Blazing a trail: Transforming the learner experience

Digital transformation as a platform for scaling new heights

• Higher education and research institutions face shifting terrain. Evolving learner expectations, tighter resources, and complex operations demand a clear, learner-centered digital transformation journey.
• Successful institutions chart a deliberate path, aligning vision, resources, and trust to elevate the learner experience and organizational resilience.
• The ultimate goal is not a single summit but a continuous climb, where innovation and trailblazing secure long-term success and new opportunities for learners and institutions.

Today’s higher education learners expect personalized, seamless, and outcome-driven experiences that reflect a digital-first world. Faculty and staff need tools that simplify their daily work while making their support for learners more effective. And institutional leaders face mounting pressure to show measurable results to boards and the public.

At the same time, colleges, universities, and research institutions must navigate shifting regulations, constrained resources, and increasingly complex operations. Meeting these challenges requires purposeful action and a commitment to centering strategy and digital transformation efforts on the learner journey. Done well, this work strengthens financial stability, enhances institutional reputation, protects academic integrity, and safeguards the mission.

Digital transformation is a journey — and like preparing for a challenging hike, success depends on bringing the right gear and mindset. To avoid pitfalls like siloed decision making or short-term fixes, think of your transformation toolkit as including:

• Sturdy foundation (boots)
• Clear vision (a flashlight)
• Resources (food and water)
• Governance structures that protect and support you (a sturdy tent)

Real change takes grit, focus, and leadership with the trail ahead in mind. Just as a hike unfolds step by step, strategy and digital transformation both follow a path. Here are the key stages along the way.

Start with curiosity, collaboration, and the courage to challenge long-standing norms. Before scaling new heights, you need to understand the terrain. That means identifying what is working, what is not, and what obstacles stand in the way of progress, such as:

• Engaging with learners to understand their biggest challenges. Are there uneven experiences and service levels across departments that serve learners? Are learners “bouncing” between departments and navigating multiple systems for everyday transactions and processes? What are their other challenges?
• Exploring why previous transformation efforts stalled out. Was it a lack of transparency in resource allocation and investment decisions? Role ambiguity, workload imbalances, and organizational structures that have not adapted to change over time? Lack of trust and resulting fear of change?

This work often happens behind the scenes. Although it may not be immediately visible to the campus community or executive leaders, it is critical. Without an appreciation of your blind spots and stumbling blocks, transformation efforts can easily lose momentum.

At this stage, you are checking your gear, ensuring steady footing, and studying the map — not sprinting for the summit. Institutions that take time to dig beneath the surface and identify root causes, rather than reacting to surface-level symptoms, set themselves up for real and lasting progress. With a clear path and steady pace, the climb leads to more responsive and learner-focused practices.

When foundational issues are acknowledged and a responsive framework is in place, shared direction becomes possible. Mapping the pathway forward and ensuring a clear direction requires active collaboration across teams, conceptualizing impactful and measurable institutional goals, and understanding the processes and rationale behind decision making. Trust and cohesion are essential for navigating change and transformation. Institutions can foster alignment by:

• Establishing transparent governance and decision-making structures with visible executive sponsorship. Is mission-aligned behavior role-modeled and reinforced? Are organizational roles, accountability mechanisms, and service delivery models clear? Have resources been allocated strategically, balancing internal capacity and capability with expert, external support?
• Cultivating a change mindset to reinforce trust. Do regular feedback loops exist across teams? Is input from the community prioritized and implemented?

This stage is a key element of broader success. Alignment ensures that strategy, people, and processes move in sync. It also creates shared purpose and operational clarity, setting the stage for effective learner-centric change.

With alignment in place, institutions can strengthen their operations and elevate the learner experience. This stage is rarely linear and often the hardest. When momentum is interrupted, people can become discouraged or resistant to future initiatives.

Institutions must keep the end transformation goal in sight and clearly communicate plans to community members and changemakers to help the institution hit its stride. Institutions may need to revisit earlier phases to reinforce progress.

Evolution is a consistent key to achieving the gains required to arrive at the next peak in the mountain range. It is about building momentum while staying flexible, ensuring progress continues even when challenges arise. To keep climbing steadily, institutions can:

• Build confidence through early wins and measurable impact. Are you utilizing data-driven strategies and modern tools to measure impact, identify gaps in recent initiatives, and apply insights to refine the transformation plan?
• Accept setbacks as part of the process and adapt accordingly. Have you designed organizational structures that systematize feedback loops and are responsive to input from learners, faculty, and staff?

As momentum builds, institutions can amplify impact — scaling improvements across the institution. Many colleges, universities, and research institutions have “pockets of excellence,” departments, people, or processes that excel despite challenges in other areas.

The goal is to replicate the success of these efforts and multiply their impact, yielding enterprisewide gains that efficiently navigate today’s challenges while supporting your institution’s diverse populations and stakeholders. Amplification can be achieved by moving from isolated wins to institutionwide progress by:

• Telling impactful stories of learner successes. Is your institution multiplying outcomes through integrated systems, shared data, and impactful reporting?
• Extending successful practices to new departments and functions. Are you recognizing and amplifying the leadership of trailblazing employees, learners, and faculty who are shifting institutional operations and culture?

The final phase is about infusing innovative and continuous improvement practices into everyday organizational experiences. At this stage, institutions are maintaining the necessary momentum to adapt to new, challenging terrain and uncharted challenges. To forge ahead, institutions should:

• Rigorously assess impact. Are you continuously evaluating and adopting proven and emerging technologies to support efficient processes and exceptional learner experiences? Is your organization sunsetting activities that no longer positively serve learners and reallocate efforts and resources to higher priority initiatives?
• Take risks. Does your organization reward innovative practices? Are you aligning institutional resources and skill sets to keep pace with the ever-changing expectations for the learner experience and operational excellence? Are you reskilling and adopting AI to pilot new institutional models that redefine your value?

Trailblazing is not the end — it is the beginning of continuous transformation. Institutions that reach this phase become models for others, driving sector-wide progress. This phase is also where institutions drive the most value from their innovation, allowing them to transition from operational clarity to operational excellence.

Today’s landscape does not allow institutions to rest on past success without assessing what lies ahead for their learners and preparing for the next climb. That is why the work of evaluating and improving the learner experience is never done. It is an ongoing commitment and a strategic road map for continuously evolving institutions.

Challenge is constant, but success can be too. The key is reconsidering how to evaluate and improve the learner journey and defining how to employ the strategies that will best serve your communities and promote institutional resilience. Whether your institution is just beginning its climb or already leading the way, this journey offers a clear, adaptable path forward for institutions at every stage of maturity.

Connect with an expert to discuss the concepts and questions posted throughout this piece.