Universities are under increasing pressure to deliver high-quality online and hybrid courses efficiently. However, many institutions rely on in-house instructional design (ID) teams that often face systemic challenges, leading to delays, reduced output, and suboptimal learning experiences.
Drawing from industry research and insights, this article explores the most common pain points for these teams and demonstrates how YellowHammer IT, LLC Instructional Design and Consultation Services can provide targeted solutions. With flexible subscription and hourly models, we help universities overcome these hurdles, fulfill grant requirements, and achieve curriculum goals without the overhead of expanding internal staff.
Common Pain Points and How We Can Help
Faculty Resistance and Lack of Collaboration
Faculty members frequently resist adopting new pedagogies or collaborating with ID teams, fearing a loss of academic freedom or exposure of knowledge gaps. This underutilization of ID expertise affects only about 25% of faculty engaging in online course development, resulting in inconsistent course quality and missed opportunities for innovation.
With our deep expertise in teaching, pedagogy, and instructional design, YellowHammer IT, LLC supplements the gaps many in-house IDs face, bringing a unique blend of perspectives from faculty, administration, and ID roles. Instead of merely facilitating, we lead with experience, designing and delivering targeted training programs to empower faculty as effective subject matter experts (SMEs).
These trainings teach faculty how to structure content, align with learning outcomes, and collaborate efficiently with ID teams, fostering buy-in and reducing resistance. By leveraging our multifaceted experience, we create a collaborative culture that enhances course quality and drives innovation, ensuring faculty feel confident and valued in the process.
Unclear Course Revision Process
Universities often struggle with the complexity of managing new course developments, course revisions, and textbook updates. The administrative burden of tracking textbook updates, coordinating revisions across multiple programs, and ensuring alignment with institutional goals overwhelms in-house instructional design (ID) teams, resulting in inconsistent quality, wasted resources, and missed deadlines.
YellowHammer IT, LLC offers a comprehensive project management solution, taking full responsibility for all aspects of your university’s course development and revision processes. We communicate with all stakeholders to develop a unique plan to solve these pain points. deploy expert project management insights to implement structured timelines and agile methodologies that align with the products your university uses. Our team coordinates every detail—managing feedback loops, revision cycles, and textbook updates to automate workflows and track progress. By outsourcing to YellowHammer IT, your university gains a cost-effective, accountable partner that reduces overhead, enhances efficiency, and positions your programs for success.
Time and Resource Management Issues
In-house teams juggle multiple projects across programs, leading to tight deadlines, limited budgets, and inefficient workflows. This results in extended build times, missed launches, and lower overall output, exacerbating resource strain in budget-constrained environments.
Leveraging agile project management and efficient tools, we optimize your processes to cut development time significantly. Our hourly and subscription consulting models offer flexible support for peak periods, such as scaling production without permanent hires. We provide audits and recommendations to reallocate resources effectively, boosting productivity and ensuring on-time deliveries.
Keeping Up with Technology and Pedagogy
Rapid advancements in learning tools, accessibility standards, and analytics demand constant upskilling, but teams rarely have time for it. This leads to outdated practices, non-compliant courses, and ineffective engagement strategies.
Our experts stay at the forefront of edtech trends, integrating cutting-edge tools like AI-driven analytics and LMS optimizations into your courses. We provide targeted training sessions and implementation support, ensuring your team adopts modern pedagogies without disruption. This keeps your offerings competitive and compliant, enhancing learner outcomes.
Unmotivated Staff Resistant
In-house ID teams often include staff who have become comfortable in their roles, showing reluctance to attend professional development edtech training, adopt new technologies, or upskill in emerging pedagogies. This stagnation leads to outdated course designs, missed innovations, and a competitive disadvantage in higher education.
As external contractors, YellowHammer IT, LLC brings a fresh, motivated perspective with experts who are passionate about staying ahead of technological trends and pedagogical advancements. We infuse your projects with cutting-edge solutions without the inertia of long-term staff complacency. Our team delivers innovative, tech-forward designs that elevate your courses, while offering optional training sessions to inspire and upskill your in-house team, fostering a culture of continuous improvement.
We understand that what we do now will shape the future of education delivery.
Lack of Effective Faculty Training on Canvas LMS Facilitation
Many universities invest in faculty development staff to train instructors, but these roles often come with high salaries and overhead costs, straining budgets, especially for institutions struggling with declining student enrollments. These departments can often focus on professional development instead of focused Canvas LMS training. Faculty frequently lack the skills to leverage Canvas LMS effectively for student engagement, leading to disengaged learners, lower retention rates, and missed opportunities to enhance course delivery.
Without targeted training on facilitation techniques, such as using Canvas tools like Discussion Boards, Studio, or SpeedGrader, courses may fail to foster interactive, student-centered learning environments.
We offer a cost-effective alternative. We can meet with your stakeholders to assess the issues and create tailored, training solutions to equip faculty with the skills to use Canvas LMS for dynamic student engagement.
We deliver virtual workshops and can build out an online faculty training course in the Canvas LMS focusing on practical techniques, such as facilitating courses from launch to term close, using Discussion Boards to inspire learning, embedding interactive multimedia, and streamlining feedback with SpeedGrader. Our training approach, ensures faculty master facilitation strategies that boost student interaction and retention, saving your institution the high costs of salaries, benefits, and insurance while delivering measurable results.
Inadequate Accessibility Compliance in Course Design
Many universities struggle to meet stringent accessibility standards, such as WCAG 2.1 and Section 508, in their online and hybrid courses, risking legal non-compliance, costly lawsuits, and exclusion of students with disabilities. In-house instructional design (ID) teams often lack the expertise, time, or resources to implement accessible design practices consistently, leading to issues like non-captioned videos, inaccessible PDFs, or poorly structured Canvas LMS content. This not only limits equitable access for all learners but also jeopardizes institutional reputation and enrollment, as 15-20% of students may require accommodations due to disabilities.
We specialize in creating comprehensive accessibility plans tailored to your university’s needs, ensuring full compliance with WCAG 2.1, Section 508, and other relevant standards. Our expert consultants conduct thorough audits of your Canvas LMS courses to identify and address accessibility gaps, such as adding captions to multimedia, optimizing alt text for images, and structuring content for screen readers. We develop customized protocols, including checklists and workflows, to embed accessibility into every stage of course design and revision. We can also provide faculty and ID team training on tools like Canvas Accessibility Checker and Ally to maintain compliance long-term. Our services offer a cost-effective alternative to hiring full-time accessibility specialists.
High Costs and Accountability Challenges with Full-Time
Maintaining a full-time ID team involves significant overhead costs, including salaries, health insurance, benefits, and retirement contributions, which strain university budgets. Additionally, tenured or long-term staff may exhibit lower accountability due to job security, leading to inefficiencies and inconsistent performance without the pressure of performance-based contracts.
By partnering with YellowHammer IT, LLC as contractors, you gain high accountability. We deliver results to maintain our reputation and secure ongoing engagements without the burdensome costs of full-time hires like insurance and benefits. Our flexible subscription and hourly models provides cost-effective, scalable support, ensuring predictable expenses tied directly to deliverables. This approach maximizes ROI, allowing you to allocate resources more efficiently while benefiting from our committed, outcome-focused expertise.
Expensive Outcomes Assessment Tracking
Many university departments, schools, or colleges invest substantial funds in hiring external firms to track and manage program-level outcomes assessments, often involving manual reevaluation of student mastery post-grading. This redundant process adds unnecessary expenses and complexity, especially when Canvas LMS inherently supports embedding outcomes directly into the grading workflow through features like aligned rubrics, SpeedGrader, and the Learning Mastery Gradebook, eliminating the need for retrospective evaluations.
YellowHammer IT, LLC leverages our expertise in Canvas LMS to embed outcomes assessment seamlessly into your grading processes, utilizing built-in tools like outcome-aligned rubrics and the Learning Mastery Gradebook for real-time tracking and reporting. This eliminates the need for costly external firms, saving your institution money while ensuring accurate, automated mastery evaluations without reevaluation. Our consultants design customized workflows, provide training on these features, and integrate them with your accreditation needs, streamlining compliance and enhancing data-driven decision-making for program improvements.
Underutilized Digital Badging Systems
Many universities fail to leverage digital badging systems within Canvas LMS to recognize marketable skills, limiting opportunities to enhance student motivation, showcase program value, and boost institutional visibility. Without a structured badging system, students miss out on portable credentials that highlight specific competencies, and universities lose a powerful marketing tool when students share badges on social media platforms like LinkedIn. The absence of a clear protocol for badge implementation leads to inconsistent adoption, undercutting potential enrollment growth and brand recognition.
We can design and implements robust digital badging systems fully integrated with Canvas LMS, using tools like Canvas Badges (formerly Badgr) to maximize student recognition and institutional impact. We create tailored protocols to align badges with course outcomes, ensuring they reflect marketable skills like critical thinking, data analysis, or leadership that resonate with employers. Our consultants set up automated badge issuance within Canvas, streamlining the process to reward students for milestones and encourage engagement. By embedding shareable badges linked to social media platforms, we position your university as an innovative leader, amplifying visibility when students showcase their credentials online.
Next Steps
Transform your university’s instructional design process with YellowHammer IT, LLC. Our expert consulting services tackle your toughest challenges—from faculty resistance and SME bottlenecks to accessibility compliance and course management overload. We deliver tailored, cost-effective solutions that accelerate course development, enhance quality, and boost student engagement, all while saving you the expense of full-time hires.
Ready to elevate your online and hybrid programs? Contact us today. Let’s partner to streamline your workflows, meet accreditation goals, and position your institution as a leader in higher education innovation. Act now to unlock your university’s full potential in online education!
