Recognizing that online teaching and learning is placed within an environment where neither the teacher nor the student has complete-control is the first step to actioning capabilities towards a humanized environment. The tool that is typically used in higher education, the learning management system (LMS), has a design that constrains learning more than it readily affords (McGee et al., 2005). It is believed that designs produced in LMSs can address feelings, agency and behaviours towards enhancing learner experiences--thus humanizing the digitized learning space (Dickson-Deane, 2022; Moore et al., 2014). What is challenging this notion is the understanding that context includes, in this case, the information communication technology (ICT) infrastructure which guides the relevance of the knowledge as it is situated within the system/environment where it would be actioned (Alexander et al., 2009; Dickson-Deane, 2023). As Bourdieu's (1990) habitus describes the behaviours and dispositions that are achieved whilst being socialized, an LMS can also be seen as a digital pedagogic habitus which can control how, what and when humanizing interactions can occur. This contribution seeks to alert the field that understanding what learning LMS infrastructural possibilities there are, is key to aid the online learning process towards agency, connectivity and empathy. This thus, provides a theorized view of practical, yet conceptual needs of LMSs as they contribute to designing flexible yet humanized learning environments.