Higher education (HE) in the United Kingdom (UK) has been on a trajectory of marketisation for much of the 21st Century (see Marginson, 2018). These developments reflect international policy trends toward a more pervasive neoliberal ideology that has sought to transform the global HE sector into a capitalist market subject to buyer-seller relations (Antonucci, 2016). In the UK, however, these policy directions have not yet led to a 'free market' in the way that might have otherwise been envisioned. At the same time, Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have also seen wide ranging developments in the use of information communication technologies (ICTs). This has, as Flavin notes, been most notable in respect to the almost universal imposition of Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) to support learning and teaching, increase access and retention, and reduce costs. Within all of this 'cost-sharing' and 'digital development', it would be difficult to argue against Flavin's suggestion that digital technology has, at best, enhanced rather than disrupted HE markets -- and certainly VLEs have tended to be subsumed into practice rather than necessarily changing it. As his paper highlights, this has often meant that VLEs are little more than facilities for storage rather than a sustained multimedia means for delivery, interaction, and assessment. But Flavin's discussion of 'disruptive innovation' also raises the interesting possibility that this might not be the case following the end of the COVID-19 pandemic. Indeed, the idea that the crisis will create opportunities for existing universities to rethink teaching delivery in relation to digital technologies is a provocative one -- and it is one that has already been mooted by universities themselves (Jisc, 2020). Of course, there is a well established literature on the use of VLEs within Higher Education Institutions and it would be impossible to cover all of that material in this response (see Davies et al., 2017 for a brief review). But it is worth further exploring one particular reason why VLEs often fail to fulfil their promise, because it might help better assess whether the pandemic could provoke the Disruption that is imagined by Flavin and others: and that one reason is the issue of digital literacy. [This article reflects on Michael Flavin's article, "Disruptive Innovation and Technology Enhanced Learning" (EJ1288163).]