But here’s the harsh truth:
Expertise in content does not equal expertise in course design.
Yet in higher education, we keep pretending it does. Faculty keep building courses chalked up to cost savings and academic freedom. We know all too well the pushback administrators receive when asking faculty to move their course online. Not all, but many. We work around these nuances daily.
The Faculty-First Fallacy
When a new online or hybrid course needs to be built, many higher ed defaults to the same playbook:
- Assign it to the faculty member who taught it in person.
- Let them upload lecture slides and assignments to the LMS.
- Call it a day.
This approach assumes that what works in a lecture hall automatically works online. It doesn’t.
In fact, it’s one of the biggest reasons students disengage, drop out, or rate your program as outdated.
Why It’s Failing Students
Students today expect learning to be an experience — not a transcript of someone else’s expertise.
They want:
- Interactive, visually clear content.
- Logical flow and easy navigation.
- A sense of progress and purpose, not just busywork or check boxes.
When faculty are left to design solo, the result is often static PDFs, outdated slide decks, and discussion prompts that go nowhere.
Students don’t see the brilliance of the faculty’s research. They see walls of text, no relevance, and no reason to care.
It’s Not Faculty’s Fault — It’s a Systems Problem
This isn’t a critique of faculty. It’s a reality check for institutional leaders.
Most professors were never trained in instructional design. Their job is to be content experts, not UX designers or pedagogy specialists.
When universities expect faculty to build digital experiences from scratch — without guidance or support — they’re setting them up to fail.
And they’re setting students up for a poor experience.
A Leadership Opportunity: Build Bridges, Not Silos
Here’s the good news: the fix isn’t to replace faculty expertise. It’s to pair it with design expertise.
- Faculty + instructional designers create courses that honor subject matter and student experience.
- Clear learning outcomes turn sprawling lectures into focused journeys.
- Scaffolded activities build real engagement, not just checkboxes.
- Multimedia and accessibility make learning inclusive and modern.
When you support faculty with these resources, they can shine in what they do best — and students get the meaningful, relevant experience they deserve.
A Final Note for Leadership
If you’re investing in marketing and new programs, but not in real instructional design, you’re spinning your wheels.
Retention, student satisfaction, and your institution’s reputation all tie with how you build courses.
Faculty-first design sounds noble, but without design expertise, it’s a dead end.
It’s time to reimagine the process — and give your students a reason to stay.
