By Mariam Danielyan
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January 5, 2026
What 2025 Taught Us About Building Digital Learning When we look back at 2025, what stands out most isn't a single feature launch or milestone. It's how much our understanding of digital learning changed by working closely with educators, managers, and learning teams. This year wasn't about building faster. It was about building more honestly, based on how teaching actually happens. What follows is a reflection on what we learned, what surprised us, and how those lessons are shaping the future of Tutor Platform. Why We're Looking Back at 2025 In education technology, there’s a constant push to move forward: new tools, new features, new promises. But meaningful progress requires pause; moments to reflect on what’s working, what isn’t, and why. For Tutor Platform , 2025 was a year where assumptions met reality. We didn’t just ship product updates. We worked side by side with educators as they tried to move their learning materials, assignments, and workflows into a digital environment. And through that process, we learned that digital learning isn’t primarily a technical challenge. It’s an operational one. Looking back at the year helps us make sense of that shift — and share what building with educators has taught us. Digital Learning Starts With Teachers, Not Tools Much of the conversation around digital learning focuses on learners: engagement, accessibility, and outcomes. These are all critical. But 2025 reinforced something fundamental for us: If a digital learning experience doesn’t work for teachers, it won’t work for learners either. Teachers are the ones preparing materials, updating content, reviewing assignments, and responding to questions. When their workflows are fragmented or overly complex, the learning experience downstream suffers — no matter how polished the platform looks. This insight directly builds on what we explored earlier in Designing E-Learning for Everyone. Inclusive and effective learning design isn’t just about who can access content — it’s about who can manage it without burning out. In 2025, we saw firsthand how much invisible work sits behind every lesson. And we realized that improving teacher experience isn’t a “nice to have.” It’s the foundation. Content Became the Biggest Bottleneck One of the biggest surprises this year was where most of the friction lived. It wasn’t in teaching itself. It wasn’t even about using new technology. It was in managing content. Most institutions we worked with already had good materials: books, PDFs, presentations, exercises, and notes built over the years. The challenge wasn’t quality — it was structure.