attractive feature is the fact that you can download reports and have them available for the many audits that are done. These reports provide an indication of the steps taken on the platform.

In terms of automation, I use reminder messages to warn participants about the time they have left to complete a course. Although the training is self-managed, we do have a time limit to take the course. If people remain inactive for weeks, a reminder message is automatically sent to them to let them know that the deadline for taking the courses is approaching. There is also automation for different learning routes, but above all, the ability to send reminders is great.

For me, it is very important that the rules system helps to personalize the content because we have different levels for different profiles within this academy. We have profiles that have average academic preparation and others that are experts, so they cannot have the same competencies. Customizing these skills will help us to have greater control over what people are learning and the content they are going to digest.

Using the platform, I can also see who has not accessed the portal and follow up with them. That is one of the advantages that I like the most about MATRIX: I can validate the progress people are making and see the number of times they have entered the portal. When it comes to enabling me to monitor and check student progress, on a scale of one to 10, I give it a 20. It's very good. Whenever I give an introduction about what MATRIX LMS is for me, I always mention that it is a platform with monitoring tools. It helps me to see an honest accounting of a student’s progress.

What needs improvement?

Something that has always caused me a little concern is in relation to the visibility of users, because MATRIX LMS identifies users only by their emails. One of the things that I would like to see improvement on is detecting duplicate users by identifying them by their names and not only by their email addresses. Many people change their email addresses but we don't know that they have. This can result in unnecessary duplication of user accounts.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using MATRIX LMS by CYPHER LEARNING for two years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

So far, we have only had an issue once where we lost some accounts. Before my arrival, there were 10 administrators and many of them had left the institution but still had active accounts. I realized that many of these users had modified the archived data without consulting us. By talking with the CYPHER LEARNING support team, we were able to obtain all the information that had been lost. That was the only unusual situation that has happened to us by using the system.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

In terms of scalability, I would give it a score of 100 percent. I'm not part of the MATRIX LMS publicity team, but I honestly love it. It has consistent updates and it's getting better and better.

Including students and staff, we have about 850 users, consisting of instructors, the administration team, the director, and a manager. It is being used quite a lot. In fact, usage has increased recently, as we found that we had many more active students than we thought.

How are customer service and support?

The solution’s technical support is excellent. They respond super fast. You ask any question through the support page and you always receive a quick answer. The team is always attentive and gives satisfactory answers.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

How was the initial setup?

I wasn't part of the organization when the platform was implemented. I understand that a person was hired to do that job. When I started here, the organization had already had some time with the platform. I had knowledge of other platforms that I had worked with and that is how I began to better configure this platform. For me, it was quite simple. 

The person who was doing my job had a hard time since he had never worked with an LMS platform and did not know how to manage the MATRIX LMS functions. I contacted their support team because it was the first time I worked with the system and the support was so good that, within a month, I already understood how to use the platform. The process was simple and quite user-friendly.

We have two people for administration of the platform, the sub-administrator who is the manager of the program, and me as the administrator.

What was our ROI?

The budget required to train the number of people we train in a month, using MATRIX LMS, would take us a year to train them without the platform.

Another way we see a return on investment is the fact that we don't have to print so many materials. The time savings are also worth a lot for us. Now, we can invest our time in other activities.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I always recommend to my colleagues from other institutions that they use MATRIX LMS. The quality makes the cost worth it.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

If I remember correctly, they evaluated Canvas, Moodle, and others.

MATRIX LMS is a more powerful platform and has everything that we require. It is user-friendly, and we can make our courses without the need for a third party. It has the capacity to store what we need and has many resources. It really is a very good platform.

What other advice do I have?

The rules engine helps personalize content based on users’ goals and performance, although we don't work by competencies because it is a resource that we have not used in-depth on the platform. Thanks to the solution's technical support team, I have been able to better explore the platform. We are going to use the entire topic of competencies in the future. In fact, we now have a course that is going to support an organization that is an ally of ours and we are going to explore the topic of competencies for it.

CYPHER LEARNING has made many updates to the platform but I don't think I have seen any new efficiencies for our processes. What I like the most about the new features is the gamified environment. That makes achieving our goals easier.

Even though we are in a pandemic, we can continue to update people, train them, and have the materials ready for when they want to use them, through any device.

MATRIX LMS is a platform that's worth trying. It's that simple. I give it a 20 out of 10.

Foreign Language:(Spanish)

¿Cuál es nuestro caso de uso principal?

Somos una ONG que incluye un programa académico de actualización de la formación en salud para los profesionales de la salud, como los médicos. MATRIX LMS es la herramienta que nos ayuda con esto.

Adicionalmente, lo utilizamos para que los empleados de nuestra organización tomen cursos de cumplimiento.

¿Cómo ha ayudado a mi organización?

Una de las formas en que MATRIX LMS ha mejorado nuestra organización es mediante el ahorro de costos. Nuestra organización cuenta con un programa académico para formar profesionales de la salud. La capacitación presencial tiene un costo, mientras que tener los cursos archivados en la plataforma nos permite llegar a un mayor número de personas al mismo tiempo. Calculo que nos ha ayudado a ahorrar un 40 por ciento en nuestros costos. Y con respecto a las instalaciones de entrenamiento o los viajes involucrados en el entrenamiento, nos ahorra el 100 por ciento.

Los médicos y estudiantes de salud deben tener algunos formularios disponibles y con esta plataforma los tienen disponibles en línea sin necesidad de imprimirlos, lo que se traduce en un ahorro de costos. Además, todas las valoraciones también quedan archivadas en la plataforma. Tenemos que hacer evaluaciones al principio y al final de cada curso y el sistema es un instrumento que agiliza nuestras actividades.

Otro beneficio es que los estudiantes tienen el contenido disponible cuando lo necesitan. Debido a que trabajamos con maestros de salud, y estas personas necesitan cosas en un formato determinado y también tienen que saber cómo completar ese formato, MATRIX LMS nos permite alojar esos formatos allí y resaltarlos, junto con instrucciones sobre cómo usarlos. y el contenido siempre está disponible.

¿Qué es lo más valioso?

Estoy enamorado de MATRIX LMS. Para mí, es una plataforma que lo tiene todo. Es muy potente e intuitivo. Y debido a que es tan fácil de usar, permite que cualquier persona sin ningún conocimiento de las plataformas LMS pueda crear un curso, publicarlo y monitorearlo.

Una de las cosas que más me gustan es la preparación de los cursos y los recursos que tiene la plataforma para llevarlos a cabo.

Otra característica atractiva es el hecho de que puede descargar informes y tenerlos disponibles para las muchas auditorías que se realizan. Estos informes proporcionan una indicación de los pasos dados en la plataforma.

En términos de automatización, utilizo mensajes de recordatorio para advertir a los participantes sobre el tiempo que les queda para completar un curso. Aunque la formación es autogestionada, tenemos un límite de tiempo para realizar el curso. Si las personas permanecen inactivas durante semanas, se les envía automáticamente un mensaje de recordatorio para informarles que se acerca la fecha límite para tomar los cursos. También hay automatización para diferentes rutas de aprendizaje, pero sobre todo, la capacidad de enviar recordatorios es genial.

Para mí es muy importante que el sistema de reglas ayude a personalizar el contenido porque tenemos diferentes niveles para diferentes perfiles dentro de esta academia. Tenemos perfiles que tienen una preparación académica media y otros que son expertos, por lo que no pueden tener las mismas competencias. Personalizar estas habilidades nos ayudará a tener un mayor control sobre lo que las personas están aprendiendo y el contenido que van a digerir.

Usando la plataforma, también puedo ver quién no ha accedido al portal y hacer un seguimiento con ellos. Esa es una de las ventajas que más me gusta de MATRIX: puedo validar el progreso de las personas y ver la cantidad de veces que han ingresado al portal. Cuando se trata de permitirme monitorear y verificar el progreso de los estudiantes, en una escala de uno a 10, le doy un 20. Es muy bueno. Siempre que doy una introducción sobre lo que es MATRIX LMS para mí, menciono que es una plataforma con herramientas de monitoreo. Me ayuda a ver una contabilidad honesta del progreso de un estudiante.

¿Qué necesita mejorar?

Algo que siempre me ha causado un poco de preocupación es en relación a la visibilidad de los usuarios, ya que MATRIX LMS identifica a los usuarios solo por sus correos electrónicos. Una de las cosas en las que me gustaría ver mejoras es en la detección de usuarios duplicados, identificándolos por sus nombres y no solo por sus direcciones de correo electrónico. Muchas personas cambian sus direcciones de correo electrónico, pero no sabemos si lo han hecho. Esto puede resultar en una duplicación innecesaria de cuentas de usuario.

¿Por cuánto tiempo he usado la solución?

He estado usando MATRIX LMS de CYPHER LEARNING durante dos años.

¿Qué pienso sobre la estabilidad de la solución?

Hasta ahora, solo hemos tenido un problema una vez en el que perdimos algunas cuentas. Antes de mi llegada había 10 administradores y muchos de ellos habían salido de la institución pero aún tenían cuentas activas. Me di cuenta de que muchos de estos usuarios habían modificado los datos archivados sin consultarnos. Al hablar con el equipo de soporte de CYPHER LEARNING, pudimos obtener toda la información que se había perdido. Esa fue la única situación inusual que nos ha pasado usando el sistema.

¿Qué opino de la escalabilidad de la solución?

En términos de escalabilidad, le daría una puntuación del 100 por ciento. No soy parte del equipo de publicidad de MATRIX LMS, pero sinceramente me encanta. Tiene actualizaciones constantes y está mejorando cada vez más.

Incluyendo estudiantes y personal, tenemos alrededor de 850 usuarios, que consisten en instructores, el equipo de administración, el director y un gerente. Se está usando bastante. De hecho, el uso ha aumentado recientemente, ya que descubrimos que teníamos muchos más estudiantes activos de lo que pensábamos.

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

El soporte técnico de la solución es excelente. Responden súper rápido. Haces cualquier pregunta a través de la página de soporte y siempre recibes una respuesta rápida. El equipo siempre está atento y da respuestas satisfactorias.

¿Cómo calificaría el servicio y soporte al cliente?

Positivo

¿Cómo fue la configuración inicial?

No formaba parte de la organización cuando se implementó la plataforma. Entiendo que una persona fue contratada para hacer ese trabajo. Cuando comencé aquí, la organización ya tenía un tiempo con la plataforma. Tenía conocimiento de otras plataformas con las que había trabajado y así fue como comencé a configurar mejor esta plataforma. Para mí, fue bastante simple.

La persona que estaba haciendo mi trabajo lo pasaba mal ya que nunca había trabajado con una plataforma LMS y no sabía cómo manejar las funciones de MATRIX LMS. Me comuniqué con su equipo de soporte porque era la primera vez que trabajaba con el sistema y el soporte fue tan bueno que en un mes ya entendía cómo usar la plataforma. El proceso fue simple y bastante fácil de usar.

Tenemos dos personas para la administración de la plataforma, el subadministrador que es el administrador del programa y yo como administradora.

¿Cuál fue nuestro Retorno de Inversión?

El presupuesto requerido para capacitar a la cantidad de personas que capacitamos en un mes, usando MATRIX LMS, nos tomaría un año para capacitarlos sin la plataforma.

Otra forma en que vemos un retorno de la inversión es el hecho de que no tenemos que imprimir tantos materiales. El ahorro de tiempo también vale mucho para nosotros. Ahora, podemos invertir nuestro tiempo en otras actividades.

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

Siempre recomiendo a mis compañeros de otras instituciones que utilicen MATRIX LMS. La calidad hace que el costo valga la pena.

¿Qué otras soluciones evalué?

Si no recuerdo mal, evaluaron Canvas, Moodle y otros.

MATRIX LMS es una plataforma más poderosa y tiene todo lo que necesitamos. Es fácil de usar y podemos hacer nuestros cursos sin necesidad de un tercero. Tiene la capacidad de almacenar lo que necesitamos y tiene muchos recursos. Realmente es una muy buena plataforma.

¿Qué otro consejo tengo?

El motor de reglas ayuda a personalizar el contenido en función de los objetivos y el rendimiento de los usuarios, aunque no trabajamos por competencias porque es un recurso que no hemos profundizado en la plataforma. Gracias al equipo de soporte técnico de la solución he podido explorar mejor la plataforma. Vamos a utilizar todo el tema de las competencias en el futuro. De hecho, ahora tenemos un curso que va a apoyar a una organización que es aliada nuestra y vamos a explorar el tema de competencias para ello.

CYPHER LEARNING ha realizado muchas actualizaciones en la plataforma, pero no creo que haya visto nuevas eficiencias para nuestros procesos. Lo que más me gusta de las nuevas funciones es el entorno gamificado. Eso hace que alcanzar nuestros objetivos sea más fácil.

A pesar de que estamos en una pandemia, podemos seguir actualizando a las personas, capacitándolas y teniendo los materiales listos para cuando quieran usarlos, a través de cualquier dispositivo.

MATRIX LMS es una plataforma que vale la pena probar. Es así de simple. Le doy un 20 sobre 10.

Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
CYPHER Learning
December 2024
Learn what your peers think about CYPHER Learning. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: December 2024.
824,067 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Renzo Forlin - PeerSpot reviewer
Director General at Colegio Alpamayo
Real User
We have been able to focus, in the midst of the pandemic, on the well-being of the students
Pros and Cons
  • "The first point is the ease of use. It is a very easy platform to use, especially for students and families, with a very friendly layout. It also has a series of support systems, including communication with parents, students, the ability to invoice for online courses, and other qualities that make the system very versatile and facilitate a teacher's work."
  • "I would like to see greater integration with some programs that are not natively integrated. Google is a standard. Everything integrates with it. Integration with Google is a key task."

What is our primary use case?

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

How has it helped my organization?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What is most valuable?

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

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

It has a good level of integration with different applications.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What needs improvement?

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

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

For how long have I used the solution?

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

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

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

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

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

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

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

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

How are customer service and support?

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

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

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

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

How was the initial setup?

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

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

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

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

What about the implementation team?

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

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

What was our ROI?

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

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

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

CYPHER Learning's price is good.

What other advice do I have?

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

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

Foreign Language: (Spanish)

¿Cuál es nuestra razón de uso principal?

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

¿Cómo ha ayudado a mi organización?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

¿Qué es lo más valioso?

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

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

Tiene un buen nivel de integración con diferentes aplicaciones.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

¿En qué necesita mejorar?

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

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

¿Por cuánto tiempo ha usado la solución?

Llevamos dos años y medio usando CYPHER Learning.

¿Qué piensa sobre la estabilidad de la solución?

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

¿Qué opino de la escalabilidad de la solución?

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

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

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

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

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

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

¿Cómo calificaría el servicio y soporte al cliente?

Positivo

¿Qué solución usé anteriormente y por qué cambié?

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

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

¿Cómo fue la configuración inicial?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

¿Cuál fue nuestro Retorno de Inversión?

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

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

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

El precio de CYPHER Learning es bueno.

¿Qué otro consejo tengo?

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

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

Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
PeerSpot user
Ana Aliaga - PeerSpot reviewer
Teacher and Curriculum Development Specialist at a educational organization with 501-1,000 employees
Real User
Provides automatic feedback as well as the ability to attach documents and videos
Pros and Cons
  • "I like that you can choose your home screen widget. We have a centralized calendar that sends a reminder to students about tasks that are due."
  • "The gamification option is a section that we have not learned because we have not been able to specify a training space for the use of this gamification tab. However, it would be good to have training and learn about how to use it."

What is our primary use case?

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

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

How has it helped my organization?

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

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

What is most valuable?

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

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

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

What needs improvement?

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

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

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

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

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

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using it since August 2020.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

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

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

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

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

How are customer service and support?

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

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

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

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

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

How was the initial setup?

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

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

What about the implementation team?

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

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

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

What was our ROI?

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

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

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

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

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

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

What other advice do I have?

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

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

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

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

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

I would rate this solution as 8.5 out of 10.

Foreign Language: (Spanish)

¿Cuál es nuestra razón de uso principal?

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

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

¿Cómo ha ayudado a mi organización?

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

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

¿Qué es lo más valioso?

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

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

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

¿Qué necesita mejorar?

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

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

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

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

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

¿Por cuánto tiempo he usado la solución?

Lo uso desde agosto de 2020.

¿Qué pienso sobre la estabilidad de la solución?

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

¿Qué opino de la escalabilidad de la solución?

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

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

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

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

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

¿Cómo calificaría el servicio y soporte al cliente?

Positivo.

¿Qué solución usé anteriormente y por qué cambié?

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

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

¿Cómo fue la configuración inicial?

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

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

¿Y el equipo de implementación?

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

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

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

¿Cuál fue nuestro retorno de inversión?

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

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

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

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

¿Qué otras soluciones evaluaron?

Evaluamos Blackboard y comprobamos las últimas versiones de Moodle.

¿Qué otro consejo tengo?

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

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

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

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

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

Calificaría esta solución como 8.5 de 10.

Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
PeerSpot user
Learning Technologist at Australian Institute of Fitness Pty Ltd
Real User
Top 20
Automation and syncing features have reduced our admin hours notably
Pros and Cons
  • "Initially, I was very excited about the automations. But when we started using the actual courses, I found that the ability to sync content and settings from parent courses to child courses is what I value the most. But both the automations and syncing are at the top of the list."
  • "One thing I find annoying is that the system is quite limited when it comes to roles. I was used to our old system where I could create custom roles to cater to specific users and that's not available in CYPHER Learning."

What is our primary use case?

We use it in a few ways. When we started 18 months ago, we had a website that offered short, continuous education courses in things like sales development. We moved that website into CYPHER Learning. We also gradually migrated our RTO courses into CYPHER Learning, starting about a year ago.

We also develop LMS portals for our business partners as sub-organizations within our LMS. We have a handful of those running at the moment.

How has it helped my organization?

The system we initially used for RTO did not provide the best look and feel. It was like a huge ship with very complicated and sophisticated features. "Moving" it was a task. CYPHER Learning, by comparison, is a super-yacht. It's very agile, modern, very quick to respond, and it looks great.

Although we rarely use it for our internal staff's education, our partners use it for their own team members. Our team members, who are admins or instructors in the platform, have an additional account to use when they're doing their personal continuous development. In that way, it's like there are two separate systems from the viewpoint of the end-user, and it works well for us.

Another benefit is that some of the automations and syncing features have reduced admin hours by a lot for us. It has been a great help. It saves us a couple of hours per week.

What is most valuable?

Initially, I was very excited about the automations. But when we started using the actual courses, I found that the ability to sync content and settings from parent courses to child courses is what I value the most. But both the automations and syncing are at the top of the list.

Also, the automation for triggering actions for completed tasks, such as awarding badges and points to students, works very well. We use Credly badges, and when we first moved the continuous improvement side of the business to CYPHER Learning we had more than 50 courses, which meant we had more than 50 badges. However, we found there was a limit on the number of badges. We reached out to CYPHER Learning and they fixed it quickly for us. We were then able to add more than 50 badges.

What needs improvement?

One thing I find annoying is that the system is quite limited when it comes to roles. I was used to our old system where I could create custom roles to cater to specific users and that's not available in CYPHER Learning.

Another issue is the customization of the gradebook. I'm used to a highly customizable gradebook, but that's also not available in CYPHER Learning.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using CYPHER Learning for around 18 months.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is a stable product and that's one of the features that was on my list. It's also very fast, so we don't have any worries about access.

There has rarely been any downtime and, when it has happened once or twice, it has happened during late hours, so we haven't had to worry about it.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It's scalable. We have deployed a few portals for our partners, and that was super easy. It just worked.

We have about 100 internal users of the platform.

How are customer service and support?

They're really good, very responsive, and knowledgeable. They respond within an hour, maximum.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

The previous system we used for our continuous education courses was clunky and old. We had moved to it from an even older system, being the most reliable product that we could move to quickly. It was WordPress-based and it had a very limited LMS called LearnDash. We needed something bigger, more expandable, and that looked more modern, and that's what we found in CYPHER Learning.

How was the initial setup?

The setup was very easy. They helped a lot in setting up the look and feel, from the beginning, using our branding colors. But I set up the portals for our partners and it was very easy to do. Things like setting up the roles that we wanted and selecting what roles to add in were very straightforward.

Our strategy was determined by our need to move our continuous improvement website, and that was the major portion of it. We needed to move completion data and courses, and migrate our live students as well, and that had to be carefully planned.

Once it's set up, it's good to go. In terms of maintenance, there are updates and improvements that need to be communicated to staff.

What was our ROI?

We have seen ROI because we have a lot of courses that require a lot of storage space, and we don't have to worry about that with CYPHER Learning. With the other LMSs that we used, storage was a big issue, especially because we have to keep records for 30 years due to government requirements. It is worth our while to use CYPHER Learning.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The pricing is somewhere in the middle. It's not too expensive and, for what it is, it's very reasonable.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I wasn't involved in evaluating other solutions. Someone else did that for us and they looked at multiple systems. We had a spreadsheet with our requirements and CYPHER Learning ticked most of the boxes. That's why we went with it.

There are a lot of learning management systems out there and they are oranges and apples. You have to choose what meets your targets. All the systems are good for the end-users. If you want something where you don't have to worry much about maintenance or uptime, a system that is very modern looking and easy to use, and something you can get up and running fairly quickly, CYPHER Learning is a good choice.

What other advice do I have?

Overall, I rate the solution at eight out of 10. I wouldn't rate it higher because of the rigidity of the roles and gradebooks. Also, there are simpler things like quiz-question types that are not as varied as in other LMSs. But the overall experience is just fantastic.

Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
PeerSpot user
Theo Oosthuizen - PeerSpot reviewer
Global talent development partner at Kerridge Commercial Systems Limited
Real User
Top 10
Easier Onboarding and Accessibility for Learning Opportunities
Pros and Cons
  • "CYPHER Learning is a user-friendly platform that makes it easy for me to manage my instructors and track my learners."
  • "Screen sorting can be improved by providing more filtering options."

What is our primary use case?

Our organization has multiple divisions. We started with the iQ Retail division, which develops Retail ERP software solutions. Each division within our organization offers different software solutions. We train people on how to use our software through CYPHER Learning, which is available internally and externally.

CYPHER Learning is a SaaS solution.

How has it helped my organization?

We used to offer classroom-based courses only, but we found that travel costs and time restraints were becoming too much for our students. We were looking for a more affordable / accessible way to reach more students, and CYPHER Learning helped us do that.

CYPHER Learning's features effectively boosted our efficiency. We are now able to offer a wider range of services at a competitive cost. Being a Global company with  13 branches, being able to reach global initiatives, is a great advantage.

The timing for rolling out CYPHER Learning was very beneficial, as we relaunched one of our divisions with a new type of learning just before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. This allowed our instructors to train and teach remotely.

As a corporate university, we use CYPHER Learning to provide internal training for our employees and external training for our clients / partners. This hybrid training model is vital to our ever evolving organization.

The hybrid training platform helps us attract top talent by showcasing our capabilities and providing support and knowledge to our clients in an interactive and engaging experience.

The solution can be used to assist in pre-certifying resellers online before they enter the market. 

CYPHER Learning helped us expand our training efforts. Before CYPHER Learning, we only offered classroom training, which required learners to travel to one of our training facilities. We can now offer online training, which eliminates the need for travel. This has substantially decreased the cost of training, making it more accessible to more learners.

CYPHER Learning saved us around 30 percent of our administrative work through the app that easily adapts to different markets. 

What is most valuable?

CYPHER Learning is a user-friendly platform that makes it easy for me to manage my instructors and track my learners. My instructors can provide feedback to learners on the same day. We work with a variety of clients, and we can provide them with an analysis of how their learners are performing. As an administrator, I have an overview of what our clients think of our platform.

What needs improvement?

The reporting has room for improvement. I would like more reporting options.

Screen sorting can be improved by providing more filtering options. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using CYPHER Learning for almost seven years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

CYPHER Learning is stable and we are notified well in advance of any planned downtime for upgrades or maintenance.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

CYPHER Learning is scalable. We current have about 550 people signed up to use the solution.

How are customer service and support?

The technical support is good and responds to our issues within two hours.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

How was the initial setup?

The setup is straightforward. The deployment took around two weeks and required me and two others to complete.

What about the implementation team?

The implementation was completed in-house.

What was our ROI?

We have seen a return on investment through administrative time-saving and global reach.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

CYPHER Learning's price is slightly higher than other solutions.

What other advice do I have?

I give CYPHER Learning an eight out of ten.

We have multiple organizations. Our iQ Retail division uses CYPHER Learning extensively. A few other divisions use the solution on a much smaller scale. In total, five or six divisions use the solution.

For someone looking to grow in a growing environment, CYPHER Learning is worth checking out. CYPHER Learning provides the flexibility to grow with us, whether we have multiple platforms or need to migrate to a new system.

CYPHER Learning offers a variety of learning approaches.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Hybrid Cloud
Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
PeerSpot user
Jennifer Low - PeerSpot reviewer
Chief Digital Officer at BAC Education Group
Real User
Helps streamline our processes and customer support is incomparable
Pros and Cons
  • "The ability to integrate it with a lot of our third-party service providers like Turnitin, through a plugin, is helpful. There aren't many learning management systems that integrate so well with different APIs and LTIs, especially when a school has various tools in its tech stack."
  • "I would also like to see improvement to the mobile app, because our students are mobile-first. In our day-to-day interaction with students, if they can do everything on their mobile phones, that would be what they would appreciate the most."

What is our primary use case?

We onboard all our students into the platform and use it on a day-to-day basis for lessons, online classes, assessments, grading, and tabulation. We use it administratively and operationally.

How has it helped my organization?

CYPHER Learning is a core part of our students' journeys, as well as a core part of our lecturers' processes. Especially with the pandemic, everything has moved to digital. Today and for years to come, even if COVID is no longer around, the hybrid mode of learning will stay within our organization at least, because of the direction that our company is going. It's a nine out of 10, because we've built everything that we have operationally in CYPHER Learning. The product itself is amazing in terms of helping us to streamline all the processes and it saves us a lot of time.

The time savings are the result of a number of things. First, all tabulation of data has been automated. In the past, we would need to manually move things from paper to Excel and then do some manual calculations or use formulas in Excel to determine a student's grade. Now, we can set the rubric and everything is automated. If it is set up well, I just go in and export. That saves a tremendous amount of time. Another area that it helps us save so much time in is the administration of adding and updating student information, communicating with students, and making sure they are aware of what classes they're supposed to be in and their schedules. All that is communicated via CYPHER Learning. That has streamlined our processes and saved a lot of our time for the administrative staff.

What is most valuable?

We use CYPHER Learning for assessments but because most of our assessments go through Turnitin, the ability to integrate it with a lot of our third-party service providers like Turnitin, through a plugin, is helpful. There aren't many learning management systems that integrate so well with different APIs and LTIs, especially when a school has various tools in its tech stack. In addition to Turnitin, we are also subscribers of Coursera, LinkedIn Learning, and Skillshare. Integrating those platforms and having our user profiles, as well as progress and results integrated fully with our LMS, has been very helpful because it becomes like a one-stop center. Everything works perfectly and smoothly and is good for our customer experience.

Also, the way that we work is that our organization is a group of companies. We might have one program that we run in a couple of different schools. We can create content in one place and then very quickly duplicate the classes. CYPHER Learning has what it calls "parent" classes, that are like templates. We can duplicate them and create child classes from there. That makes content creation very easy. And it's very easy to update as well. We just update it in one place and sync it across all the child classes. It saves us time because we just do it once and then the system helps us to replicate it over time.

The ability to track student progress on a competency basis through a mastery grid is very important to us and it's not just for teachers and our lecturers. It's also helpful for our administrators. We have a talent management department that looks into job placements for students. Information on student skills development—what level of competency they have acquired thus far—is relevant to that team.

And especially for our pre-university program, we encourage lecturers to utilize the group function to reach out to students and communicate with them. That really opens up room for our students to ask any questions about a particular class. If a student is not very interactive in class, they have other means of reaching out to their lecturers.

What needs improvement?

When it comes to automating assessments and providing recommendations, I would rate the solution at eight, on a scale of one to 10. I just got off a call with our CYPHER Learning contacts this morning and one of the things that I brought up was that we have 100 percent of our students on the platform, but not 100 percent of our students have access to third-party platforms like Coursera, Skillshare, and LinkedIn Learning. Some form of customization would be good in terms of the API and how it integrates with third-party platforms. If we had control of that, I would give it a nine out of 10.

Also tagging classes and assignments with competencies is seven or seven and a half out of 10. We need the customization part sorted out so that we can control who has access to what kind of content. That's an area that needs improvement.

I would also like to see improvement to the mobile app, because our students are mobile-first. In our day-to-day interaction with students, if they can do everything on their mobile phones, that would be what they would appreciate the most. We know that's not entirely possible, especially when it comes to assessments.

Also, there are certain push notification features that I have noticed CYPHER Learning does not have. It does send notifications via the app, but not push notifications. I tested it this morning and it doesn't quite work, so that would be another area for improvement. Students really need the app to work better.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using CYPHER LEARNING since 2016, but more extensively since 2019.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It's generally stable. Recently we've had some caching issues. Every once in a while we run into errors. But with the customer support team, everything feels very manageable. If a system fails, as long as the support team is able to answer our questions, we are able to provide the necessary support to our end-users. 

Overall, it's fairly stable, with occasional errors or problems. But the support team is top-notch and that gives us a sense of trust.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It's very scalable.

BAC Education Group consists of 42 companies, but in terms of educational institutions, there are six. One is a training company targeting working adults and professionals. The rest are tertiary education institutions. We deploy CYPHER Learning for all these institutions. We also use it for training and development of all of our 350 to 400 staff. In terms of location, we have students from across the region including the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, and India. They are all over Asia, especially in our postgraduate studies. Overall, we have about 8,000 users.

We use the product extensively for everything to do with learning and assessment. Administratively, we use it for student data and more. The product is great and fits our use case perfectly. All our assessments have been moved online, so CYPHER Learning is our source of information now. We generate reports to understand how our students are faring in a particular skill or for a particular assignment, or even on exams.

How are customer service and support?

One of the things that has been a highlight for me is working with the team at CYPHER LEARNING and their customer support, which is incomparable to the support of most other products out there. We get assistance almost instantaneously. 

In our organization we get a lot of inquiries from students, especially when it comes to exams where students are highly stressed. If something happens to the system, we need an immediate solution or at least for the service provider to get back to us on what exactly went wrong. Working with their team has been extremely helpful. We can trust that at any point in time we're able to reach out to the customer support team. Sometimes we run our exams in the evening and submissions could be due at 11:59 PM. If something goes wrong at that time, students are extremely stressed out about whether their submissions went through or not. Their support has been very helpful in giving us, as the team that's facing our customers directly, peace of mind. And it indirectly helps our students as well because they get their inquiries answered fairly quickly. If there is anything I want to recommend CYPHER Learning for, it's definitely the support that has been given to us thus far.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

BAC Education Group has colleges and nonprofits and we used Moodle previously for our colleges. We explored Canvas as well for some of our programs, because we are partners with certain universities. Our students do use both Canvas and CYPHER Learning, but internally we use CYPHER Learning. For the nonprofit side, we used Teachable before and we are now using a system called Thinkific.

In terms of cost, CYPHER Learning is about the same as what we were using but it's the product offering and the incomparable customer service that are the reasons we have stuck with it for so long. We've stopped using Moodle, Canvas, and Teachable. What drew us to CYPHER Learning is the integration, customer support, the product itself, and the look of the platform for our students.

The reason we're on Thinkific for our nonprofit side is that you pay a fixed amount and then you can reach out to as many students as possible. Because of the business use case, we opted for that rather than CYPHER Learning. Our team is used to CYPHER Learning and we would love for the nonprofit to move into it as well, but it's really difficult, especially because we have about 200,000 students on that platform. We would like to stick to CYPHER Learning, but cost-wise it just doesn't make much sense for a nonprofit.

How was the initial setup?

We bought CYPHER Learning licenses in 2016. The initial team that was running the e-learning department is no longer around. My team and I took over in 2019 to relaunch it. We weren't there at the beginning in terms of deciding which platform to go with, but we were part of the implementation team and the onboarding and adoption.

When my team took over our organization's e-learning functions, we reached out to the CYPHER Learning team and started from scratch. It was fairly easy. We still had to figure out processes and standard operating procedures, because we were rolling it out campus-wide, but the CYPHER Learning team was very supportive and they were there when we needed answers.

What was our ROI?

The huge ROI for us is the fact that it's such a core product of our day-to-day offerings to our students. That really speaks volumes.

We have phased out printing some of our books, but the costs of printing have been moved to other requirements because we have had to invest in e-book readers.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

For our for-profit entities, CYPHER Learning is the perfect solution in terms of cost. It is not too expensive and is about the same as what other service providers charge. 

What other advice do I have?

In terms of competency-based learning, our college has just started looking into micro-credentialing. Most of our students have a set of classes they need to take and anything outside of that is up to their own discretion to pursue. But now, if a student is in the school of hospitality, for example, we don't just upskill them within the scope of hospitality, but we also try to impart or get them to complete courses in Coursera and Skillshare and LinkedIn Learning on things like communication skills or project management. We are starting to go into skills development, looking at the more holistic side of things, and that means looking into skills competencies. Micro-credentialing is very important and I would love to see CYPHER Learning really driving that and making it easier for students to display the talents and skills and projects that they've worked on in their profiles.

When it comes to skills development, a lot of it is about the content. CYPHER Learning has become that one platform that all of us, lecturers and students, use. It's like a staple in our everyday lives. It has been really difficult for us to inculcate that behavior. We've finally been able to. I'm very happy that the platform's features have helped us to get to where we are today. It plays a very core role in skills development for our students. It's the backbone of that process, along with our content.

I would definitely recommend using CYPHER Learning. We looked into various solutions prior to this one and there's a reason we have stuck with it for years. In fact, we have increased our subscriptions and onboarded new customers into it. I would definitely recommend CYPHER Learning, as long as it's for a for-profit organization.

Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor. The reviewer's company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: partner
PeerSpot user
Academic Head at MS Education Academy
Real User
Enabled us to move from in-person to digital training, saving significant costs and increasing employee efficiency
Pros and Cons
  • "The competency-based learning systems that we have created are very important. Before, we were using Talent Elements and the reason we shifted to CYPHER Learning was because of this feature. They are the reason for buying this product."
  • "The mobile app has quite a lot of bugs and it has many fewer integration options."

What is our primary use case?

We use it for employee training.

How has it helped my organization?

It has helped us in moving to digital training sessions from in-person training sessions and that has reduced our costs. We used to spend around $15,000 to $20,000 annually on training.

And indirectly, it has helped increase profits by improving the efficiency of our employees. That benefits our business.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature is the gamification of the training courses. Learners can compete with their colleagues and access the leaderboard, and this enhances our efficiency and our learners' creativity. The employees can also compete with their colleagues and they get awards and badges, which motivates them.

We also like the automation features because it makes the training interesting and interactive.

And the competency-based learning helps teams acquire the desired skills. It displays the available skills and puts an emphasis on progressing on what the employee lacks. The competency-based learning systems that we have created are very important. Before, we were using Talent Elements and the reason we shifted to CYPHER Learning was because of this feature. They are the reason for buying this product. Competency-based learning helps us certify the skills of learners and make decisions about promotions and redundancy.

CYPHER Learning's ability to recommend courses to learners based on their job title or set of competencies is great and helps the employees a lot. It's like a non-financial reward for them to keep them motivated.

What needs improvement?

The mobile app has quite a lot of bugs and it has many fewer integration options.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using CYPHER Learning for two years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The platform is very reliable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It's scalable as well.

How are customer service and support?

The support team is great but it takes them some time to answer queries. Also, because the support chat box is integrated into the website, we actually can't open two different tabs, one for customer support and another for the product. We have to open the customer chat box inside the solution and it can be quite confusing. It would be better if we could get email or phone support.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Previously, we used Talent Elements. In addition to the lack of competency-based learning, in which there were only a few ways to track learner progress, there were relatively few gamification features.

What was our ROI?

Our return on investment is in the improvement of our efficiency and productivity.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

It's affordable, but they have doubled the pricing at random times. That's a problem. They have to change that for forecasting purposes.

What other advice do I have?

I strongly suggest changing your training solution to CYPHER Learning. If you are doing it on your campus right now, this will help you save costs.

Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
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Buyer's Guide
Download our free CYPHER Learning Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: December 2024
Buyer's Guide
Download our free CYPHER Learning Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.