The current training system that is most relevant to me is a learning management system known as NovoEd, utilized in a corporate training environment. This system is utilized to support both instructor and learner-led training, which takes place in virtual training environments. The good thing about NovoEd is that it allows learning and development teams to have a central place to manage learners and resources needed for learning and development activities. Unfortunately, that is about all of the good I have to say for the platform, as many of there are many shortcomings present that limit the functionality and usability of the platform for its intended purposes. Currently, the platform supports learners in completing training related to their roles and ensuring compliance with regulatory standards within the industry. In order to provide these learning opportunities, learners can be guided by learning leads or facilitators who are available for synchronous coaching sessions and to provide guidance on the material present in the platform. Supporting the learning leads are learning designers who design content within the platform and who have been steadily moving away from internal tools towards third-party creation tools like Adobe Creative Cloud, Articulate Suite, and Camtasia for content creation. While the platform does offer internal assessment options, the usability of the data captured is limited to the point where that has been moved to other platforms like Qualtrics, where connections can be made to tools like PowerBI and Tableau to create immersive and real-time data dashboards that can support facilitators and provide insight to business leaders on areas of strength and weaknesses.

So obviously, I am not the biggest fan of the system, so you might be wondering why do we still use it with these glaring shortcomings. Well, long story short, is that the company I work for essentially owns the platform, so we are presented with the opportunity to get to figure out how to make it work. So, while I may not be able to put a firm number on the cost of the system itself, I can say that it has directly led to the inclusion and expansion of numerous other systems into our learning ecosystem. This has definitely been a cost to the company but has also allowed for an opportunity to gain access to numerous tools and products that are considered industry standards that we may not have had access to otherwise if the current platform provided acceptable solutions to some of our needs. I would say one of the biggest detriments of the current system is the lost time spent waiting while working in the system. While this does not always affect the learners as much as the learning and development team, there are many instances where people block hours off on their schedule to update content, move content, or complete other seemingly menial tasks that, in my experience, at least do not take nearly as long in similar systems. However, I will say that having the opportunity over the years to work in a variety of different systems and platforms, there is not a unicorn system out there that will meet the needs of every organization perfectly. If there were, we would either all have adopted that platform, or it would be so expensive that most organizations would be priced out of the market. So instead, we are faced with the current reality that we all face when it comes to learning systems is that they all have one or two things they do incredibly well, and then leave you questioning your sanity on the choices they made for the other features on their platform.