Internet paved the way for educational technologies which have gradually gained importance in the field of education and has passed the learning responsibility to the student. Succeeding this phase, Personal Learning Environments has gained a significance to support students’ active role of in organizing their own learning within online platforms. Personal Learning Environments are platforms where learning is structured personally, planned and archived for life. These environments created with Web 2.0 tools support Open and Distance Learning with a structure that allows the design of individualized syllabi and encourages online participation, individual and group activities. In this study, Personal Learning Environments created by distance learners studying off-campus to learn English as a foreign language were examined. In this regard, the main purpose of the study was to seek the opinions of field experts and distance learners on how Personal Learning Environments within the context of open and distance learning could be developed in an effective, efficient and attractive way. This study was structured within the development cycles of design-based research. The participants of the study, which was carried out in the 2016-2017 Fall Term (MarchSeptember 2017), were distance learners and field experts. Qualitative data were collected and analyzed in the designbased research process. At the end of the research, a design framework for Personal Learning Environments was proposed. According to the data obtained depending on the research questions, a Personal Learning Environment is an environment that supports the personal learning experience in the context of open and distance learning, ensures the adoption of the designed environment and meets the general expectation for learning English. However, due to individual differences in learning, each Personal Learning Environment should be evaluated individually as it is created for individual learning needs.