Contact Your Co-Instructors

Set up an initial meeting

As the lead instructor, you will work with co-instructors throughout the course. Prior to the course start date, you will receive an email listing the names and contact information for your co-instructors.

It is important for you to connect with your co-instructors early to develop a collaborative instructional team and establish expectations to ensure high quality teaching and learning experiences for all students in the course. We strongly advise setting up an initial meeting with the full instructional team and establishing meetings on a regular basis during the course.

Log on to your ASU email account and send a note to your co-instructors introducing yourself. This action verifies you are able to send and receive email from your ASU account and puts you in touch with the co-instructors for the course.

Schedule a meeting with your co-instructors prior to the course start date. An example of a template to send to your co-instructors is included below. Meetings may be held via email or in-person. Additionally, you may utilize online video conferencing. (See information below for this option.)

Example email:

We have scheduled a co-instructor orientation/course review session for [COURSE NUMBER] on the date and time listed below. The purpose of this meeting is to 1) provide an overview of the course and online materials, 2) discuss topics related to program and course guidelines about communication, grading, and other class procedures, and 3) get to know each other to facilitate your collaborative efforts in providing a quality online course for our students. We strongly encourage you to participate. As a reminder, the times listed are Arizona time.

[DATE, TIME]

To join the meeting, please access the following URL.

[ZOOM URL]

If you have any problems or questions, please let me know.

[LEAD INSTRUCTOR NAME]

Sample meeting agenda

An agenda for your meeting might include the following items. A detailed description of discussion topics is also available (Laying the Groundwork - Lead Instructor).

  • Review course and online materials

  • Confirm that all co-instructors have received a copy of the textbook(s)

  • Review policies about:

      • Communicating with students

      • Communicating as an instructional team

      • Grading and feedback

      • How to address student issues, including academic progress, student behavior, and academic integrity

      • How to address issues with the course materials

  • Review of technology used in the course

  • Answer any questions

Lead instructors may also use this meeting to get to know the instructional team so that you can facilitate collaborative efforts to provide a quality online course for all students.

We recommend you set up regular meeting times with your co-instructors throughout the course. More information about these meetings can be found on the Weeks 2-8 page.

Video conference

A video conference is useful for meetings with larger instructional teams of six or more. The main video conferencing and collaboration tool available through ASU is Zoom. Please work with your instructional design team to determine how to use Zoom to best meet your needs.

Zoom accounts are available to all current faculty, staff, and students, via Single Sign-On, with no account request required. You can invite anyone to join your Zoom meetings as a guest by providing them with a meeting URL or meeting ID number. Meeting participants are not required to have a Zoom account to join a meeting.

To get started with Zoom, complete the following steps:

Additional support

Your instructional design team can provide additional information about using online video conferences in your meetings. The ASU Experience Center (1-855-278-5080) will also answer questions and provide technical support.