The following overview of online course development trends at NIU offers a glimpse into the current state of online program development and highlights current instructional design activities.
A total of 449 online courses have been developed in partnership with the Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning (CITL) instructional design team over the past 5 years (FY2022-2026), including 149 online courses developed in FY2026.
An interactive dashboard of course developments by department, college or development category is available
A new design and development is an intensive, "white-glove" collaboration where a faculty subject matter expert and a CITL instructional designer co-create a high-impact learning experience from the ground up. Rather than simply migrating files, this process employs a systematic backward design approach—typically guided by the ADDIE model—to ensure that every learning objective, assessment, and activity aligns strictly with the NIU Quality Essentials standards. This comprehensive service covers the entire course lifecycle, from establishing a robust Blackboard Ultra framework and ensuring accessibility (UDL) to producing custom multimedia like professional video and interactive simulations, resulting in a polished, student-centered environment that is pedagogically sound and ready for its first launch.
In FY2026 CITL instructional designers partnered with faculty to develop 42 new online courses.
A course revision is a systematic process to ensure technical and pedagogical excellence, ranging from a simple accessibility check—utilizing Ally reports to identify barriers or directly remediate content — to a major overhaul of more than 40% of the course. These substantial changes may include replacing all multimedia, executing a full technical rebuild in Blackboard, or implementing significant adjustments following a post-offering debrief, while narrower updates focus on refreshing specific slides, assessments, or minor refinements based on student feedback.
In FY2026 CITL instructional designers partnered with faculty to revise 29 existing online courses.
A course refresh is a structured process in which existing online courses developed by CITL’s Instructional Design Team are updated to improve quality, relevance, and effectiveness. These projects typically involve courses that are 5–10 years old or require substantial updates to media, content, and assessments, often informed by Quality Evaluation (QE) review findings or the need to align with CITL or program templates. Course refresh projects generally require between 40–100 hours of CITL staff time and 10–60 hours of faculty time, ensuring a collaborative and focused effort to enhance the course without the demands of a complete rebuild.
CITL began tracking these numbers in FY2024. In FY2026 CITL instructional designers partnered with faculty to refresh 44 existing online courses.
An ongoing course support refers to the continuous maintenance and assistance provided for online courses that do not require substantial revision. This support typically includes minor updates such as modifying select media, copying and cleaning up course shells, adjusting dates, and addressing new- term-related needs. These efforts are generally smaller in scope but are essential to ensuring courses remain functional and up to date between offerings. Ongoing course support may also be assigned to an instructional designer when a faculty member—often new—requires guidance throughout the semester while teaching a course developed by the Instructional Design team. CITL began tracking these numbers in 2023-2024.
CITL began tracking these numbers in FY2024. In FY2026 CITL instructional designers provided ongoing course support in 34 existing online courses.
During the 2025–2026 academic year, the instructional design team supported a total of 156 term-level course developments. Because extensive course builds often span multiple terms (Summer, Fall and Spring), we track these ongoing collaborations continuously at the term level. While this aggregate number reflects multi-term projects rather than strictly unique courses, it is the most accurate measure of our team's sustained human capacity and the long-term support required for high-quality design.
The following highlights the ten departments and areas that received the most instructional design support, represented as a percentage of our total development efforts. The School of Nursing and the Department of Computer Science led this year's collaborations, combining for nearly half of our total capacity. Additionally, the "Non-Academic" category represents vital professional development and training initiatives.
| School / Department | Number | Percent |
|---|---|---|
| Nursing | 48 | 27.56% |
| Computer Science | 23 | 14.74% |
| College of Business | 23 | 14.74% |
| Public Administration | 13 | 8.33% |
| Health Studies | 9 | 5.77% |
| Family and Consumer Sciences | 8 | 5.13% |
| Non-Academic | 8 | 5.13% |
| College of Liberal Arts and Sciences | 6 | 3.85% |
| Art | 3 | 1.9% |
Over the past five years, the composition of instructional design work has shifted significantly. While course revisions accounted for the majority of projects in FY2023, demand has become increasingly balanced, with substantial growth in course revisions, course refreshes and ongoing course support by FY2026. This trend reflects the maturation of NIU's online portfolio and the expanding need to support the full lifecycle of online and hybrid courses beyond initial development.
Phone: 815-753-0595
Email: citl@niu.edu
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