By Laurence Svekis
https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/vibe-learning-7399574366990131200 – Newsletter Vibe Learning
https://vibelearning.ca – Website and free course on Vibe Learning
In the spring of 2025, I started thinking about a problem that would eventually lead me to create what I called Vibe Learning.
The idea began taking shape in March 2025, shortly after the term vibe coding had entered the technology conversation.
I was attending an IT conference where AI, coding, prompting, and the rapidly changing role of developers were major topics of discussion. Vibe coding immediately caught my attention.
But I wasn’t only thinking about coding.
I was thinking about learning.
I had been creating online learning experiences and teaching technology since 2001. Over those years, I had watched learning technology evolve from relatively simple web-based courses to video learning, interactive platforms, coding exercises, online communities, and eventually generative AI.
When I looked at what was happening with vibe coding, I saw something much bigger.
I started asking myself:
If AI can fundamentally change the way we create software, couldn’t it also fundamentally change the way we learn?
That question became the beginning of Vibe Learning.
The Problem Wasn’t Access to Information
By 2025, getting information was no longer the difficult part.
A learner could ask an AI almost anything and receive an answer within seconds.
Explain JavaScript closures.
Teach me about photosynthesis.
Help me understand algebra.
Explain how a mortgage works.
Teach me another language.
Show me how to build a website.
The possibilities seemed almost unlimited.
But there was a problem.
Getting an answer isn’t the same thing as learning.
I had already seen students using AI for several years. I also saw people struggling to create and structure prompts that produced useful learning experiences.
Many people were becoming extremely good at asking AI to give them information.
They weren’t necessarily becoming better at learning that information.
That distinction became increasingly important to me.
You could have an incredibly detailed conversation with an AI, receive excellent explanations, generate summaries and examples, and walk away feeling productive.
But what could you actually remember the next day?
Could you explain the concept without AI?
Could you apply it to a different problem?
Could you recognize when the AI was wrong?
Could you use what you learned to create something?
Could you teach the idea to someone else?
If not, perhaps you had consumed information rather than learned it.
That was the problem I wanted to solve.
From Vibe Coding to Vibe Learning
During April 2025, I began using the term Vibe Learning to describe the concept I was developing: applying the conversational, iterative and AI-assisted possibilities emerging around vibe coding to the much broader process of learning.
But I didn’t want Vibe Learning to mean simply “use AI to learn.”
That wasn’t enough.
AI was already being used that way.
I wanted to develop a more structured approach—one that helped people use AI while preserving the activities that actually make learning happen.
That meant asking better questions.
It meant attempting problems before requesting solutions.
It meant practice.
It meant reflection.
It meant recalling information rather than continually rereading it.
It meant applying concepts.
It meant creating projects.
It meant making mistakes, getting feedback and trying again.
Most importantly, it meant keeping the learner at the center of the process.
AI could become extraordinarily powerful, but the objective shouldn’t be to have AI do all the thinking.
The objective should be to use AI to help you become a better thinker and learner.
That became one of the foundations of Vibe Learning.
AI Needed a Learning Framework
I started talking to other people working in technology and education. I went back through notes and ideas I had accumulated during many years of teaching, course development and working with learners.
I began connecting those experiences with what generative AI suddenly made possible.
Gradually, Vibe Learning evolved from an idea into a framework.
I wanted learners to have a process they could follow instead of simply opening an AI chatbot and wondering:
“What should I ask?”
This is where I started thinking about AI in a different way.
Imagine walking into a gym.
Technically, you can figure out how most of the equipment works.
You can sit on a machine, move the handles and probably accomplish something.
But that doesn’t mean you’re following an effective training program.
A good personal trainer provides something different.
The trainer helps determine what you’re trying to accomplish, selects appropriate exercises, creates progression, observes your performance, provides feedback and adjusts the program as you improve.
I began thinking about AI as potentially doing something similar for learning.
The AI has access to enormous amounts of information.
But information is the gym equipment.
Learning is the workout.
The Vibe Learning Framework became a way of helping learners structure that workout.
Anything Can Become a Learning Experience
One of the ideas that excited me most was realizing how broad this could become.
With AI, almost anything can become an interactive learning experience.
A learner doesn’t necessarily need to wait for someone to create the perfect course.
You can ask questions.
You can explore examples.
You can request explanations at different levels.
You can practice.
You can simulate situations.
You can generate challenges.
You can ask AI to question you rather than answer you.
You can create projects.
You can receive feedback.
You can revisit concepts you struggled with.
You can connect new knowledge to things you already understand.
For the first time, we had technology capable of adapting a learning conversation almost instantly to an individual learner.
But that capability created another challenge.
Without structure, AI makes it incredibly easy to skip the difficult parts of learning.
When something becomes confusing, you can immediately ask for the answer.
When a problem becomes difficult, AI can solve it.
When you’re asked to create something, AI can create it.
That convenience can work against learning.
The Vibe Learning approach I was developing was therefore not about removing effort.
It was about using AI to make the right kinds of effort more productive.
Making Learning Less Intimidating
There was another reason I felt a framework was necessary.
AI itself could be intimidating.
People heard about prompting, prompt engineering, hallucinations, context windows, models, agents and rapidly changing tools.
Some people didn’t know where to begin.
Others were worried they were using AI incorrectly.
I wanted Vibe Learning to lower that barrier.
A learner shouldn’t need to become a prompt engineer before benefiting from AI.
A framework could provide direction.
Instead of staring at an empty prompt box, learners could understand where they were in the learning process and what they should do next.
Explore. Understand. Predict. Practice. Get feedback. Recall. Connect. Apply. Reflect.
AI could support each stage, but the learner would remain responsible for the learning.
Turning Vibe Learning Into a Framework
What started as an idea in the spring of 2025 continued to develop.
I experimented with different approaches.
I created prompts.
I organized learning processes.
I refined the framework.
I looked at where learners struggled and where AI could help.
I examined where AI could actually interfere with learning if it provided too much assistance.
Over time, those ideas became increasingly structured and developed into the Vibe Learning Framework.
I began writing about Vibe Learning, creating resources around it and incorporating the concept into my work.
I wrote books exploring Vibe Learning and AI-assisted education.
I presented the ideas at conferences and discussed them with educators, developers and other people working with AI.
Eventually, I created VibeLearning.ca as a dedicated home for the concept, framework, articles, learning tools, courses and resources I was continuing to develop.
What began as a question inspired by vibe coding was becoming a broader way of thinking about education in the age of AI.
From Vibe Learning to Vibe Teaching
As I developed Vibe Learning, another question naturally followed:
If AI changes how people learn, doesn’t it also have to change how we teach?
That led me to begin using another term: Vibe Teaching.
I use Vibe Learning primarily from the perspective of the learner. Vibe Teaching is the educator-facing side of the same transformation.
For teachers, instructors, trainers and course creators,