Rebecca Frost Cuevas - Course Design Formula: How to Teach Anything to Anyone Online

Contents

Copyright page
Dedication

Introduction

PRAISE FOR Course Design Formula

If you plan to start an online course or if you simply want to improve your online teaching skills, take the time to read Course Design Formula. How do students actually learn? What affordances and constraints are directly associated with online teaching? The author bases her book on simple psychology and pedagogy principles, cognitive science research, as well as her rich experience as an educator, both online and offline. Even at 400 pages, the book is an easy read, but the knowledge it provides is invaluable.

Gabriel Ciordas, CEO/founder, Flipsnack

Creating an online course is like building a bicycle shed; you might think its easy, until you actually try to do it! Then you realize that theres a steep learning curve, and a serious risk that your first go at it will produce something that just doesnt live up to your high standards. Thankfully, theres an alternative: read Course Design Formula by Rebecca Frost Cuevas, do exactly what it teaches, and then celebrate when you find yourself with an online course that is clear, effective, and done a lot sooner than you thought it would be!

Danny Iny, CEO/founder, Mirasee

In my many years designing online courses, I have never encountered anything as intuitive and easy to follow as the Course Design Formula. This will become my go-to formula to design courses from now on.

Mauricio Cadavid, Ed.D., senior instructional designer for California State University, San Bernardino

The online course community needs this! Its engaging, thought-provoking, and compels you to keep reading. If youre like me, there are spots where youll even laugh out loud. I just may to send it to a few gurus from whom Ive purchased ineffective courses in the past. Ive experienced the magic of creating my own course using Rebecca Cuevas formula and I can confidently say her stuff works.

Cheri Merz, CEO/founder, Metaprosperity LLC

If you are looking for an outstanding textbook for a class that teaches how to design and deliver online learning, this book is for you and your students. It presents a learning design process that is informed by a deep understanding of the research, presented in a clear and logical way. It can serve as a springboard to help readers understand highly practical and relevant research findings about learning, media, and process. From there, readers can easily launch either into a deeper investigation of salient lines of research or move right into the production of online learning resourcesfrom individual learning objects to full-length courses.

Brian Newberry, Ph.D., instructional designer, Jackson College

In the information age, creating cognitively and socially engaging educational content continues to become increasingly important. Rebecca Frost Cuevas synthesizes principles of learning theory, instructional technology, visual design, and usability to create a clear approach to developing your online course. Each of these topics are addressed in other publications, but I have not seen them integrated into an action plan for online teaching and learning as effectively as Ms. Cuevas has done in this book. Her formula is brilliant. This is a must-read for anyone who wishes to teach online.

Suzanne Ama, M.S., Education, professor of digital media arts

I could not put the book down. Its an easy read and shows how much knowledge Rebecca has about the subject. In my experience, if someone can make a subject simple and fun, it is because they have mastery over it. I highly recommended this book! Its an absolute delight and a must-read for online course creators.

Neerja Ahuja, principal consultant and director, Ayurveda Awareness Centre (Perth, Australia)

Rebecca provides a wealth of knowledge on instructional design. This is a fabulous read for anyone interested in teaching anything. I cant wait to put it into practice.

Alison Cameron, economic development professional, City of Santa Cruz

This is the book I wish Id had when I was one of the campus instructional design mentors in Tennessee. This is the book I would have gifted to my entire team when I was the instructional design manager at a tech company, leading a team of twenty designers, most whom were accidental instructional designers with subject expertise but no course development experience. This is a book that can be used in the corporate space, higher education, or by individuals who desire to share their own expertise online for fun or for profit. Each chapter has clearly defined objectives, real-life examples that readers can relate to, and most importantly, a wealth of resources to help the new or seasoned designer assess, design, and review their course idea and learning outcomes. This is by far, one of the best books I have read on course development in years.

Mary Nunaley, Ms.ED., ATD Master Instructional Designer, Founder of the Lavender Dragon Team, LLC

COPYRIGHT PAGE

Art credits appear .

Disclaimer: This publication contains the opinions and ideas of its author. It is intended to provide helpful and informative material on the subjects addressed. It is sold with the understanding that the author and publisher are not engaged in rendering any kind of personal professional services in the book. The author and publisher specifically disclaim all responsibility for any liability, loss, or risk, personal or otherwise, that is incurred as a consequence, directly or indirectly, of the use and application of any of the contents of this book. Although every effort has been made to ensure that the information in this book, including phone numbers and internet addresses, was correct at publication, the author and publisher do not have any control over third-party websites or content.

Copyright 2019 by Rebecca Frost Cuevas. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

Learn and Get Smarter, Inc.

P.O. Box 5238

Riverside, CA. 92517

Course Design Formula is a trademark of Learn and Get Smarter, Inc.

Cover design by Gus Yoo

Editing and production by Stephanie Gunning

Book Layout Book Design Templates

Author photo by Virginia Shaffer Fesunoff, @DarkRmPro

Special discounts are available on quantity purchases by corporations, associations, and others. For details, contact the publisher.

Library of Congress Control Number 2019910513

ISBN 978-1-7327823-1-0 (paperback)

ISBN 978-1-7327823-2-7 (kindle ebook)

Course Design Formula /Rebecca Frost Cuevas 1st ed.

DEDICATION

For my online studentsand yours

I ntroduction

This is a book about how to create online courses that really teach, at a deep level. Its about how to create courses that people will finish, get results from, and talk about to their friends. Its about how to create courses that make a profound difference in peoples lives.

This book will give you the background knowledge necessary to understand why its important to use an instructional design process to build your course and teach you a step-by-step course design process that will make your courses truly stand out from the ).

Ive distilled a lifetime of professional training, experience, and research into creating products and services to help you shape your expertise into courses that achieve the goals you have for them. If you read this book, take my signature course, and use my workbooks, you will have the knowledge, skills, and tools to effectively outline any course, on any topic , in an hour.