Areas of expertise
Tools support the work. They are not the work.
My expertise is not technology — it is learning: how people learn, where they struggle, how to simplify complexity, and how to design experiences that lead to understanding and application. The tools below serve that work.
Learning Experience Design
Turning expertise, research, and content into learning people can understand, use, and remember.
- Instructional design
- Online course design
- Curriculum and program design
- Scenario-based learning
- Practice and feedback design
- Assessment design
- Adult learning principles
- Working with subject-matter experts
- Accessibility-aware design (UDL)
Science & Real-World Learning
Making science, conservation, and research something people want to learn — without losing accuracy.
- Science communication
- Research translation
- Conservation learning
- Environmental education
- Field-based learning
- Educator professional development
- Public engagement
Education Production
Building the finished experience — courses, programs, resources, and the materials that go with them.
- Course and program development
- Educator resources and toolkits
- Storyboarding
- Course redesign
- Testing and refinement
- Project coordination
Supporting Tools & Methods
The tools I build with. Useful and familiar — but the learning comes first.
- Articulate 360 (Storyline & Rise)
- Moodle LMS
- Canvas LMS (training)
- ADDIE
- Bloom's Taxonomy
- AI-assisted design and production workflows
- Digital learning tools
Instructional design methods
Frameworks and methods used in real design work across education, higher education, and professional learning.
- Science Communication
- Research Translation
- Education Program Design
- Instructional Design
- Learning Experience Design
- ADDIE
- Backward Design
- Bloom's Taxonomy
- Adult Learning
- Needs Analysis
- Learner Analysis
- SME Collaboration
- Scenario-Based Learning
- Curriculum Development
- Assessment Design
- Learning Objectives
- Storyboarding
- Professional Development
- Online Learning Design
- Accessibility-aware learning design
- Universal Design for Learning (UDL)
- Inclusive learning practices
- Performance-Based Learning
- Formative Assessment
- Summative Assessment
- Learning Evaluation
Learning technologies — experienced
Tools used regularly in course design, delivery, and faculty support.
- Moodle LMS
- Canvas LMS (training)
- Google Workspace
- Microsoft Office
- Microsoft Teams
- Zoom
- Canva
- Adobe Express
- PowerPoint
- Google Slides
Learning technologies — developing
Actively building proficiency. Listed transparently rather than claimed as expertise.
- Articulate Storyline 360
- Articulate Rise 360
AI tools in the design workflow
One set of tools among many — used for drafting, structuring, and iteration, with every decision reviewed by Kirsten.
- ChatGPT
- Claude
- Lovable
- Cursor
- AI-assisted instructional design workflows
- Prompt engineering
How AI fits into the work
AI tools have changed the speed of instructional design, not its substance. Kirsten uses them for first drafts, restructuring rough content, generating alternative phrasings of objectives, and pressure-testing scenarios for plausible wrong answers.
What does not get delegated: understanding the audience, deciding what people need to learn, shaping the activities, checking accuracy, and making accessibility decisions. Every word that reaches a learner is reviewed by Kirsten.