What needs improvement with NEO LMS?

The common cartridge format is not supported by the older version. On the dashboard, if we upload the common cartridge, it can be easily added, but unfortunately, it is not supported. Therefore, we have some older common cartridge files that we want to upload to the main system, but we are unable to do so. As a solution, we are creating a new common cartridge file. The grade book is limited to only 1,000 learners. Therefore, we are unable to view any information beyond that number. I would like to have the ability to search by certificate number in order to verify the validity of a certificate. However, at present, we do not have the capability to do so.

One thing I find annoying is that the system is quite limited when it comes to roles. I was used to our old system where I could create custom roles to cater to specific users and that's not available in CYPHER Learning. Another issue is the customization of the gradebook. I'm used to a highly customizable gradebook, but that's also not available in CYPHER Learning.

I really appreciate the ability to provide feedback for assessments. However, the user interface for this feature is not very user-friendly. I think it could be improved by making it easier to understand. CYPHER Learning has a lot of resources for finding answers. They have a search tool that allows us to search for answers on our own. However, I think it would be helpful if the resources were more structured in a how-to format. This would allow us to find the information we need without having to talk to a trainer or tech support. I think the current feature is good, but there could be more self-learning opportunities for how to use the product.

CYPHER Learning should definitely offer live video conferencing integration. We currently need to outsource this service, which means we cannot run webinars from within CYPHER Learning. This is definitely on our wish list. The initial setup process is a bit cumbersome, but it is not impossible to complete. The company's support is excellent, so we were able to get help with any questions we had. The platform had a bit of a learning curve for our team, but our users, who tend to be older, were able to use it seamlessly. The average age of our users is over 50, so they are not always tech-savvy. We have had very few issues with our users being able to use the platform. Overall, the platform is user-friendly for our users, but it could be more user-friendly for administrators. We learned some of the rules for assessments and completion the hard way. For example, if we change a role, it is not applied automatically. We have to manually update the role. We needed to verify that people had completed all the requirements to be issued a certificate. We changed the role halfway through the process because we found out that there was a gap and people were falling through the cracks. However, we had to manually correct the already-issued certificates. Therefore, the change of rules does not apply retroactively. We need to test anything that is conditional, especially completion rules.

The reporting has room for improvement. I would like more reporting options. Screen sorting can be improved by providing more filtering options.

While the number of apps available for integration with NEO LMS has increased over the years, I would love to see this number continue to grow. I believe this would help solidify its position amongst other learning management systems as a viable option for educators and schools.

We manage a huge number of registered users and also offer a large number of courses on our platform, and our courses are offered via a large number of organizations. It's a very complex setup, but CYPHER LEARNING did an excellent job of fixing the initial speed issues we had. We are also considering how we can improve the user experience. There are some customization options in MATRIX that we haven’t utilized yet, but with the help of these we want to make our site more attractive to paying customers. Finally, we are very excited about the improved and flexible access that is already in CYPHER LEARNING’s development pipeline.

Most of our wish list for NEO LMS has already been addressed. One that we are still asking them for is to include competencies from different industries, since they have industry partners. These would be the competencies that these industries need so that we can make sure that we are developing our students toward those competencies or skill sets. Also, because the competency mapping feature is very well thought out, our wish list also includes that when our students graduate, they are able to print, download, or access the competencies that they have achieved in the four years that they studied with us at STI. That portfolio could then be shown when they apply for a job, and employers would see that it has been mapped out according to the industry's standards.

It helps a lot in facilitating a student's learning process, but the didactic tools are a bit limited. When I use NEO 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 teachers of all ages and those who are a little older hardly interact with the platform. It needs greater accessibility and more detailed updates and information regarding all its tools.

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.

Perhaps there could be advances in artificial intelligence with more precise and immediate automated reports so that teachers have reports at hand. That would make things easier and would speed up processes.

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

Perhaps there is room for improvement in the gamification part. I have used it but it has not been very clear to me. It may be my responsibility for not asking about it in the training sessions, but the way you use it is not so clear. I know that there are tutorials, but I would like something more user-friendly that would explain how to use this feature. They should also send out more questionnaires to receive feedback.

NEO’s adaptive learning for helping provide students personalized content based on their goals and performance varies since they could provide the student with a pre-entry message or a type of login board menu so the student could access the specific information that they want. In this area, I would give it 7 out of 10. The training of teachers should be simpler. There are some teachers who are not using these platforms to communicate. Instead, they are using it for uploading material since they are not very technological and the training wasn't easy for them. While the solution’s gamified learning environment facilitates critical thinking and encourages self-learning, it could be improved by creating an online evaluation strategy for students when they work on a specific topic. It has room for improvement in the areas of presentation and ease of use. I would like them to make the options clearer and more approachable for a student. They could create a training platform to give direction. I would also like a friendlier alert message regarding the activities that you have to develop. The parents' training was not adequate. Parents say that it wasn't user-friendly for them. It is important to take this into account. Also, NEO could do more advertising on its YouTube channel for free videos so parents feel more involved.

I find the automation and adaptive learning purposes of NEO quite interesting. However, we haven't been shown much about the automation menu. This year, there was an update with the widgets. It seems to me that it can be used quite well as soon as they inform us. Our students used it autonomously, but not everyone has seen the benefits. As a teacher, I have had to personalize the functions on the panel and its synchronization. Without having explored it, I would not have seen the importance. There is improvement needed in regards to notifications for updates. I don't know if it is the responsibility of the university and its administration or making adjustments to NEO's communication, such as having a message about updates on the platform. We don't receive any notifications about updates to the solution's adaptive learning. We find out when it is already there in the solution. The gamification option is a section that we have not learned because we have not been able to specify a training space for the use of this gamification tab. However, it would be good to have training and learn about how to use it. It is super easy to be able to locate my students and send them a message. I just can't send a message to all my students, as it doesn't allow me to send messages through an email list. The search engine for people is a bit more complicated than gmail.

An important addition would be training so that we can exploit the platform much more. The platform is advancing and being updated. It is important to know and understand everything in more detail, and how to work with it. Other institutions haven't been able to handle it.

I wanted to use it as a source of communication with students, but that didn't work out very well. It is easy for educators to communicate with students, but NEO is constituted as a formal communication tool. It shows what students and teachers say to each other, but for non-formal, practical notices, dialogues, and questions about what people did not understand, they use WhatsApp or Telegram a lot more. At the level of daily communications, NEO is not the tool they use. It is only used for things like requesting permission or communicating with the whole class. The type of communication we have is quite horizontal in general, so there is a lot of non-formal communication, and that personal communication between the students and teachers is normally via WhatsApp or Telegram. I would like to see an improvement in peer-bonding and the possibility for students to share knowledge among themselves regarding the work that they do. That would greatly help in that it wouldn’t be a one-to-many communication format. Another possibility would be incorporating additional applications to expand the functionalities of the platform. I don't know if they exist or not because I don't have administrator privileges, but that could be interesting. Also, teachers do not have privileges compared to other platforms. We cannot connect applications that allow us to tune LMS or enhance it much. Another point is that there are some jobs or tasks that cannot be seen by everybody. If someone submits jobs, I can see them but students do not have that possibility, or at least I have not discovered it.

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 NEO, the formats and instructions do not match, and that can affect their performance levels. Integration with other file-sharing platforms needs to be exploited.

We recently had a conversation with their team to discuss some of the changes that we wanted to see in the product. There are some analytics issues that need to be resolved, including the item analysis. We have had problems with synching some of the lessons. The grading system itself is something that we discussed with them because it's not well-adapted in our use case. The list of students needs to be organized according to gender. The list of students in the product contains both male and female students, whereas, in our grading system, we list the male students followed by the female students. The grade book needs to be improved because that is one of the most valuable features. It's how we assess our students. The assessment tools should also be improved. It would be helpful if it could be set up in such a way that the students will be able to take an online exam. This will help to develop their higher-order thinking skills. Perhaps they can integrate the course evaluations.