Hi there,
Welcome to Field Notes from Refined Learning Design. Whether you’re back from last month or joining in for the first time, I’m glad you’re here.
Each month, I share an idea I’ve been exploring and something that’s sparked reflection or shaped how I design professional learning. You’ll also find at least one resource recommendation, a quote I can’t stop thinking about, and a peek into what’s happening in my community of PL designers.
This newsletter is grounded in the values I carry into every project: from designing with purpose, creating transformative experiences, to honoring the people and the process. (Discover my guiding principles here.)
This month’s field note explores how designing for choice can help learners move toward owning their own learning.
📓 Field Note: Designing with choice in mind
📍 Sparked by: Tony Vincent’s Classy Vibing course
💡 Big idea: Thoughtful use of digital tools can help expand learner choice.
Some of my Classy Vibing projects
The Spark
I’ve spent a lot of time reflecting on my own learning preferences, and I know the types of learning experiences that align with how I like to learn. Add in a gifted designer and facilitator, and I’m happy to nerd out on just about any topic.
Over the years I’ve participated in all seven of Tony Vincent’s Classy Courses. Through those experiences I’ve honed my understanding of visual design, clarified my brand, and reimagined what online learning, community, and feedback can look like (and so much more!)
When we experience thoughtful learning design in professional learning, whether that’s a workshop, course, or community, it expands our sense of what’s possible for our own learners.
One of my favorite lines from The New Pillars of Modern Teaching captures this idea perfectly:
“The best way to foster learning design in our students is to experience it for ourselves.”
I’ve experienced some incredibly well-designed learning environments, and those experiences continue to shape how I think about the learning experiences I design for others.
In Tony’s newest course, Classy Vibing <with AI>, we explored vibe-coding: the idea that AI tools can help us rapidly build simple digital solutions without needing traditional programming skills.
I’ve always enjoyed tinkering with digital tools, but this experience helped me see something new. Instead of only using AI to generate ideas or content, I started building small tools to support the learning experiences I design.
As I experimented, I realized that these simple vibe-coded tools could help me design learning with more flexibility and choice for participants.
And that realization brought me back to an idea I’ve been exploring for years: how we design learning experiences that allow learners to choose their own path and take ownership of their learning.
The Design Insight
When I was a campus instructional coach, I participated in a multi-year initiative focused on differentiated instruction that began with a three-day institute led by Dr. Carol Ann Tomlinson. That initial institute remains one of my all-time favorite professional learning experiences.
Tomlinson’s framework for differentiation is familiar to many. Educators vary elements like content, process, and product while also considering factors such as readiness, interest, and learning profile.
In The New Pillars of Modern Teaching, Dr. Gayle Allen acknowledges the value of differentiation while also pointing out an important challenge. In many differentiated classrooms, the teacher is still responsible for designing and managing all of the pathways. Even when there are multiple options, teachers often act as the funnel and filter for learning.
Allen argues that powerful learning design shifts some of that ownership to the learner. Her Elements of Powerful Learning Design help make that shift possible by allowing learners to shape their own experience through four types of choice:
Time – when and how long they engage
Place – where learning happens
Medium – how information is accessed or expressed
Socialness – whether learning happens alone or with others
As I began exploring these ideas, I started noticing these elements in some of the most thoughtfully designed learning experiences I had participated in, including Tony Vincent’s Classy Courses.
In Tony’s courses, participants have flexibility in:
Time: Work whenever you want, in short bursts or longer sessions.
Place: Watch videos at your desk, on the couch, or while folding laundry.
Medium: Engage through videos, written guides, links, and tools.
Socialness: Work independently, share creations for feedback, or participate in community conversations.
Experiencing that kind of learning design is powerful, and it has shaped how I design learning for others.
💡 Design Move: Vibe-Coding for Choice
Because of my participation in Classy Vibing, I’ve been experimenting with vibe-coding to support learning experiences designed around these four elements. In several cases, I’ve built small tools to expand the choices available to participants.
Here are two small examples of how I’ve been experimenting with this approach.
Example 1: Gemini Exploration Stations
In an upcoming session with school librarians, participants will explore different features of Google Gemini. Their expertise levels vary widely, so I wanted the experience to allow flexibility.
Using the Elements of Powerful Learning Design:
Time: Participants can rotate to a new station every 12 minutes or spend the full session exploring one activity in depth.
Place: We’re working in a large school library, so participants can move freely around the room and work in a place that’s comfortable for them.
Medium: Each station explores a different Gemini feature: chat, Gems, Canvas, image generation, and Learning Mode.
Socialness: Participants may work individually, with a partner, or collaborate with others at their table. A shared document collects insights across the group.
Originally, I planned to create printed task cards. But then I had another thought:
What if I built a simple website that displayed the stations instead?
So I vibe-coded one.
Example 2: Lead-Learner Language Cards
Another activity helps campus administrators practice shifting from managerial language to lead-learner language.
A traditional version would involve printed cards. Instead, I built a simple flip-card tool where participants see one prompt at a time.
Front of card:
“We have to bring these scores up.”
Back of card:
“These scores are telling us something. What do you think they’re teaching us about our students right now?”
Using the Elements of Powerful Learning Design:
Time: Participants can move through the cards quickly or spend more time reflecting on each prompt.
Place: The activity can continue after the session through the link.
Medium: Participants can speak their response, write it down, or discuss it.
Socialness: They may work independently, with a partner, or as a table group.
Instead of creating stacks of cards and baggies for each table, a simple digital tool allows participants to move through the prompts at their own pace.
These are small examples, but they show how thoughtful use of digital tools can help us design learning experiences that offer participants more choice and ownership in how they engage.
If you’re curious, you can explore these small prototypes to see how the design choices play out.
Gemini Exploration Stations (generated with Gemini)
Lead-Learner Language Cards (generated with Canva AI)
Why This Matters
Many education AI tools today focus on differentiation through features like grade-level adjustments, translation, or text-to-speech. Those tools are important and can help learners with a variety of needs.
But my work has long centered on designing learning experiences that offer participants choice through time, place, medium, and socialness.
And with tools like AI and vibe-coding becoming more accessible, we can now create the tools we need to support those experiences.
If This Idea Interests You…
If you’d like to explore the Elements of Powerful Learning Design more deeply (and the other ideas from The New Pillars of Modern Teaching), I’m hosting a small learning experience soon, called The New Pillars Design Studio.
In this self-paced, online book experience, we’ll explore how these ideas apply to professional learning design and experiment with practical ways to bring them to life.
Find details and enroll here. The studio opens on March 24, 2026.
Try This in Your Next Session
As you design your next learning experience, consider:
Where might participants have choice over time, either how long they engage or how quickly they move through an activity?
How might place influence the learning experience, both during and beyond the session?
What options could you provide for medium, how participants access, process, or express their learning?
When might participants choose their level of socialness, working independently or collaboratively?
And if the tool you need doesn’t exist yet, could you create one?
I’d Love to Hear
How are you designing learning experiences that offer participants more choice?
And have you experimented with using digital tools, or even a little vibe-coding, to support those design decisions?
Noting, reflecting, connecting,
Kathryn
PS: I explore the idea of owning your own learning more deeply in this blog post for Learning Forward Texas, including connections to learning preferences, choice, and elements of powerful learning design.
When the brain is asking, “Do I have any say in this, or not?” the solution is obvious enough: Give them the choice. That means your challenge is clear: how will you find moments for them to have choice?
Highlights from the Community
Here’s what’s happening in our community spaces this month:
March’s Mindful Musings prompts explore the theme of building support systems.
📚 We loved sharing our favorite recent professional reads in our BYO Book Circle.
🧪 Our Design Lab for March is about communicating our learning goals.
📗 The New Pillars Design Studio begins March 24th!
We’re going to experiment with an hour of co-working time called Design Time.
April’s online community event will be an AI Show and Share.
Learn more about my online minicourse, Begin with Intention.
The Refined Design Learning Community is a space for curious, collaborative educators who design learning experiences for other adults. Our members are professional learning providers, educational coaches, PLC leads, admin, and aspiring PD leaders.
I use the Circle platform to host the community, and it’s free to join and participate. In our spaces, you’ll find thoughtful discussions, book clubs, and virtual meetups, which are open to all in the community. While I plan to offer paid courses in the future, nearly everything available now (except one minicourse) is completely free.
Reflecting • Connecting • Refining
📓 Why Field Notes?
This newsletter is inspired by the idea of self-anthropology from Tiny Experiments by Anne-Laure Le Cunff. Just like field notes help researchers make sense of what they observe, these monthly reflections help me capture ideas, tools, and questions from my own work designing professional learning. I share them here in the spirit of experimentation, connection, and ongoing refinement.
🤖 AI helped polish this post, but the ideas, intention, curation, and care are all mine.
