Instructional Technology & Design Consulting

Instructional Design Consulting for Higher Education

A course that has been placed online is not, by that fact alone, an online program that has been designed. What makes an online or hybrid program work for students is joint planning across instructional design, instructional technology, student access, and support that runs through the whole institution. focusEDU's instructional design consulting is how college and university leaders examine those pieces as one system, instead of leaving each piece as its own project inside its own office.

Instructional design is organized planning aimed at teaching and learning that is both effective and engaging. It determines the shape of a course whether the modality is face-to-face, online, hybrid, or self-paced. The demands are greatest when the course will be delivered online. Classroom visual cues, spontaneity, and informal feedback will not be there to carry it, so the design has to stand on its own, and that design has to be finished well ahead of the term. A faculty member who excels in person may need a different set of skills when the task is designing an online course, and that is the moment for instructional design expertise to join the process.

Designing a Program, Not Just a Course

Readiness has to extend past the course itself. If the institution around that course is not prepared, even strong course design can fail to land. An engagement with focusEDU on instructional technology and design therefore covers the course and the institution that offers it:

• Course and curriculum design. Do learning objectives, activities, and assessments line up inside each course, and does one approach hold across the courses that make up a program?
• Faculty and course development. How does the path from planning through launch pair faculty, as content experts, with instructional design expertise?
• Instructional technology. Are the learning management system and its surrounding tools equal to the teaching you want, and how does the institution plan and reach academic technology decisions?
• Student access. For every student, including those who will never come to campus, is the course something they can reach, use, and succeed in?
• Operational support. Can advising, registration, financial aid, and the other services students depend on support online learners to the same degree they support students on campus?

Operational support is also the link between instructional design and the core areas focusEDU already consults on: registrar, admissions, financial aid, student financial services, and enrollment management. For a closer look at the infrastructure that supports this work, see our Distance Education Consulting page.

When to Consider an Instructional Design Consultant

Talking with focusEDU can make sense when your institution is:

• Preparing to launch new online or hybrid programs, or to expand programs you already offer.
• Noticing that the student experience shifts sharply between one online course and another.
• Taking stock of current instructional technology or preparing to replace it, including a learning management system.
• Seeking an outside view of the fit among course design, technology, and student support.

Your Subject Matter Specialist: Nick Laudato

Your first contact for instructional technology and design is Nick Laudato, Senior Consulting Director, Subject Matter Specialties at focusEDU. Nick authored the focusEDU Insights article Best Practices for On-Line and Remote Classes. His background is on his profile page.

How Engagements Are Staffed

No institution faces the same situation as the next, so instructional design at focusEDU is not delivered as one fixed package. After you get in touch, Nick and Herb Riley, President and CEO of focusEDU, go over your request together and choose how the engagement will be staffed. What the institution needs decides the staffing: that may be Nick heading the work himself, or focusEDU engaging a qualified consultant for the project under a written contract.