I like disruptive technology. My personal KPI is disrupting the norm. Jokes aside now, the tools are usually impressive — sophisticated shiny new LMS platforms, endless authoring suites, and analytics dashboards that would make Ferrari envious— yet the human experience they’re meant to serve often remains unchanged. The focus shifts from what learners need to what the system can do.
At AM Strategic, we’ve seen this firsthand while supporting a university’s journey to design its first fully online postgraduate programme. The ambition was real, the investment significant — but initially, the conversation was almost entirely about tools, templates, and integrations. The assumption was clear: if we could get the technology right, the learning would follow.
It never works that way.
The Mindset Problem
When universities or business schools begin their digital transformation journeys, it often starts with procurement:
“We need a scalable platform.”
“We need to get faculty trained on the system.”
“We need to move our modules online quickly.”
These are valid steps — but they’re not strategy.
The underlying assumption is that technology equals progress. Yet learning design isn’t a hardware or software issue; it’s a human behavior issue. I think my fascination with psychology, marketing and teaching lean into this space. Without rethinking how educators design, teach, and connect, new systems simply digitise old habits.
Start with Learning, Not Technology
During that university collaboration, what changed everything wasn’t the platform — it was the conversation.
Once I paused to question the leadership team, “What kind of learning experience do we want to create?” the tone shifted completely. The focus moved from uploading slides to designing journeys. From compliance to curiosity. From content delivery to experience creation.
Those are the right questions to start with:
- What do we want learners to feel and achieve by the end of this course?
- How can we design for reflection, not just completion?
- What is the educator’s evolving role — content expert, facilitator, mentor, or all three?
The university’s philosophy was grounded in a Freirean belief that learning should be dialogic — a process of co-creation rather than transmission. That alignment made it easier to shift conversations away from “platform functionality” toward “learner empowerment,” which was entirely consistent with their institutional DNA.
At AM Strategic, we often say:
“Pedagogy before platform.”
It’s about designing the learning narrative before building the technical structure. When educators, designers, and IT collaborate around a shared vision, technology becomes a creative instrument — not the headline act.
A Useful Parallel
Buying the best running shoes doesn’t make you an endurance athlete. I love endurance sports. Triathlons, ultra-marathons, open water swimming. And I love (running) shoes more than my wife. I have an impressive collection. They help you express your training — but they can’t replace it.
The same applies to online learning. You can invest in the most advanced systems, but without rethinking design and facilitation, the learner experience will remain flat.
When Technology Works
Technology can absolutely transform learning — when aligned with a clear educational philosophy. If you want a fancy phrase to drop in your next Teams meeting, say “at the nexus of technology and the human experience”.
- Learning Management Systems (LMS) provide the structure for the learner journey.
- Analytics tools reveal engagement and learning patterns.
- AI systems can personalize support and feedback.
But these tools must serve a story. The narrative of how learners grow, connect, and apply knowledge must come first. When it does, technology disappears into the background — quietly amplifying the experience.
What Success Looks Like
The institutions that succeed in digital transformation tend to:
- Start with learning design, not infrastructure. Good old marketing advise. Start with the customer.
- Empower faculty to reimagine their teaching, not just digitise it. This is rather difficult as we often like what we where taught to like.
- Focus on learner experience — emotional, cognitive, and practical. Real feedback as well as input before the build is needed.
- Treat technology as craft — an instrument of creativity, not control, even though learning “institutions” are in often themselves a form of control. Never liked the word “institution”. Synonyms for an institutional system could include custom, practice, tradition, or convention. As you might imagine, it might be rather ridged. Resistive to change.
In the university project I mentioned, once this shift happened, the energy changed completely. Faculty began to experiment. Students became more active participants. Technology was still there — but it was serving the mission (story), not starring in it.
Closing Thought
Technology is a powerful enabler of change — but transformation begins with people.
The future of online learning belongs to teams who treat design as a conversation, not a checklist.
And the best technology? It’s the kind you stop noticing — because what stands out instead is the experience.
Author: Andrew Marriott
AM Strategic — helping institutions design meaningful learning experiences in a digital world.