The Flexible Learning Journey: Why Experience Begins Before Learning Starts

In today’s competitive and rapidly evolving education landscape, offering a high-quality learning experience – while still essential - is no longer enough. Learners do not engage with education as isolated students; they arrive as consumers, professionals, caretakers, and career changers navigating complex personal and professional circumstances. For open, online, and professional education in particular, the learner experience spans far beyond the virtual classroom. It begins with the very first point of contact - often a web search or social media link - and continues through discovery, registration, onboarding, participation, support, and on to completion and beyond. 
This learning cafe is an opportunity to challenge or share your own institutional model to expand the field of view beyond content development. We’ll draw on case studies and practical examples from across the higher education sector followed by mapping out the stages of the end-to-end learner journey and identifying common barriers that institutions unintentionally place in learners’ paths. We’ll look at key design principles, common friction points, and strategies for aligning systems, services, and pedagogy to better meet learner needs. Participants will be able to apply this thinking to their own context to make conscious choices about the online learner experience, informed by constraints and opportunities in their own institutions.
The future of flexible, scalable education calls for a holistic, end-to-end view of the learner journey - one that acknowledges each stage as interconnected, interdependent and equally important to student success. From discovering a course and navigating registration, to receiving timely support and progressing through to completion, each stage of the learner journey shapes outcomes, satisfaction, and long-term impact. 
Key questions explored in the session will include:
•    How can we make the journey from discovery to registration more intuitive and supportive?
•    What structures are needed to ensure a consistent, quality experience from course entry to exit?
•    How can digital tools, data, and design thinking be used to connect the dots across the learner journey?
•    What does it take to shift from course-centric thinking to experience-centric strategy?
Ultimately, the session will argue that designing for the full learner journey is not just a service or process challenge—it is a strategic imperative. Institutions that take this seriously will be better positioned to attract, retain, and meaningfully serve diverse learners in a crowded and fast-changing market. 

Margaret Korosec

Director of Digital Education and Learning Innovation, University of Leeds

Margaret Korosec is a forward-thinking and strategic leader in open, online, and professional learning, known for her human-centred approach and ability to scale bringing creativity, intentionality, and systems perspective to her leadership in scaling open, online and professional education. As Dean of Online and Digital Education at the University of Leeds in the UK, Margaret holds academic and strategic responsibility for advancing the institution’s online degrees and flexible learning portfolio. She has championed scalable, inclusive models for online course design and led efforts to build resilient and sustainable in-house capabilities ensuring a seamless end-to-end student experience from application through to graduation. Prior to her current role, Margaret made significant contributions to the expansion of online degree portfolios at the University of Derby Online Learning and Western Governors University (WGU). Witnessing the transformative power of inclusive, accessible and flexible education on individuals’ lives and communities solidified her dedication to advancing online and flexible learning initiatives.

Matt Cornock

Head of Online Learning, University of Leeds

With 20 years experience in online and digital education, Matt specialises in the design and development of fully online programmes and short courses, with a particular interest in the intersection of higher education and professional learning. As a senior leader at the University of Leeds, UK, he coordinates activity across professional services and drives forward the growth and quality of online education. He has led award-winning teams, is a trustee of the Association for Learning Technology and is a champion for bringing together online and subject-discipline pedagogies. Matt brings a passion for collaboration, learning design and creating accessible online courses that enable learners to succeed and continue their learning journeys.