Instructor and teacher best practices

Instructor and teacher best practices

Overview

The following are best practices and recommendations for instructors and teachers using the CYPHER platform.

Set your profile description

Update your profile! When learners and students click on your name and profile picture, they are taken to your profile. Use this as an opportunity to introduce yourself. To update your profile:

  1. Click your profile picture in the upper right of your screen.
  2. Click Edit.
  3. Click Description.
  4. Enter a description and click Save. 

Keep course and class descriptions short

The platform is set up to allow you to share two sets of descriptions for courses and classes.

  1. Short description: The short course description is used when listing the courses in a course catalog and/or in search results. This description should be be short so that it can display on course tiles.
  2. Long description: The long course description displays when users select your course. If you want to provide robust information about your course, this is the best location!
To edit the descriptions for your course or class:
  1. Access the course or class.
  2. Click Admin from the course/class navigation menu.
  3. Click Basics on the fly-out menu.
  4. Click Edit in the Overview section.
  5. Enter a short description for your course.
  6. Enter a long description for your course (optional).
  7. Click Save.

Replace the default course and module pictures

To make your site resonate with your users, replace the default course and module pictures with images that align with your brand. 

To update course and class pictures:
  1. Access the course or class.
  2. Click Admin from the course/class navigation menu.
  3. Click Basics on the fly-out menu.
  4. Click Change picture in the Overview section.
  5. Click + Add picture.
  6. Upload an image.
  7. Click Save.
To update module and lesson pictures:
  1. Access a course or class.
  2. Click Modules or Lessons from the course/class navigation menu.
  3. Hover over a Module or Lesson image.
  4. Click the config gear icon that displays.
  5. Click Change picture.
  6. Click + Add picture.
  7. Upload an image.
  8. Click Save.

Disable unused course and class features

To simplify and streamline the user experience, disable course features you are not using. When you create a course, the majority of course features are enabled by default. If you enable features but don't use them, the extra tabs add visual clutter to the user experience.

To disable course and class features:
  1. Access a course or class.
  2. Click Admin from the course/class navigation menu.
  3. Click Features on the fly-out menu.
  4. Deselect unused features.

Take advantage of rubrics

Set up and use rubrics to grade assignments quickly and consistently. Rubrics are integrated with the rest of the site, so you can create custom rubrics, use them to grade assignments, and share them with other instructors and teachers in your business or network. 

Visit the Rubrics article to learn more.

Take advantage of skills

Create skills and add them to courses to track learner progress and mastery. After adding skills to courses, tie them to the modules and assessments specifically associated with the skill. This helps you analyze how well the course covers each skills, and helps track learner progress by skill. In addition, learners gain visibility into how well they are progressing through the skills associated with the course.

To learn more about skills, visit the Mastery article.

Archive or delete old courses and class

To keep your catalog streamlined and up-to-date - archive or delete courses that have finished. 

To change the status of your finished courses and classes:
  1. Access the course or class.
  2. Click Admin from the course/class navigation menu.
  3. Click Archive from the fly-out menu to archive the course.
  4. Click Delete from the fly-out menu to delete the course.

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