How can we ensure every course meets a clear, consistent standard that supports student success and faculty satisfaction alike?
As online learning continues to expand, course quality remains a top concern. According to the 2025 Horizon Report, instructional design and faculty development are among the most pressing challenges for higher ed leaders. So how can institutions ensure every course delivers a consistent, high-quality experience without overburdening faculty?
Faculty are doing important work under tight timelines and competing priorities, making it essential to provide support that respects their time and yields clear and engaging content from day one. In fact, the 2025 Horizon Report notes that managing instructor workload (especially in online and hybrid environments) is one of the key concerns facing teaching and learning leaders nationwide.
Common Pain Points
Top challenges we hear from institutional leaders include:
- Inconsistent design and navigation
- Dated content or technology
- Student confusion and disengagement
- Incorporating AI into the learning experience
While these challenges may feel daunting, the good news is that they don’t always require a full course or program overhaul. Small, strategic interventions can go a long way toward resolving these issues. By focusing on practical, incremental improvements, institutions can see meaningful results without the disruption of starting from scratch.
Small Interventions, Big Impact
In our session, Design Smarter, Not Harder: A Practical Guide to Online Course Development & Evaluation, we emphasized that course quality isn’t about bells and whistles—it’s about intentional design, shared standards, and sustainable review practices.
We shared two key frameworks that help institutions improve the online student experience while reducing guesswork for faculty and instructional design teams:
- The Six Pillars of Online Course Design—a foundation for consistency, clarity, and accessibility across courses
- A Cadence of Review—a structured approach for knowing when to audit, refresh, or redesign
Together, these frameworks empower institutions to strengthen course quality, increase retention, and ensure instructional continuity, whether planning for growth, faculty transitions, or unforeseen disruptions.
The Six Pillars of Online Course Design
The most effective programs are those that deliver visible and repeatable quality across every course. SRM’s Six Pillars offer leaders a practical framework to set those expectations:
- Structure & Navigation: Consistent modules, intuitive layouts, and clear orientation materials that guide learners from day one
- Content Clarity & Alignment: Learning outcomes directly tied to content and assessments, with information chunked for easier comprehension
- Inclusive & Accessible Design: Universal Design for Learning (UDL) strategies, diverse representation, and accessibility features like captions and alt text
- Assessment & Feedback: A balanced mix of formative and summative assessments, clearly defined rubrics, and timely, actionable feedback
- Engagement & Interaction: Peer-to-peer and student–faculty opportunities that foster connection, collaboration, and community
- Technology & Tools: Reliable tools that work across devices and platforms, with intuitive interfaces and faculty support for implementation
By embedding these pillars into course development and evaluation processes, leaders can reduce variability between courses, improve accreditation readiness, and support student success.
What Leadership Can Do to Drive Consistency Across Programs
Some universities operate within a centralized model, where course design expectations span multiple departments and degree programs. In these cases, the challenge isn’t just creating quality courses—it’s maintaining consistency and momentum across the institution. So what can leaders do to guide fine-tuning at scale?
- University-wide best practices
- Establish clear design standards: Create baseline expectations for navigation, accessibility, and consistent use of LMS tools.
- Build faculty development pathways: Collaborate with your CTL to offer workshops, mentoring, or certification programs that encourage consistent design practices.
- Support with shared resources: Provide centralized media, brand assets, and tech tools so departments aren’t reinventing the wheel.
- Department-level best practices
- Customizable templates: Supply adaptable course shells that departments can tailor to their disciplines while staying aligned with institutional standards.
- Discipline-specific analytics: Share LMS and student performance data at the program level so departments can identify and address unique challenges.
- Faculty collaboration spaces: Facilitate communities of practice or cross-course working groups, led by your CTL, where departmental faculty can exchange strategies and refine shared approaches under unified guidance.
Taken together, these strategies allow leaders to align departments around shared standards while still leaving room for discipline-specific flexibility. The result is a more cohesive student experience across programs and a stronger foundation for ongoing improvements.
Case in Point: What Leaders Notice
Institutions that adopt these approaches are already seeing results. The outcomes go beyond smoother faculty workflows. Leaders see:
- Improved student satisfaction scores when courses are consistent and engaging
- Reduced compliance risk by embedding accessibility and alignment into every course
- Greater efficiency for academic teams, with fewer last-minute fixes and more time for meaningful course enhancements.
“The difference between good and great course designers is the ability to serve as the eyes of the students. When we met with Six Red Marbles, everything clicked—the team offered smart suggestions, flexible tools, and collaborative support that truly improved our courses.”
This kind of feedback underscores the leadership payoff: when standards are clear and consistent, the benefits cascade across students, faculty, and institutional reputation.
Looking Ahead
Expectations for online course quality will only continue to rise. Students now compare their learning experiences across platforms and institutions. Accreditors and regulators are increasingly focused on learning outcomes, accessibility, and equity.
From AI-supported course audits to universal design practices, forward-looking institutions are investing in sustainable strategies that center quality and equity. As the 2025 Horizon Report notes, scalable instructional design and faculty support are essential to future-proofing academic programs.
Six Red Marbles is helping institutions stay ahead by:
- Embedding accessibility and inclusivity reviews into course design processes
- Using analytics and student feedback to inform evaluations
- Exploring emerging technologies such as AI-supported audits and adaptive course design
These innovations keep quality scalable, sustainable, and aligned with institutional goals.
What’s Next
We recorded our recent webinar, Design Smarter, Not Harder: A Modern Approach to Online Course Development & Review, hosted by Lauren Davis and Jessica Hecht, to walk you through the process step-by-step—including real examples you can adapt for your own institution. Watch the recording:
Download the Online Course Development and Evaluation Guide
Whether you are auditing a handful of courses or scaling across an entire program, SRM helps institutions create clarity, reduce friction, and support student success—by serving as an extension of your team, easing the lift on faculty and instructional design staff.
Book a free consultation or email us at highered@sixredmarbles.com
Source: EDUCAUSE Horizon Report | Teaching and Learning Edition, 2025