One of my main goals in creating the Course Design Formula® has been to relieve the stress many experts and entrepreneurs feel when creating an online course.Can you relate? Why creating an online course can be stressful: You have so much expertise on the topic that it’s hard to know where to startYou aren’t sure
In my book, Course Design Formula: How to Teach Anything to Anyone Online, I talk about the difference between really teaching someone something, and simply exposing them to information.Real teaching changes the world because it produces transformation. When you set out to create an online course, the first thing to determine is the IMPACT your course
This week in the Course Design Formula® Master Course, we’re focusing on learner research.We’re exploring the questions we need to ask of ourselves and others, to find out:Who our ideal course participants areWhat they want and need to learn from usHow much they already know about the subject we want to teachOften, we start out
An important consideration in moving learning from the offline to the online space, has to do with affordances and constraints.Affordances are the things we can do WELL in a situation, while constraints are the things we can’t do well there… or can’t do at all.The pandemic has forced us to move not only our learning
Education removes the obstacles that prevent people from achieving their dreams.The difference between failure and success often comes down to learning… whether learning to change one’s mindset from “I feel like I can’t” to “I know that I can” or learning how to perform a new skill. Times of accelerated societal change, like the present,
The past year has provided everyone around the world with the opportunity to see things in a new (though often, harsh and painful) light. Learning is the process of adapting to one’s environment in ways that promote survival, and 2020 forced us all onto a very steep learning curve. The ability to learn from each other and
As you reflect on the past year, with its unprecedented challenges, and think ahead to 2021, it can be helpful to adopt a practice created many years ago by Chris Brogan, which he calls “#My3Words”. I adopted this practice last year for the first time, and it worked! My three words for 2020 were:ProsperityServiceJoy Despite the surrounding
Looking back at the past year with its world-changing events, what stands out the most is the power of community. Having the opportunity to get to know the amazing members of the Learn and Get Smarter community has been a great source of comfort and joy for me, and I hope it has been for you
Many publications are coming out with their “Year in Pictures” for 2020. As I scrolled through the New York Times’ version, I was overwhelmed by the enormity, the intensity, the global impact that this past year has had on everyone around the globe. And no sooner had I gotten done with this heart wrenching visual odyssey than the
As our forced global experiment in online learning is showing, it’s more challenging to create online learning, and more challenging to learn from it, than is the case with classroom-based learning. But…why? The reason is that the online learning interface adds cognitive load to the learning experience. But again… WHY??? Two factors that add cognitive load to online learning are
The limits of working memory dictate that we can only focus on five to seven separate pieces of information at one time. Beyond that, it all starts turning into a blur.. which is why long strings of apparently unrelated information, or a long to do list, can feel so overwhelming. But we can’t just whack our
Learning means adapting our behavior in ways that promote survival. This past year has been a massive, forced, global learning experience of the most profound, and often heart-wrenching kind. Our literal survival on a personal and societal level has been and continues to be at stake. It’s amazing that in the swirling maelstrom of chaos we’ve all been
The entire planet is in the midst of one of the most globally destabilizing times in history, where the foundations of how we function and interact on every level of our lives have been shaken. We’ve all been pushed out of our comfort zone. That’s a situation that serves as the impetus for tremendous learning and
A funny thing happened on my way to the Learn and Get Smarter Community meeting last Saturday: the electricity in my neighborhood went out. Suddenly, instead of logging into the Zoom meeting ahead of time to to be graciously ready to greet the group, I found myself frantically scrambling to log in on my phone. Logging in
I’m writing this blog post on the eve of one of the most significant days in American history. Whatever their political beliefs, Americans feel that the future of our country depends on what happens on Tuesday, November 3, 2020. And people all over the world are also concerned about the outcome of the 2020 election. The
The pandemic has thrown the importance of learning, and especially online learning, into high relief.Going to school is a privilege that, we are now seeing, we can’t take for granted. The issue of equal access to online education for all, is a profound social issue that lies at the heart of building a society that
I developed the Course Design Formula® to help you optimize the way you teach online, in the courses you create. Learners can also use the formula to enhance the way they learn online, from courses they take. Why is this important? Let’s use an analogy from the world of health and medicine. When you go to the doctor,
We’ve been talking a lot about systems in the Learn and Get Smarter community over the past several months…and at the community meeting this past Saturday we focused in on the systems needed to keep our online businesses operating smoothly.Mary Williams of Sensible Woo gave an enlightening presentation. She used the analogy of working out
Looking at your life as a whole, as an educator and entrepreneur…. where is your zone of genius? And what areas of your life and work need strengthening to support that? What areas of life feel unbalanced for you now, especially in light of the restrictions and changes imposed by the pandemic? And, most interestingly, how has
For the past six months, almost since the pandemic began, a dedicated group of Learn and Get Smarter community members have met every Saturday for two hours or more, to discuss how to survive and thrive during these unprecedented times.We shared our personal reflections and professional expertise to gain deeper insight into what works when
When you teach in a physical classroom, workshop, or lecture space, you are a person interacting directly with other people, in real time.When you teach in an online format, you are a person interacting with other people (either in real time or not) by means of digital media.The word “media” is the Latin plural form
The delightful bus stop cartoon that is this week’s featured image, is the original creation of community member Matt Champlin.Matt is an engineer and cartoonist, and led us in a fascinating group exercise last Saturday called the Lightning Decision Jam.The purpose of the Lightning Decision Jam is to help a group quickly discover the main thing
One of my main goals in creating the Course Design Formula® has
This week in the Course Design Formula® Master Course, we’re focusing on
This week in the Course Design Formula® Master Course, we’re focusing on
An important consideration in moving learning from the offline to the online
Education removes the obstacles that prevent people from achieving their dreams.The difference
As you reflect on the past year, with its unprecedented challenges, and
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