CYPHER Learning Reviews

It is the virtual platform of the school and my virtual classroom. I post the tasks and the lessons for the class through Zoom.

CYPHER Learning has helped us a lot with the situation where, because of health issues, students cannot attend school. Because we have this platform, students have the day-to-day lesson program available to them everywhere. If they are sick they can connect to the class from home via Zoom. They can access everything the teacher works on via the platform. It is no longer like it used to be that when a student missed school they had to copy all the content they had missed in class.

In terms of administrative work, it has reduced the time spent on that by quite a lot. For example, it used to take us time to call names and see who was present at the beginning of a class. Now, we can do it more directly through CYPHER Learning. It has a more agile way of checking attendance. As a platform in general, it has helped us to simplify our procedures.

It has definitely also helped in reducing the costs of physical materials because we don't print as many copies anymore. We exploit the platform quite a lot in this sense. If a textbook costs 150 soles, multiplied by four books for different subjects, that cost parents 600 soles. You can imagine the amount that parents save when CYPHER Learning is used instead of books.

Some of the most valuable features are the

• real-time online assignments that don't limit you to working from one place only
• comment forums
• assignments.

Teachers upload jobs to the platform and students upload all their answers to the platform and CYPHER Learning makes it easy for us to view them immediately.

We also use the platform for automation and adaptive learning purposes. The ability to set trigger rules that show or hide specific class sections or assignments is as optimal as possible. Because it is intuitive, it is easy to create content for students in a personalized way. And it is very intuitive for the students. They only need to enter the platform and they see their particular courses on the home screen.

And the competency-based learning is very visual and easy to use. The labeling is quite simple. It is very important because, beyond the content, we focus on the teaching of skills and these are embedded in the competencies. It is important that we have this tool to do evaluations as it helps us better know what the real status of a student is. The ability to track student progress on a competency basis through a mastery grid is very important for the school because we can see what the student's progress is, the time it takes, and the time he spends on the platform.

Also, with the direct message tray, students can notify you of things, and it's very simple. That feature is excellent because it helps a lot with communication among teachers, parents, and students. As a teacher, I can also leave a comment on an assignment to give feedback.

The types of activities the system has, help engage students and develop their independence and higher-order thinking skills. For example, the forums are used a lot because they help students with the ability to form arguments and express their own opinions. Thanks to CYPHER Learning, we can provide diverse activities. It has made the students perform better because they are no longer always doing the same routine tasks.

And the solution’s gamified learning environment is quite interesting because it is a much more personalized way to communicate with the student. There are teachers who have obtained more knowledge through the use of CYPHER Learning than the rest of us and they can help us with this. Many times, these teachers find different aspects and activities and, as they use them, they share the process with their colleagues.

Because it's the space where we upload materials, colleagues can share their knowledge with you. For example, I really like the library that the system has. It allows me to pull activities that are archived or a card that I can adapt as I want and then send it to a student who is having problems and needs guidance. This can help that student get to the same level as the rest of the class.

The system should help us more in the area of evaluation. I don't think CYPHER Learning has exploited this topic enough. I can upload rubrics for evaluation, but there are no additional information sources or other instruments for student evaluation.

We have been using CYPHER LEARNING since the pandemic began, so approximately three and a half years.

In all the time we have used the platform, we have only had one network outage message. They told us that the system was going to be updated and that we wouldn't be able to use it during that period of time. It was only half a day and after that, we had no more problems.

It is a platform that is constantly updated and constantly growing.

We have almost 140 teachers, and we also have users who are students, directors, families, and our technical team.

We are counting on continuing to use the platform, and part of our plans for the future is to increase the usage of it.

The one time I had a problem with syncing CYPHER Learning with a Zoom meeting, I contacted their support team and they dealt with it as if it were an urgent matter. They responded and solved my issue quite quickly.

Positive

I used Google Classroom but it's not close to CYPHER Learning. The latter definitely offers many more possibilities. Google Classroom has improved a lot but, by then, we had acquired CYPHER Learning, so we haven't used Google Classroom anymore.

Our systems team gave us training and tutorials. It was a period of about four weeks from the time CYPHER Learning arrived at the school until we started using it.

The peace of mind and satisfaction that I have from having a space where students and their families can find everything are invaluable.

We have young students who sometimes don't entirely copy what they see in class. Now, parents can enter the system to find out what topics their children have seen and be more aware of what is happening with their children.

I would recommend CYPHER Learning. It's so intuitive that anyone can handle it. You don't need much training. In our school, we use it from the initial grades with young children. For parents and students, the platform is very intuitive.

I give it a nine out of 10. There are some additional features that I would like it to have, but it is a platform that meets the standards. We are very satisfied with our work in CYPHER Learning. It has streamlined our work with students.

Foreign Language:(Spanish)

¿Cuál es nuestro caso de uso principal?

Es la plataforma virtual del colegio y mi aula virtual. Publico las tareas y las lecciones para la clase a través de Zoom.

¿Cómo ha ayudado a mi organización?

CYPHER Learning nos ha ayudado mucho con la situación en la que, por problemas de salud, los estudiantes no pueden asistir a la escuela. Debido a que tenemos esta plataforma, los estudiantes tienen el programa de lecciones del día a día disponible en todas partes. Si están enfermos, pueden conectarse a la clase desde casa a través de Zoom. Pueden acceder a todo lo que el profesor trabaja a través de la plataforma. Ya no es como antes, cuando un estudiante faltaba a la escuela tenía que copiar todo el contenido que había perdido en clase.

En términos de trabajo administrativo, ha reducido bastante el tiempo dedicado a eso. Por ejemplo, solía llevarnos tiempo decir nombres y ver quién estaba presente al comienzo de una clase. Ahora, podemos hacerlo de forma más directa a través de CYPHER Learning. Tiene una forma más ágil de controlar la asistencia. Como plataforma en general, nos ha ayudado a simplificar nuestros trámites.

Definitivamente también ha ayudado a reducir los costos de los materiales físicos porque ya no imprimimos tantas copias. Explotamos bastante la plataforma en este sentido. Si un libro de texto cuesta 150 soles, multiplicado por cuatro libros de diferentes materias, eso le cuesta a los padres 600 soles. Puede imaginar la cantidad que los padres ahorran cuando se usa CYPHER Learning en lugar de libros.

¿Qué es lo más valioso?

Algunas de las características más valiosas son

• tareas en línea en tiempo real que no lo limitan a trabajar desde un solo lugar
• foros de comentarios
• Los maestros suben trabajos a la plataforma y los estudiantes suben todas sus respuestas a la plataforma y CYPHER Learning nos facilita verlos de inmediato.

También utilizamos la plataforma con fines de automatización y aprendizaje adaptativo. La capacidad de establecer reglas de activación que muestran u ocultan secciones o tareas de clase específicas es lo más óptima posible. Debido a que es intuitivo, es fácil crear contenido para los estudiantes de forma personalizada. Y es muy intuitivo para los estudiantes. Con solo ingresar a la plataforma ya ven sus cursos particulares en la pantalla de inicio.

El aprendizaje basado en competencias es muy visual y fácil de usar. El etiquetado es bastante simple. Es muy importante porque, más allá de los contenidos, nos enfocamos en la enseñanza de habilidades y estas están integradas en las competencias. Es importante que tengamos esta herramienta para hacer evaluaciones ya que nos ayuda a conocer mejor cuál es el estado real de un alumno. La capacidad de realizar un seguimiento del progreso de los estudiantes en función de las competencias a través de una cuadrícula de dominio es muy importante para la escuela porque podemos ver cuál es el progreso del estudiante, el tiempo que tarda y el tiempo que pasa en la plataforma.

Además, con la bandeja de mensajes directos, los alumnos pueden avisarte de cosas, y es muy sencillo. Esa característica es excelente porque ayuda mucho con la comunicación entre maestros, padres y estudiantes. Como profesor, también puedo dejar un comentario en una tarea para dar retroalimentación.

Los tipos de actividades que tiene el sistema ayudan a involucrar a los estudiantes y a desarrollar su independencia y habilidades de pensamiento de orden superior. Por ejemplo, los foros se usan mucho porque ayudan a los estudiantes con la capacidad de formar argumentos y expresar sus propias opiniones. Gracias a CYPHER Learning, podemos ofrecer diversas actividades. Ha hecho que los estudiantes se desempeñen mejor porque ya no están siempre haciendo las mismas tareas rutinarias.

Y el entorno de aprendizaje gamificado de la solución es bastante interesante porque es una forma mucho más personalizada de comunicarse con el alumno. Hay profesores que han obtenido más conocimientos mediante el uso de CYPHER Learning que el resto de nosotros y nos pueden ayudar con esto. Muchas veces, estos docentes encuentran diferentes aspectos y actividades y, a medida que las utilizan, comparten el proceso con sus compañeros.

Debido a que es el espacio donde subimos materiales, los compañeros pueden compartir sus conocimientos contigo. Por ejemplo, me gusta mucho la biblioteca que tiene el sistema. Me permite sacar actividades que están archivadas o una ficha que puedo adaptar a mi gusto y luego enviársela a un alumno que está teniendo problemas y necesita orientación. Esto puede ayudar a que el estudiante alcance el mismo nivel que el resto de la clase.

¿Qué necesita mejorar?

El sistema debería ayudarnos más en el área de evaluación. No creo que CYPHER Learning haya explotado lo suficiente este tema. Puedo subir rúbricas para la evaluación, pero no hay fuentes de información adicionales u otros instrumentos para la evaluación de los estudiantes.

¿Por cuánto tiempo he usado la solución?

Hemos estado usando CYPHER LEARNING desde que comenzó la pandemia, aproximadamente hace tres años y medio.

¿Qué pienso sobre la estabilidad de la solución?

En todo el tiempo que hemos usado la plataforma, solo hemos tenido un mensaje de corte de red. Nos dijeron que iban a actualizar el sistema y que no lo podríamos usar durante ese tiempo. Fue solo medio día y después de eso, no tuvimos más problemas.

¿Qué opino de la escalabilidad de la solución?

Es una plataforma en constante actualización y en constante crecimiento.

Tenemos casi 140 docentes, y también tenemos usuarios que son estudiantes, directores, familias y nuestro equipo técnico.

Contamos con seguir usando la plataforma, y parte de nuestros planes para el futuro es aumentar el uso de la misma.

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

La única vez que tuve un problema fue con la sincronización de CYPHER Learning con una reunión de Zoom, contacté a su equipo de soporte y lo trataron como si fuera un asunto urgente. Respondieron y resolvieron mi problema bastante rápido.

¿Cómo calificaría el servicio y soporte al cliente?

Positivo

¿Qué solución usé anteriormente y por qué cambié?

Usé Google Classroom pero no está cerca de CYPHER Learning ya que este definitivamente ofrece muchas más posibilidades. Google Classroom ha mejorado mucho pero, para entonces, habíamos adquirido CYPHER Learning, por lo que ya no usamos Google Classroom.

¿Cómo fue la configuración inicial?

Nuestro equipo de sistemas nos brindó capacitación y tutoriales. Fue un período de aproximadamente cuatro semanas desde que CYPHER Learning llegó a la escuela hasta que comenzamos a usarlo.

¿Cuál fue nuestro Retorno de Inversión?

La tranquilidad y satisfacción que tengo de tener un espacio donde los estudiantes y sus familias pueden encontrar de todo son invaluables.

Tenemos jóvenes estudiantes que a veces no copian del todo lo que ven en clase. Ahora, los padres pueden ingresar al sistema para saber qué temas han visto sus hijos y estar más al tanto de lo que sucede con sus hijos.

¿Qué otro consejo tengo?

Recomendaría CYPHER Learning. Es tan intuitivo que cualquiera puede manejarlo. No necesitas mucho entrenamiento. En nuestra escuela lo usamos desde los grados iniciales con niños pequeños. Para padres y alumnos, la plataforma es muy intuitiva.

Le doy un nueve sobre 10. Hay algunas características adicionales que me gustaría que tuviera, pero es una plataforma que cumple con los estándares. Estamos muy satisfechos con nuestro trabajo en CYPHER Learning. Ha agilizado nuestro trabajo con los estudiantes.

We use it for employee training.

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.

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.

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

I've been using CYPHER Learning for two years.

The platform is very reliable.

It's scalable as well.

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.

Positive

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.

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

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

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.

Before CYPHER Learning, our school was very traditional and did not use any type of online documentation. The pandemic made us look for new ways of doing things and that's when CYPHER Learning arrived. At first, it seemed very difficult to understand because we were not used to a student being able to archive their work and manage their learning in such an independent way. But this new modality of having the information online and using the CYPHER Learning application on a cell phone to see your work progress is something that has helped our institution.

It seems to me that CYPHER Learning is very didactic. You can count on forums and teamwork. It greatly favors individual work as well as teamwork. It is very important that students know how to write, but also that they know how to communicate. CYPHER Learning also facilitates socializing through the platform.

The solution has also helped save time, about 40 percent, on intervention strategies for students. For example, I have students who may take time to deliver assignments because they find them more complex. CYPHER Learning enables me to ask a student to do everything in a more creative way, such as by uploading a video or a canvas. In that way, life is made easier for them. Progress is faster thanks to NEO. Students can access a folder designed especially for them, according to their specific needs. NEO allows me to focus on exactly what they need and helps me close the learning gap.

And in terms of administrative work, it helps me do everything faster. Before, I had to see the grades separately. Now I can see them through CYPHER Learning and it helps a lot to consolidate the grades faster.

We also save money on modules and books, and students have the information wherever they are.

CYPHER Learning has taught me how to be organized. It used to be complicated for me to review and correct papers, but CYPHER Learning streamlines the process and provides the option of giving quick feedback, from both students and teachers.

In CYPHER Learning, all learning sessions are uploaded so that students can preview them before class, and students can upload their activities in class. We also use the synchronization with Zoom. 

The fact that you can organize all the information so that you have an order regarding the topics that the students review, and the way in which CYPHER Learning archives all the work done by the students, seems very useful to me.

I have many students in my charge and thanks to the automation provided by CYPHER Learning, it is possible to apply any class to any classroom and, in that way, replicate the same content for all classrooms.

Each student has different needs. In the comments section, they can express their needs and I, as a teacher, can provide them with some additional detail about what to do in the activity. It is a mini-chat where teachers communicate with students. I can talk privately with the student about those sections of the class where they need reinforcement.

It is very easy for educators to communicate with students using CYPHER Learning. The comments section in the projects makes our lives a lot easier. I can make observations on how to improve their work and if the student has any questions they reply immediately. In this way, there is constant feedback. The student feels fully cared for. Before CYPHER Learning, they had to wait until the next class to see the teacher and communicate with him. It is very important to be able to communicate. That gap that existed before between teachers and students is reduced when the student feels they will get a quick and effective response from the teacher. They feel looked after.

Also, the student has a bar that shows his progress. CYPHER Learning organizes all the evaluations and summarizes things. In addition to that, because we are between virtual and face-to-face classes nowadays, the content uploaded in CYPHER Learning is an advanced type of "information spoiler" about what they are going to do each semester. And the exercises they do give us feedback regarding the level of each student.

There is room for improvement in the way competencies for each area are designated. I would like the exact activities to be specified somewhere to clarify for the students what they need to complete each activity.

We started using CYPHER Learning in 2020, when the pandemic started.

I have never had connection problems. The platform is very stable and has always worked well.

I feel that CYPHER Learning has everything I need, in terms of infrastructure and communication with students. CYPHER LEARNING is always innovating. Recently, they showed us new tools. They care about meeting needs as time goes by.

We have about 1,500 users, including students, teachers, and supervisors. We are using it to its maximum, so there is no way to increase our usage of it.

I haven't had any issues so I haven't had any experience with their technical support.

Positive

The other solution we have is SieWeb but it is just for uploading notes so it's not comparable to CYPHER Learning.

It was complex at the beginning. It was the first time we interacted with a platform of this type. However, it is intuitive and, by exploring, you understand its functionalities. 

We had three training sessions, each lasting approximately two weeks, and then teachers began to use it independently. But it really depends on how much the teacher tries to manage and experiment with it. Our older teachers had difficulties.

At first, a small number of teachers were trained, and then general training was given. In each area there was an advisor. And one teacher, who predominated in the platform, advised the rest of the team and shared what they knew about it.

In the general training, there was a CYPHER Learning implementer, but we didn't really need a lot of help because we were able to help each other and answer questions. 

My experience with the implementer was quite good. He was very didactic, he tried to answer questions very calmly and make himself understood, and he was very patient.

Our ROI is that the students and teachers feel comfortable with the solution. The fact that we are all satisfied with the work means that the investment was worth it.

Look into whether it is useful for your school. CYPHER Learning has fast statistical data and many resources.

The tools for tagging classes and assignments with competencies don't really help me in the subject that I teach. Where it does help is in all the options that the student has to write, such as forums and exercises. Perhaps during the pandemic it was more necessary but now it is used less frequently.

The innovation and deployment of CYPHER Learning was very useful. In our school there are always surveys, and CYPHER Learning is something that everyone sees as necessary.

Foreign Language:(Spanish)

¿Cómo ha ayudado a mi organización?

Antes de CYPHER Learning, nuestra escuela era muy tradicional y no utilizaba ningún tipo de documentación en línea. La pandemia nos hizo buscar nuevas formas de hacer las cosas y ahí llegó CYPHER Learning. Al principio parecía muy difícil de entender porque no estábamos acostumbrados a que un alumno pudiera archivar su trabajo y gestionar su aprendizaje de forma tan independiente. Pero esta nueva modalidad de tener la información en línea y usar la aplicación CYPHER Learning en un celular para ver el avance de tu trabajo es algo que ha ayudado a nuestra institución.

Me parece que CYPHER Learning es muy didáctico. Puedes contar con foros y trabajo en equipo. Favorece mucho el trabajo individual así como el trabajo en equipo. Es muy importante que los alumnos sepan escribir, pero también que sepan comunicarse. CYPHER Learning también facilita la socialización a través de la plataforma.

La solución también ayudó a ahorrar tiempo, alrededor del 40 por ciento, en estrategias de intervención para los estudiantes. Por ejemplo, tengo alumnos que pueden tardar en entregar las tareas porque las encuentran más complejas. CYPHER Learning me permite pedirle a un estudiante que haga todo de una manera más creativa, como subir un video o un lienzo. De esa manera, la vida se les hace más fácil. El progreso es más rápido gracias a CYPHER Learning. Los alumnos pueden acceder a una carpeta diseñada especialmente para ellos, según sus necesidades específicas. CYPHER Learning me permite concentrarme exactamente en lo que necesitan y me ayuda a cerrar la brecha de aprendizaje.

Y en cuanto al trabajo administrativo, me ayuda a hacer todo más rápido. Antes tenía que ver las calificaciones por separado. Ahora puedo verlos a través de CYPHER Learning y ayuda mucho a consolidar las calificaciones más rápido.

También ahorramos dinero en módulos y libros, y los estudiantes tienen la información donde sea que estén.

CYPHER Learning me ha enseñado a organizarme. Antes me resultaba complicado revisar y corregir trabajos, pero CYPHER Learning agiliza el proceso y ofrece la opción de dar feedback rápido, tanto de alumnos como de profesores.

¿Qué es lo más valioso?

En CYPHER Learning, todas las sesiones de aprendizaje se cargan para que los estudiantes puedan obtener una vista previa antes de la clase y los estudiantes puedan cargar sus actividades en clase. También usamos la sincronización con Zoom.

Me parece muy útil el hecho de que puedas organizar toda la información para que tengas un orden respecto a los temas que revisan los alumnos, y la forma en que CYPHER Learning archiva todo el trabajo realizado por los alumnos.

Tengo muchos alumnos a mi cargo y gracias a la automatización que brinda CYPHER Learning, es posible aplicar cualquier clase a cualquier aula y, de esa manera, replicar el mismo contenido para todas las aulas.

Cada estudiante tiene necesidades diferentes. En la sección de comentarios, pueden expresar sus necesidades y yo, como docente, puedo brindarles algún detalle adicional sobre qué hacer en la actividad. Es un mini-chat donde los profesores se comunican con los alumnos. Puedo hablar en privado con el alumno sobre aquellas secciones de la clase en las que necesita refuerzo.

Es muy fácil para los educadores comunicarse con los estudiantes usando CYPHER Learning. La sección de comentarios en los proyectos nos hace la vida mucho más fácil. Puedo hacer observaciones sobre cómo mejorar su trabajo y si el estudiante tiene alguna pregunta, responde de inmediato. De esta manera, hay una retroalimentación constante. El estudiante se siente totalmente atendido. Antes de CYPHER Learning, tenían que esperar hasta la próxima clase para ver al maestro y comunicarse con él. Es muy importante poder comunicarse. Esa brecha que existía antes entre profesores y alumnos se reduce cuando el alumno siente que obtendrá una respuesta rápida y eficaz por parte del profesor. Se sienten atendidos.

Además, el estudiante tiene una barra que muestra su progreso. CYPHER Learning organiza todas las evaluaciones y resume las cosas. Además de eso, debido a que hoy en día estamos entre clases virtuales y presenciales, el contenido subido en CYPHER Learning es una especie de "spoiler informativo" avanzado sobre lo que van a hacer cada semestre. Y los ejercicios que hacen nos retroalimentan respecto al nivel de cada alumno.

¿Qué necesita mejorar?

Hay margen de mejora en la forma en que se designan las competencias para cada área. Me gustaría que las actividades exactas se especifiquen en alguna parte para aclarar a los estudiantes lo que necesitan para completar cada actividad.

¿Por cuánto tiempo he usado la solución?

Empezamos a usar CYPHER Learning en 2020, cuando empezó la pandemia.

¿Qué pienso sobre la estabilidad de la solución?

Nunca he tenido problemas de conexión. La plataforma es muy estable y siempre ha funcionado bien.

¿Qué opino de la escalabilidad de la solución?

Siento que CYPHER Learning tiene todo lo que necesito, en cuanto a infraestructura y comunicación con los estudiantes. CYPHER LEARNING siempre está innovando. Recientemente, nos mostraron nuevas herramientas. Se preocupan por satisfacer las necesidades a medida que pasa el tiempo.

Tenemos alrededor de 1500 usuarios, entre estudiantes, profesores y supervisores. Lo estamos utilizando al máximo, por lo que no hay forma de aumentar nuestro uso.

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

No he tenido ningún problema, así que no he tenido ninguna experiencia con su soporte técnico.

¿Qué solución usé anteriormente y por qué cambié?

La otra solución que tenemos es SieWeb, pero es solo para cargar notas, por lo que no es comparable con CYPHER Learning.

¿Cómo fue la configuración inicial?

Fue complejo al principio. Era la primera vez que interactuábamos con una plataforma de este tipo. Sin embargo, es intuitivo y, al explorarlo, comprendes sus funcionalidades.

Tuvimos tres sesiones de capacitación, cada una de las cuales duró aproximadamente dos semanas, y luego los maestros comenzaron a usarla de forma independiente. Pero realmente depende de cuánto el maestro intente manejarlo y experimentar con él. Nuestros maestros mayores tenían dificultades.

Al principio, se capacitó a un pequeño número de maestros y luego se impartió capacitación general. En cada área había un asesor. Y un docente, que predominó en la plataforma, aconsejó al resto del equipo y compartió lo que sabían al respecto.

¿Y el equipo de implementación?

En la capacitación general, hubo un implementador de CYPHER Learning, pero realmente no necesitábamos mucha ayuda porque pudimos ayudarnos entre todos y responder preguntas.

Mi experiencia con el implementador fue bastante buena. Era muy didáctico, trataba de responder a las preguntas con mucha calma y hacerse entender, y tenía mucha paciencia.

¿Cuál fue nuestro Retorno de Inversión?

Nuestro retorno de inversión es que los estudiantes y profesores se sienten cómodos con la solución. El hecho de que todos estemos satisfechos con el trabajo significa que la inversión valió la pena.

¿Qué otro consejo tengo?

Mira si es útil para tu escuela. CYPHER Learning tiene datos estadísticos rápidos y muchos recursos.

Las herramientas para etiquetar clases y tareas con competencias realmente no me ayudan en la materia que enseño. Donde sí ayuda es en todas las opciones que tiene el alumno para escribir, como foros y ejercicios. Quizás durante la pandemia era más necesario pero ahora se usa con menos frecuencia.\

La innovación y el despliegue de CYPHER Learning fue muy útil. En nuestra escuela siempre hay encuestas, y CYPHER Learning es algo que todos ven necesario.

We use it for three different programs of varying sizes. For example, one of our programs currently has 2,500 students. Another has about 1,200. So, we use it for varying programs that vary from anywhere from nine months to two years.

It brings students together in one place with teaching materials. Also, it has a social capability to it by way of forums and groups. That is definitely important for our programs. There has been a lot of engagement in our programs.

It is extremely important that dates and times are exact when we follow up with students, as it keeps our students on track.

For as long as I have been working with MATRIX (for a few years now), they have the social aspect with groups. The thing that they did not have for years, until earlier this year, was a reply-all feature. I had been asking for that for years and they finally added it this year. That has been helpful because now our students are less frustrated.

We can see who has accessed the portal, but it is not very intuitive. There is an issue with MATRIX user reporting. It is not that useful a lot of the time because we see conflicting dates in the activity and login. I have tried to work with their engineers, and asked, "Well, what's the real deal here," and there is no clarity around it. However, we can tell when people have last logged in.

The user reporting is a mess. It is unclear what I will get from this report. You need to keep tweaking and trying different options in the reports, then you don't know what you will get until you run the report. That is time-consuming and unclear to the user.

The calendar system could be greatly improved. I understand MATRIX is progressing in many ways by way of focusing on integrations with other apps and the whole API world. However, it would be nice if they could revisit their basics, e.g., the calendar system and user reporting, and get those basic things that people use every day to be accurate. 

I have been using it since December 2019, which has been pretty much two years now.

On the whole, it is pretty stable, but there have been issues that keep creeping up. I have been reporting them for years, getting temporary solutions. I don't know if they are running updates on their end, but the previous solution will then fall apart. I have to report it again and they have to fix it again. This all has to do with their basics, as far as reporting and calendars.

The technical support is 50-50. You don't know what you are going to get. Sometimes they will resolve it or help you resolve it, then other times you get an answer from someone who says, "It is not capable of doing that." Then, the next day, you might get a response from another technician who says, "Oh, I am sorry. Our system actually does this quite often."

They are hands-off by way of saying, "Oh, we are unable to replicate this." This is even when I am showing them video and screenshot proof of what is happening. Quite often, they say, "Oh, we are not able to replicate this." Then, that is it. They don't really help beyond that.

I would rate the technical support as six out of 10.

Neutral

We didn't previously use another solution.

We do cycles with our programs, but I am involved in every setup.

The initial setup is straightforward in some ways. I have a background in LMS development so it is easy to set up and straightforward in that way. Some of it is not straightforward because some of the options are by way of setting up your site. They are not very clear about what they do. Or, some options are just thrown here and there in the settings. It seems not completely organized. It is like, "Well, where should we put this? Let's just put this here." Even though it doesn't quite make sense there, there isn't a lot of flexibility in terms of customizing things in MATRIX. 

Deployment time varies per program. We try to allow a lot of space for QA testing and other things. It takes about a month to deploy, but that is not necessarily eight hours a day, five days a week. I am saying a month for internal user testing. Since our programs are very extensive with a lot of materials, it does take time to set them up.

We just purchased this solution from the vendor, then it was built in-house.

There is a team for deployment and maintenance because we have so many students across a few programs. There are at least 10 people. That varies from people getting into the weeds of building the courses, working on the back-end, or just administering it.

We extensively use it since we use it to deploy our biggest selling courses or programs. It is used year-round and daily by students, and by us as well. We actually want to look at other systems or develop our own system because the cost point of MATRIX is so high. It doesn't feel like we get any value for it.

Take your time and test it out. Forecast how many users you will have. Are they going to be able to keep up with the high cost per user? I would definitely tell them to really dive in and forecast growth. See if you can keep up with this budgetary-wise.

I really want to work with our VP of technology and see about developing our own system so we can move away from MATRIX and save on profit.

I would rate this solution as seven out of 10.

We use it for teaching online.

The students have begun to use the platform, above all, because it also allows them to join libraries instead of searching for bibliographic references on Google. They make use of the libraries and that has facilitated academic activity. That is an area that has been exploited effectively in our university.

CYPHER Learning has saved us time on intervention strategies for students, especially those who need guidance. It has saved us approximately 30 percent compared to other methods, especially because of how intuitive the platform is.

Another benefit is the time saved on administrative work, such as grades, filling out reports, and student control. Having these things automated instead of doing them manually results in very considerable time savings. If I did those things manually in half an hour, with CYPHER Learning I do them in five minutes.

It also saves on printing costs. It enables you to do everything in a digital format. You prepare something, put it in a PDF, and send it by email. It makes things much easier for you.

We use it mostly as a repository for study materials, the tasks to be carried out,  and to allow students to publish their documents, the area of ​​qualifications, and feedback.

One of the features that is very good is the automation for setting trigger rules that show or hide specific class sections or assignments. We have it based on mosaics and it is very intuitive. We immediately find what we want. What we call "Unit Zero" is where the manuals, et cetera are located. Each unit, in turn, has another group of mosaics where units and tasks are broken down.

The adaptive learning for providing students with personalized content based on their goals and performance is also good. Because I started in online education two years ago, I am very used to it.

One area that needs improvement is the feedback box. In our case, the space  for it is in the right-hand menu but with little margin width. That makes it very difficult for us to fully visualize what we are writing. It would be a great help if they would give us 150 points of width to effectively see the area where we are writing.

Also, I would like to see better integration of the platform with Zoom or Meet so that programming of video conferences would be much more interactive within those platforms. Currently, if we have to do a conference in Zoom or Meet, we have to leave the platform because we cannot do so directly within it.

Another point for improvement is the integration with other platforms, especially because students and teachers are already familiar with other platforms. Sometimes, they have a lot of material in one of those other platforms and when integrating it with CYPHER Learning, the formats and instructions do not match, and that can affect their performance levels. Integration with other file-sharing platforms needs to be exploited.

I have been using CYPHER Learning for about three years.

So far, my impression of its stability has been positive. There have been very few crashes, and many of them have been due to internet bandwidth rather than system failures. On occasion, when refreshing the database, some content has been lost but that has been very sporadic and infrequent.

Scaling has been handled as needed, but there is still a lot to explore because it has not been used to 100 percent of its capacity. Our requirements themselves are what make us increase our use of the solution, little by little.

It is very underutilized because students limit themselves to uploading their files to it, but they do not make effective use of it because the university was designed to be face-to-face. The vast majority of students do not accept working online, except for the delivery of files. While I have experience with it and have seen many of its functions, the students are not used to it. In that sense, the platform has been very neglected.

We have approximately 6,000 people who use it, including teachers, students, academic coordinators, campus directors, managers, and site administrators. It has not decreased the number of people we need to administrate our educational center.

On the occasions that I have requested help, the response has been fast. It has taken approximately one or two hours.

Positive

This is our first such solution. Because of the pandemic, we were forced to teach classes online. Our university was designed to be 100 percent face-to-face, so the platform had to be enabled to teach classes during the pandemic.

The initial setup was complex due to its design, because it is different from other platforms. It seems complex when it is unknown, but within three hours you can learn the basics.

Our setup took about three hours. It gives us a web page with an https address and that is where the login is.

In terms of deployment and maintenance, there are three roles: one that uploads the content, one that establishes the parameters of action, and one that manages the platform.

I think it is important to maintain the 30-day trial policy. Perhaps there could be individual licenses for teachers so that they could better exploit and learn how to use the platform. If teachers were encouraged to create their own courses and given an economically attractive license, I feel that there would be an opportunity to have it used more widely. Individual teachers could be encouraged to create their own courses and not depend so much on the formal educational centers.

The ability to communicate with students using CYPHER Learning is very poor. There is a lot of ignorance about the platform, and the vast majority of our teachers were also not used to working online. Many of them do not know how to enable or disable students, how to register them, or how to modify delivery dates. That is not a problem with the platform, it is a lack of teacher training.

CYPHER Learning provides activities to help students get engaged with their learning and develop higher-order thinking skills. However, the teachers limit themselves to a series of activities that are traditional and they have not explored the richness of the features. Most do not go beyond the common essay and the forum becomes a very mechanical database. The wikis are largely forgotten because professors are not used to working this way. They have had to force themselves to teach online without knowing how to do so. Again this is a lack of teacher training, not an issue with the platform.

The gamified learning environment for helping with teaching and learning is a positive. There are areas for improvement, especially in the feedback field, but it is a matter of site design. Overall, I am very positive about the platform. You will master it in a short period of time.

It is a product that is worth it, once you learn how to handle it. There are no limits with it. On the contrary, it gives you the possibility of opening up, increasing, and deepening student learning. You can increase the type and number of activities within the platform beyond the traditional ones used in the face-to-face system.

Foreign Language: (Spanish)

¿Cuál es nuestra razón de uso principal?

Lo usamos para enseñar en línea.

¿Cómo ha ayudado a mi organización?

Los alumnos han comenzado a utilizar la plataforma, sobre todo, porque también les permite unirse a las bibliotecas en lugar de buscar referencias bibliográficas en Google. Hacen uso de las bibliotecas y eso ha facilitado la actividad académica. Esa es un área que ha sido explotada de manera efectiva en nuestra universidad.

CYPHER Learning nos ha ahorrado tiempo en estrategias de intervención para estudiantes, especialmente aquellos que necesitan orientación. Nos ha ahorrado aproximadamente un 30 por ciento en comparación con otros métodos, especialmente por lo intuitiva que es la plataforma.

Otro beneficio es el ahorro de tiempo en el trabajo administrativo, como calificaciones, llenado de informes y control de estudiantes. Tener estas cosas automatizadas en lugar de hacerlo manualmente da como resultado un ahorro de tiempo muy considerable. Si esas cosas las hacía manualmente en media hora, con CYPHER Learning las hago en cinco minutos.

También ahorra en costes de impresión. Te permite hacer todo en formato digital. Preparas algo, lo pones en un PDF y lo envías por correo electrónico. Te facilita mucho las cosas.

¿Qué es lo más valioso?

Lo usamos mayormente como repositorio de materiales de estudio, las tareas a realizar, y para permitir a los estudiantes publicar sus documentos, el área de calificaciones y retroalimentación.

Una de las características que es muy buena es la automatización para establecer reglas de activación que muestren u oculten secciones o tareas de clase específicas. Lo tenemos a base de mosaicos y es muy intuitivo. Inmediatamente encontramos lo que buscamos. Lo que llamamos "Unidad Cero" es donde se encuentran los manuales, etcétera. Cada unidad, a su vez, tiene otro grupo de mosaicos donde se desglosan unidades y tareas.

El aprendizaje adaptativo para proporcionar a los estudiantes contenido personalizado en función de sus objetivos y rendimiento también es bueno. Debido a que comencé en la educación en línea hace dos años, estoy muy acostumbrado.

¿Qué necesita mejorar?

Un área que necesita mejoras es el cuadro de comentarios. En nuestro caso, el espacio para ello está en el menú de la derecha pero con poco ancho de margen. Eso hace que sea muy difícil para nosotros visualizar completamente lo que estamos escribiendo. Sería de gran ayuda que nos dieran 150 puntos de ancho para ver efectivamente la zona donde estamos escribiendo.

Además, me gustaría ver una mejor integración de la plataforma con Zoom o Meet para que la programación de videoconferencias sea mucho más interactiva dentro de esas plataformas. Actualmente, si tenemos que hacer una conferencia en Zoom o Meet, tenemos que salir de la plataforma porque no podemos hacerlo directamente dentro de ella.

Otro punto a mejorar es la integración con otras plataformas, sobre todo porque alumnos y profesores ya están familiarizados con otras plataformas. A veces, tienen mucho material en una de esas otras plataformas y al integrarlo con CYPHER Learning, los formatos y las instrucciones no coinciden, y eso puede afectar sus niveles de rendimiento. Es necesario aprovechar la integración con otras plataformas de intercambio de archivos.

¿Por cuánto tiempo he usado la solución?

He estado usando CYPHER Learning durante unos tres años.

¿Qué pienso sobre la estabilidad de la solución?

Hasta ahora, mi impresión de su estabilidad ha sido positiva. Ha habido muy pocos bloqueos, y muchos de ellos se han debido al ancho de banda de Internet en lugar de fallas del sistema. En ocasiones al refrescar la base de datos se ha perdido algún contenido pero ha sido muy esporádico y poco frecuente.

¿Qué opino de la escalabilidad de la solución?

El escalado se ha manejado según sea necesario, pero aún queda mucho por explorar porque no se ha utilizado al 100 por ciento de su capacidad. Nuestros propios requisitos son los que nos hacen aumentar nuestro uso de la solución, poco a poco.

Está muy infrautilizado porque los estudiantes se limitan a subir sus archivos, pero no hacen un uso efectivo porque la universidad fue diseñada para ser presencial. La gran mayoría de los estudiantes no acepta trabajar en línea, excepto para la entrega de archivos. Si bien tengo experiencia con él y he visto muchas de sus funciones, los estudiantes no están acostumbrados. En ese sentido, la plataforma ha estado muy descuidada.

Contamos con aproximadamente 6,000 personas que lo utilizan, entre docentes, estudiantes, coordinadores académicos, directores de campus, gerentes y administradores de sitios. No ha disminuido el número de personas que necesitamos para administrar nuestro centro educativo.

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

En las ocasiones que he solicitado ayuda la respuesta ha sido rápida. Ha tardado aproximadamente una o dos horas.

¿Cómo calificaría el servicio y soporte al cliente?

Positivo

¿Qué solución usé anteriormente y por qué cambié?

Esta es nuestra primera solución de este tipo. Debido a la pandemia, nos vimos obligados a dar clases en línea. Nuestra universidad fue diseñada para ser 100 por ciento presencial, por lo que había que habilitar la plataforma para impartir clases durante la pandemia.

¿Cómo fue la configuración inicial?

La configuración inicial fue compleja debido a su diseño, ya que es diferente a otras plataformas. Parece complejo cuando se desconoce, pero en tres horas puedes aprender lo básico.

Nuestra configuración tomó alrededor de tres horas. Nos da una página web con una dirección https y ahí es donde está el inicio de sesión.

En términos de implementación y mantenimiento, hay tres roles: uno que carga el contenido, uno que establece los parámetros de acción y otro que administra la plataforma.

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

Creo que es importante mantener la política de prueba de 30 días. Quizás podría haber licencias individuales para los docentes para que puedan explotar mejor y aprender a usar la plataforma. Si se animara a los profesores a crear sus propios cursos y se les diera una licencia económicamente atractiva, creo que habría una oportunidad de que se utilizara más ampliamente. Se podría alentar a los maestros individuales a crear sus propios cursos y no depender tanto de los centros educativos formales.

¿Qué otro consejo tengo?

La capacidad de comunicarse con los estudiantes que usan CYPHER Learning es muy pobre. Hay mucho desconocimiento sobre la plataforma, y la gran mayoría de nuestros profesores tampoco estaban acostumbrados a trabajar en línea. Muchos de ellos no saben cómo habilitar o deshabilitar alumnos, cómo darlos de alta, o cómo modificar las fechas de entrega. Eso no es problema de la plataforma, es falta de formación de los profesores.

CYPHER Learning ofrece actividades para ayudar a los estudiantes a participar en su aprendizaje y desarrollar habilidades de pensamiento de orden superior. Sin embargo, los docentes se limitan a una serie de actividades que son tradicionales y no han explorado la riqueza de las características. La mayoría no va más allá del ensayo común y el foro se convierte en una base de datos muy mecánica. Los wikis están en gran parte olvidados porque los profesores no están acostumbrados a trabajar de esta manera. Se han tenido que obligar a enseñar en línea sin saber cómo hacerlo. Nuevamente, esto es una falta de capacitación de los maestros, no un problema con la plataforma.

El entorno de aprendizaje gamificado para ayudar con la enseñanza y el aprendizaje es positivo. Hay áreas de mejora, especialmente en el campo de la retroalimentación, pero es una cuestión de diseño del sitio. En general, soy muy positivo acerca de la plataforma. Lo dominarás en un corto período de tiempo.

Es un producto que merece la pena, una vez que aprendes a manejarlo. No hay límites con eso. Por el contrario, te da la posibilidad de abrir, incrementar y profundizar el aprendizaje de los estudiantes. Puedes aumentar el tipo y número de actividades dentro de la plataforma más allá de las tradicionales utilizadas en el sistema presencial.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Positive

We switched from a different platform.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

All of these features are very valuable to me.

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

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

I have been using CYPHER Learning since 2020. 

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

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

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

Positive

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Foreign Language:(Spanish)

¿Cuál es nuestro caso de uso principal?

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

¿Cómo ha ayudado a mi organización?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

¿Qué es lo más valioso?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Todas estas características son muy valiosas para mí.

¿Qué necesita mejorar?

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

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

¿Por cuánto tiempo he usado la solución?

Uso CYPHER Learning desde 2020.

¿Qué pienso sobre la estabilidad de la solución?

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

¿Qué opino de la escalabilidad de la solución?

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

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

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

¿Cómo calificaría el servicio y soporte al cliente?

Positivo

¿Qué solución usé anteriormente y por qué cambié?

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

¿Cómo fue la configuración inicial?

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

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

¿Cuál fue nuestro Retorno de Inversión?

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

¿Qué otro consejo tengo?

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

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

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

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

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

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

I use it to organize the work that the students send in and I also upload all the class materials to it so that the students can see them at any time. In addition, I use CYPHER Learning to create activities.

Where CYPHER Learning has helped especially is in the organization of content. The students bring materials such as notebooks and books, but they are already aware that they must also have everything on their laptops or their mobiles. This helps them to be more responsible. The platform enables us to keep all the content of every class available and allows students to upload tasks or activities so that work can be accepted within a limited time.

During the pandemic, everything became virtual and CYPHER Learning helped us through the ability to upload any file to any section. Students could go in and download the files. Today, we still use the system for all the material it contains. That is the main benefit that it offers, the ability able to register everything within the platform.

We upload content according to the progress of the class. The most personalized aspect is the feedback. It gives a more personalized feeling in providing resources to the student.

The fact that communication is fluid is very important for our school. That communication is not only between teachers and students but also with parents. And with CYPHER Learning, we can help any student who cannot get to class. It helps us manage the virtual class schedule on the calendar so that students can track the entire class through the platform.

We generally use videos and create activities to do at home, according to the data that the system presents us with. Each activity that is uploaded gives the student an average or grade and, in this way, we know what recommendations to give in class, based on that data.

It is also important because, in a certain way, it also develops students' autonomy. For example, during the pandemic, each student was responsible for their work on each activity that was uploaded to the platform. They might be essays, interaction with the teacher, or commenting in the forum. It contributes a lot to the student's academic training.

Because I can upload classes, it has saved me time on administrative work. It gives you the option of duplicating classes for all the sections. I can access the classes through a link and create the content to teach different classes. It helps reduce management work but not the number of staff.

And more than anything, CYPHER Learning has helped a lot by saving costs on printed materials. There are web pages, videos, and other types of documents that replace books and notebooks. This year, physical books have hardly been used. Students have worked with PDFs and virtual books that are made available through CYPHER Learning so we have saved on costs. Students even have access to it on their cell phones, so they always have it close by.

The evaluation tool, and being able to get the marks through the rubrics and observe the work in the preview are valuable aspects of CYPHER Learning.

It is personalized and I can specifically evaluate any student. I also like the ability to comment on assignments. And it includes audio, which means I can communicate with the students in various ways. And students can submit videos, oral reflections, etc.

The platform also has an option for triggering sections of work. That is feasible because we upload complete classes.

When you upload a rubric to the CYPHER Learning library, you also indicate the competencies that you want students to acquire. In my case, as a communications teacher, there are three competencies, so the rubrics are in accordance with them. The system gives you a report to enable you to evaluate the competence or the results a student has achieved. You can adapt and edit according to what a student answers and a result is accumulated. The way that CYPHER Learning tags classes and assignments with competencies helps me see what a student has done.

There are several activities that can be used thanks to the platform. For example, there is dialogue between the students. Through these types of activities, they have the option to comment and generate opinions. These activities are important because we are trying to get students to develop critical thinking and personal opinions. CYPHER Learning has helped students develop these skills. Even within our institution we have debates, and the platform is a tool that helps with this.

It helps a lot in facilitating a student's learning process, but the didactic tools are a bit limited. When I use CYPHER Learning it is mostly for individual teaching purposes. There are some tools that facilitate dialogue but not many that help produce continuous interaction. There is room for improvement in the area of interaction. I'd like to see more ways for the student to communicate with their classmates.

In addition, I don't know if I still need to discover this, but I still haven't understood how to synchronize classes. I have to copy and duplicate them in other sessions.

Another thing that they could improve on is its ease of use on smartphones. Many times, the content is not easily downloaded to the student's smartphone, when they don't have their computer nearby.

We have been using CYPHER Learning for approximately four years.

Since we started using CYPHER Learning, there have been three network outages where we have not been able to use it. Each of these three times, the platform failed for a full day, and the next day it returned to normal. But since we have been using it for four years, those connection failures are not something that has happened often at all.

We have approximately 1,500 people using it, including teachers, students, systems managers, and administrators.

Our use of the system increased due to the pandemic. It became our means of communication, both to start classes and to qualify and evaluate. And we have not decreased usage ever since. Although we are in face-to-face classes again, we continue to use CYPHER Learning in the same way.

The intermediary between our school and CYPHER LEARNING has always been our system admin area. But I would say that the technical support is very good because I haven't seen any difficulties and our system managers have found a solution to any problem. If something happens, it normally takes a maximum of one day to be resolved.

Positive

It's simple now, but in the beginning we had to learn a lot about the platform through exploration. We had to learn the necessary management capabilities of the platform at first, and we had to make mistakes, but over time it has become much more familiar. Today, students, teachers, and even parents know the system better. Now, our teachers know how to use at least 70 to 80 percent of the platform.

Our deployment took four months. The systems management team was in charge of dealing with any errors that occurred and answering any questions we had at the beginning of the implementation. During those four months they were adjusting everything. The systems team was in continuous communication with CYPHER LEARNING, and through this process we were adapting to the platform.

There were four people in charge of the implementation in our organization, in the systems area. They monitor the system and take care of any teacher who needs help.

Our school maintains a structure that we must all follow within the platform. The school continuously supervises the automation of the platform. Each area of the school has a coordinator and a supervisor, and the supervisor is the one who monitors and makes sure that the classes are in accordance with what the school has decided. CYPHER Learning provides different ways for you to structure it and we can modify the class content to be standardized so that our system is the same in all the courses. Our school has also given us training to understand the features that the solution offers to help us be a more optimal organization

I don't know what the investment cost was, but it has made life easier for us as teachers. I feel that the objective was fulfilled. It is a good, functional system for the teacher, and that was especially true during the pandemic when it was the main source of communication with the students.

If you're looking for a platform that works by relying on competencies, this is the one for you. It eases the interaction with students and has several tools that enable students to develop different skills. And teachers have the ability to monitor students through evaluations and feedback.

In terms of intervention strategies for students, it has helped to a certain extent because it has a record of those interventions, but it is not something that I have based my interventions on.

The platform is very useful and helps us a lot. If they could incorporate more updates and interaction tools it would be even better. It makes it quite easy for the teacher and the student to keep track of classes.

Foreign Language:(Spanish)

¿Cuál es nuestro caso de uso principal?

Lo uso para organizar el trabajo que envían los alumnos y también subo todos los materiales de clase para que los alumnos puedan verlos en cualquier momento. Además, uso CYPHER Learning para crear actividades.

¿Cómo ha ayudado a mi organización?

Donde CYPHER Learning ha ayudado especialmente es en la organización del contenido. Los alumnos traen materiales como cuadernos y libros, pero ya son conscientes de que también deben tenerlo todo en sus portátiles o en sus móviles. Esto les ayuda a ser más responsables. La plataforma nos permite mantener disponible todo el contenido de cada clase y permite que los estudiantes carguen tareas o actividades para que el trabajo sea aceptado en un tiempo limitado.

Durante la pandemia, todo se volvió virtual y CYPHER Learning nos ayudó con la capacidad de cargar cualquier archivo en cualquier sección. Los estudiantes podían entrar y descargar los archivos. Hoy en día, todavía usamos el sistema para todo el material que contiene. Ese es el principal beneficio que ofrece, la posibilidad de registrar todo dentro de la plataforma.

Subimos contenido de acuerdo al avance de la clase. El aspecto más personalizado es el feedback. Da una sensación más personalizada al proporcionar recursos al estudiante.

El hecho de que la comunicación sea fluida es muy importante para nuestro colegio. Que la comunicación no sea solo entre profesores y alumnos sino también con los padres. Y con CYPHER Learning podemos ayudar a cualquier alumno que no pueda llegar a clase. Nos ayuda a administrar el horario de clases virtuales en el calendario para que los estudiantes puedan realizar un seguimiento de toda la clase a través de la plataforma.

Generalmente usamos videos y creamos actividades para hacer en casa, de acuerdo a los datos que nos presenta el sistema. Cada actividad que se sube le da al alumno un promedio o calificación y, de esta forma, sabemos qué recomendaciones dar en clase, en base a ese dato.

También es importante porque, en cierto modo, también desarrolla la autonomía de los alumnos. Por ejemplo, durante la pandemia, cada alumno era responsable de su trabajo en cada actividad que se subía a la plataforma. Pueden ser ensayos, interacción con el profesor o comentarios en el foro. Aporta mucho a la formación académica del alumno.

Debido a que puedo cargar clases, me ha ahorrado tiempo en el trabajo administrativo. Te da la opción de duplicar clases para todas las secciones. Puedo acceder a las clases a través de un enlace y crear el contenido para impartir diferentes clases. Ayuda a reducir el trabajo de gestión, pero no la cantidad de personal.

Y más que nada, CYPHER Learning ha ayudado mucho al ahorrar costos en materiales impresos. Existen páginas web, videos y otro tipo de documentos que reemplazan a los libros y cuadernos. Este año no se han utilizado tantos libros físicos. Los estudiantes han trabajado con archivos PDF y libros virtuales que están disponibles a través de CYPHER Learning, por lo que hemos ahorrado costos. Los estudiantes incluso tienen acceso a él en sus teléfonos móviles, por lo que siempre lo tienen cerca.

¿Qué es lo más valioso?

La herramienta de evaluación, y poder sacar las notas a través de las rúbricas y observar el trabajo en la vista previa son aspectos valiosos de CYPHER Learning.

Es personalizado y puedo evaluar específicamente a cualquier alumno. También me gusta la posibilidad de comentar sobre las tareas e incluir audios, lo que significa que puedo comunicarme con los estudiantes de varias maneras. Y los estudiantes pueden enviar videos, reflexiones orales, etc.

La plataforma también tiene una opción para activar secciones de trabajo. Eso es factible porque subimos clases completas.

Cuando subo una rúbrica a la biblioteca CYPHER Learning, también puedo indicar las competencias que quiero que adquieran mis alumnos. En mi caso, como docente de comunicación, hay tres competencias, por lo que las rúbricas están de acuerdo con ellas. El sistema te da un informe para que puedas evaluar la competencia o los resultados que ha alcanzado un estudiante. Se puede adaptar y editar de acuerdo a lo que responde un alumno y se acumula un resultado. La forma en que CYPHER Learning etiqueta clases y tareas con competencias me ayuda a ver lo que ha hecho un estudiante.

Hay varias actividades que se pueden utilizar gracias a la plataforma. Por ejemplo, hay diálogo entre los estudiantes. A través de este tipo de actividades, tienen la opción de comentar y generar opiniones. Estas actividades son importantes porque estamos tratando de que los estudiantes desarrollen el pensamiento crítico y las opiniones personales. CYPHER Learning ha ayudado a los estudiantes a desarrollar estas habilidades. Incluso dentro de nuestra institución tenemos debates, y la plataforma es una herramienta que ayuda con esto.

¿Qué necesita mejorar?

Ayuda mucho a facilitar el proceso de aprendizaje de un estudiante, pero las herramientas didácticas son un poco limitadas. Cuando uso CYPHER Learning es principalmente para fines de enseñanza individual. Hay algunas herramientas que facilitan el diálogo pero no muchas que ayuden a producir una interacción continua. Hay lugar para mejorar en el área de interacción. Me gustaría ver más formas para que el estudiante se comunique con sus compañeros de clase.

Además, no sé si aún me falta descubrir esto, pero todavía no he entendido cómo sincronizar clases. Tengo que copiarlas y duplicarlas en otras sesiones.

Otra cosa que podrían mejorar es su facilidad de uso en smartphones. Muchas veces, el contenido no se descarga fácilmente al teléfono del estudiante, cuando no tiene su computadora cerca.

¿Por cuánto tiempo he usado la solución?

Hemos estado usando CYPHER Learning durante cuatro años aproximadamente.

¿Qué pienso sobre la estabilidad de la solución?

Desde que comenzamos a usar CYPHER Learning, han habido tres cortes de red en los que no hemos podido usarlo durante ese tiempo la plataforma falló durante un día completo y al día siguiente volvió a la normalidad. Llevamos cuatro años usando CYPHER Learning, asi que diría que no fueron muchas las fallas de conexión.

¿Qué opino de la escalabilidad de la solución?

Tenemos aproximadamente 1500 personas usándolo, incluidos profesores, estudiantes, gerentes de sistemas y administradores.

Nuestro uso del sistema aumentó debido a la pandemia. Se convirtió en nuestro medio de comunicación, tanto para iniciar clases como para calificar y evaluar. Y no hemos disminuido el uso desde entonces. Aunque volvemos a estar en clases presenciales, seguimos usando CYPHER Learning de la misma manera.

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

El intermediario entre nuestra escuela y CYPHER LEARNING siempre ha sido nuestra área de administración del sistema. Pero yo diría que el soporte técnico es muy bueno porque no he visto ninguna dificultad y nuestros administradores de sistemas han encontrado una solución a cualquier problema. Si pasa algo, normalmente se tarda aproximadamente un día en solucionarlo.

¿Cómo calificaría el servicio y soporte al cliente?

Positivo

¿Cómo fue la configuración inicial?

Ahora es simple, pero al principio tuvimos que aprender mucho sobre la plataforma a través de la exploración. Tuvimos que aprender las capacidades de gestión necesarias de la plataforma al principio y tuvimos que cometer errores, pero con el tiempo se ha vuelto mucho más familiar. Hoy, los estudiantes, los maestros e incluso los padres conocen mejor el sistema. Ahora, nuestros maestros saben cómo usar al menos del 70 al 80 por ciento de la plataforma.

Nuestro despliegue tomó cuatro meses. El equipo de gestión de sistemas se encargó de solucionar los errores que se produjeran y resolver las dudas que teníamos al inicio de la implementación. Durante esos cuatro meses estuvieron ajustando todo. El equipo de sistemas estuvo en continua comunicación con CYPHER LEARNING, y a través de este proceso nos fuimos adaptando a la plataforma.

El área de sistemas estuvo a cargo de la implementación en nuestra organización.Ellos supervisan el sistema y se ocupan de cualquier maestro que necesite ayuda.

Nuestra escuela mantiene una estructura que todos debemos seguir dentro de la plataforma. La escuela supervisa continuamente la automatización de la plataforma. Cada área de la escuela tiene un coordinador y un supervisor, y el supervisor es quien supervisa y se asegura de que las clases estén de acuerdo con lo que la escuela ha decidido. CYPHER Learning te brinda diferentes formas de estructurarlo y podemos modificar el contenido de la clase para que sea estandarizado para que nuestro sistema sea el mismo en todos los cursos. Nuestra escuela también nos ha brindado capacitación para comprender las características que ofrece la solución para ayudarnos a ser una organización más óptima.

¿Cuál fue nuestro Retorno de Inversión?

No sé cuál fue el costo de la inversión, pero nos ha facilitado la vida a los docentes. Siento que se cumplió el objetivo. Es un sistema bueno y funcional para el docente, y eso fue especialmente cierto durante la pandemia cuando era la principal fuente de comunicación con los estudiantes.

¿Qué otro consejo tengo?

Si buscas una plataforma que funcione apoyándose en competencias, esta es la plataforma que buscas. Facilita la interacción con los estudiantes y cuenta con varias herramientas que permiten a los estudiantes desarrollar diferentes habilidades Y los maestros tienen la capacidad de monitorear a los estudiantes a través de evaluaciones y comentarios.

En cuanto a las estrategias de intervención para los estudiantes, ha ayudado en cierta medida porque tiene un registro de esas intervenciones, pero no es algo en lo que he basado mis intervenciones.

La plataforma es muy útil y nos ayuda mucho. Si pudieran incorporar más actualizaciones y herramientas de interacción sería aún mejor. Hace que sea muy fácil para el profesor y el alumno realizar un seguimiento de las clases.