Converting to 8-Week Accelerated Courses for a Large Public Research University
Converting a 2,800-course catalog to an 8-week accelerated, asynchronous model at scale, on schedule, and with faculty in the lead.
The Challenge
A large public research university set an ambitious goal: convert approximately 2,800 courses from a traditional 16-week semester to an 8-week accelerated, asynchronous model. The aim was to widen access, strengthen retention and completion, and keep pace with growing demand for flexible learning — all while preserving academic rigor.
A transformation at that scale demands structure and dedicated development capacity. The university wanted its faculty focused on academic oversight and student success rather than the logistics of rebuilding hundreds of courses. It brought in Six Red Marbles to carry the design and production workload and bring a repeatable, quality-driven process to the effort.
The Partnership
Six Red Marbles partnered with the university as its instructional design and course production partner for the catalog conversion — handling analysis, design, and build while keeping faculty firmly in the lead on academic direction.
The model was built on a clear division of expertise. Faculty own the discipline: learning goals, content, and assessment priorities. SRM’s instructional designers translate that intent into courses that work in an accelerated, asynchronous environment. Faculty are never asked to become experts in online pedagogy, and designers never reinterpret disciplinary content.
A three-part structure kept the work moving without blurring authority. Faculty defined and approved instructional intent. The university’s instructional designers served as the faculty-facing bridge. SRM design partners conducted analysis, developed course manuscripts, and built courses directly in the institution’s LMS.
The Strategy
SRM’s strategy centered on a faculty-centered production model grounded in adult learning theory and Universal Design for Learning — a consistent, repeatable process designed to scale across the breadth of a general-education catalog while leaving room for disciplinary variation.
Key decisions shaped the work:
Gap analysis as a design lens: Rather than a judgment, gap analysis revealed how faculty intent was supported by existing materials and where added clarity would help learners in a shorter term.
The course manuscript: A living design record captured decisions, rationale, alignment considerations, and faculty confirmations — carrying intent cleanly from syllabus to manuscript to the finished course in the institution's LMS.
Alignment as rigor: Outcomes, assessments, activities, and materials were kept coherent so academic expectations stayed explicit and achievable within an eight-week term.
Accessibility from the start: Inclusive design principles were built into every course from the first decision rather than added at the end — a critical factor in compressed terms where clarity, pacing, and navigation shape whether students succeed.
Quality assurance at every handoff: An internal alignment review preceded every delivery, with design decisions documented for transparency and academic defensibility.
What SRM Designed & Developed
The engagement opened with a focused pilot — a “thin slice” of 13 courses — to establish shared standards and validate the workflow before scaling. Production then moved into structured batches of roughly nine to eleven courses each.
Every course was built with five media components: interactive modules, multimedia lectures, engaging discussion formats, digital assessments, and student collaboration tools.
Key deliverables included:
Course manuscripts with documented design rationale
Outcome-aligned instructional design
Interactive modules and multimedia lecture development
LMS builds within the institution's platform
Digital assessments and student collaboration tools
Quality assurance reviews across all courses
Disciplines spanned the breadth of a general-education catalog: biology and anatomy, psychology and communication, computer science and cybersecurity, criminal justice, English, history, geography, and accounting, among others.
The Learning Experience
Learners work through accelerated eight-week courses built for clarity, pacing, and active engagement. Faculty intent (learning goals, content priorities, and assessment design) is preserved through a documented translation process, not reinterpreted.
Each course replaces extended-term pacing with tightly structured modules that guide learners through content in a sequence designed for a shorter term. Interactive modules, multimedia lectures, discussion formats, digital assessments, and collaboration tools bring the course to life while keeping the academic expectations set by faculty intact.
Accessibility and inclusive design are built in from the start, so every learner encounters a course designed to meet them where they are.
The Impact
Across the first statement of work, SRM delivered more than 350 courses through 36-plus production batches. Batches have consistently finalized on or ahead of their planned dates, giving the university a predictable delivery rhythm across a multi-term rollout.
The engagement produced a replicable model the institution can extend across the rest of its catalog — a quality-driven, batch-based process with documented standards, proven workflow, and the capacity to scale. Faculty remained focused on academic oversight and teaching rather than the logistics of course production.
~2800
courses in the institutional initiative
350+
courses delivered so far
36+
structured production batches
16 → 8
week format transformation
5
media components per course
Why It Matters
Institutions accelerating to shorter-term formats face a core tension: moving fast enough to meet demand while protecting the academic quality that makes the degree worth earning. Rebuilding a catalog course by course, without a structured process, leaves that tension unresolved.
This partnership shows what dedicated development capacity makes possible. By handling the design and production workload through a faculty-centered, alignment-driven process, SRM gave the university a way to move at catalog scale without asking faculty to choose between teaching and rebuilding. The result is a foundation the institution can build on — not a one-time conversion, but a model for how it develops courses going forward.
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