First steps when using CYPHER for academia

So you've decided to use CYPHER to create engaging online classes for your school or university, but you're not so sure how to get the ball rolling. To give you a helping hand, we have prepared a few steps you could follow when starting:

1. Customize your site

   1 hour. Our team will help you sign up for a site. All you need to do is to customize it with your logo, terminology, and images. We also provide consulting services to help with any customizing.

2. Create accounts for administrators and teachers

   20 minutes. This is usually easily done using our web form option for creating accounts. We also support many other kinds of account creation, such as API, LDAP, email invitations, or bulk import.

3. Create an outline of each class

   1 - 3 hours per class. This requires basic instructor skills and domain knowledge to determine what each class will cover and create the content outline.

4. Create competencies for each class (optional, but recommended)

   1 - 3 hours per class. You can create your own competencies in CYPHER or upload the standard ones, then tag class content with the competencies it should be teaching and assessing.

5. Create the materials for each lesson

   1 - 4 hours per lesson. This is the most time-intensive part of implementation, and depends on whether you want to upload your content or create new content. Our authoring tool makes it easy to create engaging lessons fast.

6. Create the assignments for each class

   1 hour per assignment. All types of assignments can be created easily. Comprehensive randomized quizzes that select from a question bank can take a little longer.

7. Beta test the classes

   1 day per class on average. This depends on the complexity of the class. You show it to a small sample of users and then adjust it based on their recommendations where possible.

8. Create the learning paths (optional)

   30 minutes per learning path. Paths are classes that can have goals as sections, where each goal can represent another class or a certificate. Adding a path is fairly easy, with just a few options to configure.

9. Configure the class catalog

   20 minutes. This simply requires selecting from several layout options. We recommend using attractive pictures for each catalog category, which can easily be purchased from a stock photo site.

10. Create student accounts

    30 minutes if using a bulk upload. We also support many other kinds of account creation, such as self-sign-up, email invitations, API, LDAP, and purchasing a class via our e-commerce system.