Plano-based CYPHER Learning has launched CYPHER Copilot, a new platform that empowers teachers and instructors to create comprehensive, engaging, and gamified courses and assessments more quickly.

CYPHER Learning is a leading modern learning platform for businesses and academia.

Since the courses and assessments are automatically aligned to specific competencies, everyone involved in the learning process benefits from “a fine-grained approach” that supports personalized learning, CYPHER said.

“Competency based learning unlocks the potential for personalized learning—the holy grail of skills development. Yet until now, it’s just not been possible at scale,” CYPHER Learning CEO Graham Glass said in a statement.

Founder grew frustrated by lengthy course prep while teaching at UT Dallas

A 1985 computer science graduate of UT Dallas, Glass went on to be a senior lecturer at UTD from 1988 to 1990,  teaching classes in things like UNIX, Smalltalk, and Programming Languages. But he grew frustrated at the amount of time it took to create courses and longed to spend more time teaching—planting the seed for his 2006 founding of CYPHER Learning.

“Building and designing development courses is an important part of any teacher or instructor’s job, but it is also very time-consuming,” Glass said in the statement. “Yet demand for courses is steadily increasing. Thirty three percent of the skills needed three years ago are already irrelevant, according to Gartner. At the same time, global teacher shortages are bringing educational institutions to their knees. Something’s got to give. Teachers and instructors don’t have the resources to keep up with demand.”

How it works

The CYPHER Copilot is available via the CYPHER modern learning platform. The company said it removes 80% of the work required to design and curate courses, competencies, and assessments—which means teachers and trainers can focus their attention on the final 20%, CYPHER Learning said.

Key features include, according to the company:

Accelerated curriculum and course design, including course outlines, descriptions and content in over 50 languages. Copilot enables the generation of an entire course in 20 to 30 minutes, allowing the selection of materials that reflect individuals’ style and objectives in a fast and cost-effective way.

Targeted assessments to track learner progression and identify gaps, including rubric creation and question banks. Copilot helps trainers and educators to automatically generate detailed quizzes, games, and assessments to help evaluate learner progress.

Alignment with a full competency-based learning model. Copilot enables organizations to generate competencies, create courses that align to those competencies, along with question banks and assignments that automatically align with those competencies—right down to the question level.

Embedded gamification to increase learner engagement. Copilot gamifies courses to bring development to life and inspire learners, improving information retention and understanding to deliver better outcomes.

“Copilot harnesses the power of AI to take care of the mundane aspects of course creation, while still curating dynamic, gamified, multimedia, engaging courses that inspire a passion for lifelong learning,” Glass said. “The Copilot is simple and intuitive to use, giving teachers and instructors an AI guided smart assistant who can cut their workload by 80% or more. This accelerates course development, allowing teachers and trainers to focus on the final 20% to polish and refine, ensuring that new courses can be added to stay ahead of the curve.

Glass said Copilot helps ensure that human talent is focused where it needs to be, “on delivering better outcomes for the learner and the business.”

Entrepreneur at heart of Glass

CYPHER Learning has 126 employees, according to LinkedIn.

Now based in San Francisco, Glass founded or co-founded multiple tech companies in Dallas in the 1990s and early 2000s before launching CYPHER Learning..

“As a serial entrepreneur and innovator, I took my university lectures on training dynamics to high-technology organizations, then launched a series of companies culminating in CYPHER Learning, whose platforms are used today by more than 20,000 organizations,” Glass says on his LinkedIn page. “I’ve also written multiple books and spoken internationally on the case for better learning systems in the 21st century.”

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