Collaborating with faculty is an integral part of the instructional designer's role. However, faculty can be skeptical regarding the added value of the instructional designer's expertise and contribution in helping them (Intentional Futures, 2016). Additionally, instructional designers experience a high degree of job misperception and struggle to advocate for clear and defined roles (Drysdale, 2018). Four primary responsibilities of instructional designers in higher education were defined by evaluating the industry standard models of instructional design, comparing their structure and usage for relevance to the consultative role designers assume in higher education. The collaborative designer piece was missing from the literature leading to the development of the collaborative mapping model (CMM) that puts relationship at the center of higher education instructional design and addresses issues of scale, quality, and empowerment. Development of the CMM was informed by several key theories and concepts, including authentic leadership theory (Kiersch & Byrne, 2015),shared leadership theory (Bolden, 2011), and appreciative inquiry (KadiHanifi et al., 2014). After several years of implementation and refinement, the preliminary research described here was conducted to examine the effectiveness of the model toward facilitating the collaborative relationship between instructional designer and faculty. Fifty faculty who had designed a course in partnership with an instructional designer through the CMM were surveyed regarding their experience with the process. Among the results, 92% of the 37 respondents indicated an improvement in the quality of their courses and 73% indicated that they saved time by working with an instructional designer in the CMM. Key themes included an increased value and respect for the expertise of the instructional designer, a significant improvement to the quality of online courses designed and developed through the CMM, and enthusiasm for continued collaboration with instructional designers. This study describes the development of the model, an overview of theoretical influences and processes, and the results of research examining the effectiveness of the CMM of instructional design.