CYPHER Learning Review 2023 Pricing, Features, Shortcomings

Product:
Vendor:
Founded:
Headquarters:

CYPHER Learning
CYPHER Learning
2009
Plano, TX

Ownership:
Customers:
Deployment Model:
Free Trial:

Private
20,000+
Cloud
Yes

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CYPHER Learning At A Glance

Good: Increased learning engagement, accessibility from all devices, easy implementation process.

Bad: Not intended for businesses.

Bottom Line: Cloud-based platform for schools with many features designed to help teachers and students maximize learning.

Product Overview

CYPHER Learning offers three LMS products: CYPHER for academia (schools and universities), CYPHER for businesses and CYPHER for entrepreneurs. This review focuses on CYPHER for academia.

CYPHER for academia (formerly NEO) is a learning management system (LMS) that’s targeted to the education sector, both K-12 and higher education. It’s a cloud-based platform that’s accessible on all devices, and CYPHER is even available as a mobile app with full functionality.

CYPHER includes an intuitive design via a dedicated portal that administrators and teachers can customize with school colors, logos, pictures, fonts and other items. Teachers can create a curriculum, courses, learning paths and materials without having to worry about spending too much time on building content.

The platform includes content authoring tools that allow teachers to create content and upload any type of file, such as video, images, documents and audio. The content can even be reused in future classes. The software supports instructor-led, self-paced, blended learning and microlearning formats.

CYPHER has several benefits, such as:

Increased collaboration among students and teachers
Robust features (e.g., automation, adaptive learning, personalized competency-based paths)
Integration with over 5,000 third-party applications via Zapier

Features

Here are some key features of CYPHER for academia:

Adaptive learning paths – Teachers can set up adaptive learning paths based on the student’s goals and performances.

Skills development – CYPHER offers skills development features to help students prepare for a future career. Teachers and students can set learning goals, match competencies with learning resources and track goals. There’s a recommendations engine that suggest specific courses based on goals, and students can also ask for help via a Q&A forum.

Assessments/evaluations – CYPHER provides a variety of ways for teachers to evaluate students’ performance. Teachers can choose from 12 types of assignments, such as quizzes, surveys, debates and essays. There’s also an electronic gradebook for recording student grades. And there’s a rubrics feature that lets teachers assign ratings and criteria for specific assignments and tests.

Collaboration – Students can collaborate via chats, groups, emails and forums. In addition, there’s a timeline where students can see updates on class assignments and discuss topics. In addition, students have their own public profiles where they can display badges or certificates they’ve earned.

Gamification – Students can earn badges or points for completing games that include elements of class, learning paths and site-wide tasks. Teachers can also reward performance with certificates they can personalize with the school logo and create team games in which students can compete as a team.

Other features – Additional features include:

Accessibility (e.g., screen reader)
Schools with multiple campuses can manage all campuses in one account
Analytics with metrics on student performance, assignments and more
Parents can access CYPHER to see their child’s grades and communicate with teachers
Support to up to 50 languages
Integration with third-party content (e.g., Udemy, LinkedIn Learning, Go1)
Integration with Amazon Alexa
Integration with web conferencing tools (e.g., Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet)

Target Market

CYPHER for academia is targeted to the education market worldwide, both K-12 and universities.

We’ve listed 10 schools below that use CYPHER for academia:

Adler College
ARNOS Online Education
STI College
Northwest University
De La Salle University Dasmariñas

Grace Christian School
The Hochschule Furtwangen University
Santa Barbara Unified School District
The Inclusive Higher Education Certificate Program (IHECP)
The REALM - South Burlington School District

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Implementation/Integration

Most new customers are able to configure their portal within just a few hours. Here are the typical implementation steps:

Signing up for an account on the site
Customizing the site with school’s logo and other branded materials
Creating accounts for administrators and instructors
Configuring the class catalog
Configuring e-commerce catalog and single-sign-on (both are optional)
Creating an outline and curriculum for each class
Creating materials and assignments for each class
Creating an optional learning path
Testing the platform
Adding student accounts

CYPHER offers four teaching style options with the platform: self-paced, instructor-led classes, blended learning and micro learning.

We also want to note that there’s a Pilot Premium program for schools that want to get started quickly. It offers unlimited use of the sofware for up to six months, plus support and training from EdTech specialists (e.g., 24/5 tech support, student help desk, custom training) and access to all of the Premium plan features.

Customer Service & Support

CYPHER offers customer support during U.S. business hours through its support forum, where users can communicate with CYPHER’s support staff about questions or issues, and the answers are shared with other users. Staff tends to respond to queries within 15 to 30 minutes.

There’s a built-in Help Center where users can access guides and videos on CYPHER, as well as product news and a roadmap. They can also offer suggestions on product improvements.

CYPHER provides consulting services in areas such as account setup and customization, application program interface (API) integration, content creation, and migration and site auditing.

Pricing

CYPHER Learning doesn’t publicly display pricing information, so please contact the vendor directly for a quote.

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Shortcomings

CYPHER is targeted at schools only. Corporations and nonprofits looking to train their employees can check out any of our other LMS reviews.

Screenshots

About

CYPHER Learning® is leading the necessary disruption of learning platforms to unleash human potential. It modernizes and energizes learning with smarts, strength, and style.

CYPHER Learning believe learning is the heart of innovation and progress. Everything it does empowers learning and development (L&D) professionals, educators, and entrepreneurs to inspire, develop, and celebrate their learners.

Its beautiful and intuitive platform engages learners, gives time back to teach and train, provides insights to drive better outcomes – all while keeping the human connection.