What makes a good online learning experience (2025)?
Ten years ago, I wrote about ‘What makes a good online learning experience?‘, exploring what makes a good online learning experience. At the time, a great deal of focus was aimed at MOOCs and the proliferation of universities clamouring to get on the MOOC bandwagon. Modern LMSs felt clunky but were starting to understand that UX and UI were important, and online learning often carried the unwelcome label of being a “lesser” experience compared to the classroom.
Looking back, the core ideas are still valid and relevant: clarity, access, interaction, and purposeful design all matter. Yet the way we understand these ideas in practice has shifted. The context has changed. The learners have changed. And expectations are higher.
This post reflects on what was right then, what we got wrong or missed, what has changed, and what quality looks like now.
What we understood in 2015
- Online learning must be designed for online. Simply uploading lecture slides never worked. Online environments require intentional structure, clear guidance and signposting, and purposeful interaction.
- The platform experience influences learning. How materials are presented shapes how students navigate, understand, and stay motivated. Ease of use matters just as much as academic quality.
- Interaction and connection are necessary. We recognised that distance learners often feel isolated and rarely connected to their mother university. Facilitating discussion, dialogue, and peer support was essential then and remains essential now.
These were foundational insights. They still form the base of any strong digital learning approach today.
What we understand in 2025
- The emotional experience of learning online. We focused on content and structure. We did not talk enough about confidence, belonging, being overwhelmed, and the emotional labour of studying in isolation.
- Flexibility is not a bonus; it is part of inclusion. We spoke about access as a technical requirement. Now we understand access also means flexibility in time, pacing, and engagement.
- Cognitive load. Ten years ago we did not yet use the language we use now about “cognitive calm”, flow, and reducing clutter. We underestimated how easily digital learning can overwhelm.
- The need for ongoing digital learning literacy. We assumed that students knew how to learn online. We now know that guidance on how to study in this mode needs to be explicit, built-in, and repeated.
What’s different?
The biggest shift has been in expectation. Learners no longer approach online spaces tentatively or as a compromise for the classroom. They use digital environments every day, across work, study, and personal networks, and they expect a level of clarity and smoothness that reflects this. Confusing instructions, unclear navigation, or opaque assessment requirements feel less like an inconvenience and more like a breach of trust. Time, focus, and emotional attention are in short supply. Students notice when the presentation of their learning materials respects these things, and they notice when it does not.
Perhaps the most notable change is the growing understanding that belonging matters. Where earlier conversations focused on content delivery and access, we now place a greater importance on the quiet role that connection plays. Students realise that they are part of something purposeful, that someone cares whether or not they learn, and that they are not alone in the process.
Flexibility has also taken on new importance. It used to be framed as a creative or optional enhancement. Now it is part of inclusion itself. Many students are studying alongside work, caring responsibilities, uncertain employment and economic status, health challenges, and unpredictable life demands. A course that assumes everyone is available, energised, and aligned to a single timetable simply does not reflect how people are living and learning now.
These changes are cultural as much as technical. The technology has improved, but the bigger shift is in how learners experience, interpret, and value the online space
What ‘good’ looks like in 2025
Quality in online learning today is felt more than observed. It shows up in the ease with which a student takes the next step, the quiet reassurance of knowing where to go and what to do (signposting resources or support), and the confidence that help is available if needed. It emerges from design that is thoughtful and deliberate rather than complicated, and from communication that is warm, direct, and free from unnecessary noise.
A well-designed online course feels calm. It avoids clutter. It guides without crowding. It offers space for reflection as much as activity. It helps learners understand why something matters, not just what it is. It provides opportunities to engage, while also allowing students to choose the form and depth of that engagement. In short, it recognises the learner as a person with a wider life beyond the course.
Feedback and presence are part of this experience, but do not require constant availability. What matters is that students feel seen. A short message that acknowledges effort can be more impactful than a page of commentary. Presence is not measured in volume. It is measured in care.
Most importantly, quality online learning supports momentum. Students should feel they are moving, even in small steps. That sense of progress is what sustains motivation through the inevitable moments of doubt or fatigue.
Looking ahead
The aim now is not to replicate the classroom, nor to compete with it. The strength of online learning lies in its difference: the freedom it offers to reflect, to return, to pause, to absorb, to try again. When we design with this in mind, the online space becomes not a compromise, but a powerful mode in its own right.
The work ahead is less about innovation for its own sake and more about consistency with intention. When learning is designed with clarity, respect, and an understanding of how people actually live and learn, it becomes something meaningful. The challenge is to apply that thinking not as an exception, but as a standard.
Quality or ‘good’ in 2025 is not louder. It is not faster. It’s not more (or less) colourful, and it’s not about file formatting and structured folders. It is more human. It feels considered. It feels possible. It feels like learning that was made for someone, not just delivered to them.
