Discover how small design choices can make your learning environment more inclusive, engaging, and effective for every learner.
Let’s imagine you’ve been asked to launch a new learning platform, or significantly reshape the existing learning management system (LMS) at your organisation. It’s the kind of high-stakes project that quickly fills a notebook (or six). You’ll have to handle many different people’s expectations, hit engagement targets, meet tight deadlines and answer all kinds of questions along the way.
It’s a big brief — maybe even a little overwhelming at times. After all, you want to get this right so that your colleagues and learners can succeed. But where should you start?
Jess Bryant understands this challenge well. As Moodle’s Learning Design Team Manager, she’s helped organisations of all kinds create environments where learning feels accessible, relevant, and worth people’s time.
“We spend a lot of time perfecting content,” says Jess, “but content isn’t the only thing that shapes someone’s experience. To encourage learner engagement, we need to build an environment that supports learners with varying levels of digital confidence and connectivity.”
Recently, we wrote about how course design impacts learner engagement in an educational setting. Today, we’ll explore how differences in access and experience affect learners in an enterprise environment. Then, we’ll explain what you can do to make your learning environment more inclusive and human-centred.
The myth of the universal learner
At first glance, online learning platforms appear equally “available” to everyone. Registered users can log in, find courses, participate in activities and view resources easily, from any location. There’s a catch, though: availability doesn’t always amount to a consistent learning experience.
Some learners, particularly those already familiar with virtual learning systems, race ahead. Meanwhile, individuals with limited technological access, experience with online learning, or social support get left behind.
“When we design learning for an ‘average’ user, we risk designing for someone who doesn’t really exist,” Jess explains. “People engage with learning in very different ways depending on their circumstances.”
These differences amount to what researchers call “digital capital” — the combination of access to technology, experience with online learning, and social support that learners bring into the learning environment. Learners with lower levels of digital capital tend to engage less and progress at different rates than peers with higher levels of digital capital.
Thankfully, we can help bridge this “learning gap” by rethinking the way we approach course design. Sometimes, this leads to a major LMS overhaul — but in many cases, we can transform the learner experience by making small, intentional choices that support more inclusive participation.
“Simple changes in the way we design courses can make a surprisingly large impact on learner engagement,” Jess says. “When the learning environment feels intuitive and relevant, people are far more likely to connect with content and keep coming back.”
Creating clearer course structures, for instance, can help busy employees understand what’s expected of them. At the same time, flexible course formats that work on a range of devices make it easier for learners to engage in ways that suit them (and their schedules).
Other underrated changes include introducing predictable navigation across the learning environment and providing straightforward instructions for activities and assignments. All of these things remove guesswork and help learners build confidence as they go along.
Bring Universal Design for Learning into the workplace
One helpful framework for building more inclusive learning environments is Universal Design for Learning (UDL). Developed by CAST, Universal Design for Learning GuidelinesTM encourage course creators to make learning flexible from the start.
Instead of designing for a single “typical” learner, UDL recognises that people bring different backgrounds, motivations and levels of confidence to a learning experience. Ideally, learners should have multiple ways to engage with content, understand information, and demonstrate what they’ve learned.
“By keeping UDL in mind, we can design for variability from the beginning,” Jess explains. “Rather than adapting a course later for learners who are struggling, we create learning experiences that work for a wider range of people from day one.”
Originally developed for use in schools and universities, UDL translates naturally into workplace learning environments — and you don’t need to take your LMS back to bare bones in order to apply the principles.
You could begin by offering learning materials in more than one format — short videos as well as written summaries, for example. Learners can then choose their approach to content and absorb information in the way that works best for them.
In a similar vein, different people demonstrate learning in different ways. Some learners like quizzes or knowledge checks, while others prefer to slow down, engaging more easily with reflective discussions or applied tasks. So, it can be helpful to offer both options to all enrolled learners.
When learning works for everyone, it works better
So, let’s return to the challenge we started with: launching or transforming a learning platform while meeting the expectations of learners across your organisation. When you design with variability in mind, that task becomes less about building the “perfect” course and more about creating an environment where everyone can succeed.
Not long ago, we sat down with a group of experts to develop a resource we thought could benefit a broad group of individuals involved in learning design and course development.
In Bridging the hidden learning gap, we explore how thoughtful learning design, accessibility, and human-centred approaches can help you build learning environments people want to use. Inside, you’ll find expert guidance, realistic strategies, and actionable ideas you can apply whether you’re launching a new platform or refining an existing one
As Jess puts it, “When learning is designed with real people in mind, it doesn’t just become more accessible — it becomes more valuable for the organisation as a whole.”
If you’re ready to strengthen learning across your organisation, why not download the guide now? We hope it becomes a resource you return to whenever you need it: something that helps make your work just a little easier every day.
Download Bridging the hidden learning gap now and begin building learning environments where every learner can succeed.
