Kirsten Alburg · Learning Experience Designer
Learning Experience Designer | M.S. Instructional Design and Technology | 28+ years across higher education, science communication, and complex-knowledge environments
I help organizations determine what people actually need to understand, diagnose where understanding or adoption is breaking down, and design the learning experience that solves the problem — then define how you will know it worked.
Consulting engagements starting at $5,000 · Remote · Limited client capacity
28+
Years designing learning and understanding
7
Documented problem-to-outcome case studies
5
Step diagnostic framework applied to every project
Remote
Michigan, USA — available now
Hello, I'm Kirsten
For nearly 30 years I have worked on one question: how do we help people understand complex information and apply it? With students, educators, faculty, scientists, and professional teams, the valuable part has rarely been producing content. It has been deciding what the real problem is, what people must be able to do differently, and what experience will get them there.
I use The Clarity Learning Framework™ to move from complexity to clarity: diagnose the problem, define the outcome, design the experience, and evaluate whether understanding and behavior actually changed. AI accelerates my research, analysis, prototyping, and production — the judgment about what should change stays with me.
More about my storyAreas of expertise
The through-line is judgment: name the real problem, define what people must understand or do, then design the experience that gets them there. Tools come last on purpose.
Determining what people actually need to understand, where understanding or adoption is breaking down, and whether learning is the right intervention at all.
Designing the experience that moves people from confusion to understanding, application, and changed behavior.
Translating complex research and technical knowledge so the people who need it can understand and act on it.
The production layer. Useful, familiar, and deliberately not the reason to hire me.
My design approach
My repeatable methodology for complex knowledge problems. Five steps — Understand, Clarify, Design, Engage, Improve — that take a client from "our training is not working" to a defined problem, a designed experience, and evidence of measurable improvement. Not one of the five is about tooling.
Explore my approach01
Understand
02
Clarify
03
Design
04
Engage
05
Improve
Featured work
Real-world science, a landscape, a first week on the job, research nobody understood, a course library that stopped working. Each one documented as problem, judgment call, design decision, and result.
Signature learning experience design
A learning experience platform connecting educators with scientists, researchers, and field experts — designed as repeatable programs, not one-off events. Field Notes: Explorer and Educator Expeditions turn active research into clear, applicable learning.
Science & knowledge communication
Helping researchers and technical experts be understood without being diminished — audience analysis, message hierarchy, and rehearsed question handling, practiced on their own work.
Conservation & environmental education
A place-anchored learning experience for a conservation site: field orientation, interpretive moments tied to one behavior each, and volunteer steward training.
Corporate & workplace learning
A guided first-week experience: an explorable workplace, culture taught as decisions, branching scenarios, and a final check for understanding.
Analysis & improvement
A five-lens audit of a course library nobody finished — learner journey, structure, engagement, assessment alignment, accessibility — with a prioritized remediation plan.
Real-world learning design in action
Kirsten founded Odyssey Discovery to connect educators with scientists, researchers, and field experts through meaningful learning experiences.
Through programs such as Field Notes: Explorer and Educator Expeditions, Kirsten designs learning experiences that transform complex scientific information into clear, engaging opportunities for understanding and application.
Explore Odyssey Discovery
Science & conservation learning
Kirsten brings a unique background in science education, field-based learning, and instructional design to help organizations communicate complex research, conservation challenges, and scientific concepts through meaningful learning experiences.
That work fits conservation organizations, national and state parks, science organizations, NGOs, research institutions, museums, and universities — anywhere the knowledge is sound and the understanding is not yet there.
Interactive learning demonstrations
Original demonstrations built to show design thinking — branching scenarios, feedback, assessment, and accessibility decisions you experience directly rather than read about.
AI as leverage
I use AI throughout my process to accelerate research, analysis, prototyping, and production. What AI does not do is decide which problem is worth solving, what people need to understand, what should change, how the experience should work, or whether it worked. That judgment is the engagement.
How AI fits into the processWays to work with Kirsten
Starting at $5,000
For organizations that know something is not working but are not yet sure what needs to change. Stakeholder discovery, audience and performance diagnosis, adoption barriers, learning review, recommendations, and measurement strategy create a prioritized path forward.
Outcome: clarity about what is wrong, what should change, what—if anything—should be built, and what happens next.
Discuss your projectPrimary engagement · Starting at $15,000
For organizations with important knowledge, research, training, programs, or expertise that people need to understand and use. The work can include learning strategy, experience architecture, curriculum, scenarios, assessment, complex-content translation, prototyping, implementation, and evaluation.
Customized around the actual problem—not an hourly production package.
Start a projectStarting at $5,000/month
Senior learning strategy and design leadership for organizations that do not need another full-time employee. Support may include project direction, learning reviews, experience architecture, SME collaboration, recommendations, and evaluation strategy.
One active priority at a time—not unlimited on-call production.
Discuss a fractional partnershipAvailable for work
Remote from Michigan. Consulting, contract, and full-time engagements with science and conservation organizations, research institutions, higher education, health, corporate learning teams, and nonprofits — starting with what is actually breaking down.
