Maximizing online learning and thriving as a business in challenging times

Carlos Ongaco, Co-Founder, Chief Medical & Training Officer: Before we started with the CYPHER platform, we were limited in the sense that we only offered our courses instructor-based and on a fixed schedule.

During the pandemic, the entire medical coding industry had to close down. There are two other companies that were doing medical coding training in the Philippines, one of them had to permanently shut down, and the other had to put its training on pause. Luckily for us, that did not happen to HIM Training Institute. Even before 2020 we were already onboarded on CYPHER. It turned out that we were the only company who continued to do medical coding training throughout the hard lockdowns of 2020.

Carlos Ongaco, Co-Founder, Chief Medical & Training Officer: One of our partners at HIM Training Institute had been using the CYPHER platform. He saw the features and the advantages of using it and he advised that we start using CYPHER for the purposes of our own business.  

I’ve been in the training industry for like 17 years and I’ve seen a good amount of learning platforms out there. When we decided to sign up for CYPHER, I was all smiles because it was so easy to use, it was so clean. The kind of data that I needed, when I needed it, was there. 

It’s one thing to say that you have a product for training, an LMS, it’s another thing to say that you have an LMS product that actually works for you and works well. Because it takes a lot of burden off you in trying to figure out the nuts and bolts of it and you could just concentrate on creating very engaging material. 

Carlos Ongaco, Co-Founder, Chief Medical & Training Officer: It only took us 24 hours to switch our programs from instructor-based, doing it in a facility, to fully online. Just 24 hours. Everything was already set up and it was easy to switch everybody to the online version of the course. When you move all your classes from a facility-based, where the instructor is together with the learners, to something that’s online, there will always be some loss in terms of the engagement. We had to find a way of supplementing that loss. That is where CYPHER's LMS came in.    

Colin Christie, Co-Founder, Director: There’s some tremendous benefits to the students now. First of all, they don’t have the commute hours, so they gain back so much time in their day. They can study in a hybrid way, so they can do some self-paced work along with some live work. That’s great for our business because we can reach a much broader audience, we’re no longer geographically limited.

Carlos Ongaco, Co-Founder, Chief Medical & Training Officer: We have definitely seen an improvement in the pass rate that we’re getting for the U.S. credential exam. It was good before, it got even better with these people learning on CYPHER. 

Colin Christie, Co-Founder, Director: We’ve learned so much in this past year, and that allows us to think big in terms of how we grow our business. We’re no longer geographically bound, so we can think of a market outside of the Philippines. We can deliver our courses around the globe, and that’s something we’re looking forward to being able to do!

Carlos Ongaco, Co-Founder, Chief Medical & Training Officer: With the 2021 iteration, we decided to activate the gamification feature of CYPHER. This allows our learners to earn badges whenever they are able to meet certain competencies that are found within the course. These learners don’t have an instructor working with them full time, so in view of the proverbial “tap in the back” that you get from your instructor is these badges that do that for them.

The CYPHER platform also brought some benefits that we weren’t even anticipating. The first one that comes to mind is analytics, the ability to see how the students are progressing with their course materials, and also the ability to have more flexibility with our assessments.

Another benefit is the fact that students can monitor their own progress and work around their own schedules. They don’t have to be in a physical classroom where learning happens at the same time, and that gives them a lot of flexibility.

I think one of the things we’ve most appreciated about the support is the level of expertise of the folks at CYPHER Learning. They not only know the platform and the technology, but they understand education. They understand how you teach and the different modalities of teaching. Having that kind of expertise has been a real plus.