Review the Co-Instructor Role

Lead instructors and co-instructors form a team that addresses the needs of students enrolled in a course. As the lead instructor who mentors and guides the co-instructors in their role on the instructional team, it's important for you to understand the co-instructor role and responsibilities.

A co-instructor is an expert or specialist in a particular content area who is hired to assist with a course under the supervision of a lead instructor.

A successful co-instructor must have Internet access for the duration of the course so as to respond to students, evaluate their work, and provide useful and timely feedback in accordance with the deadlines established by the Division and lead instructor. Any co-instructor who will not have Internet access for more than three consecutive days during the course needs to notify the Division immediately so we can arrange for coverage or offer a position during a different session.

The co-instructor assumes responsibility as allocated by the lead instructor, including the following tasks:

• Answer course and content-related questions.

• Facilitate discussion with students with the goal of contributing content expertise and practical experience.

• Grade assignments and provide individual constructive feedback to students in a timely manner (to be established by the lead instructor and agreed upon by all co-instructors). The co-instructor is responsible for evaluating student work according to four central criteria:

  • • Quality of Assignment

Did the student follow the directions (i.e., page length, line spacing, response to all assignment criteria which was established by the instructor) completely?

• Content Accuracy

Did the student respond appropriately to the content? Was it coherent?

• Timeliness

Did the student submit the assignment on time (as posted by the instructor)?

• Mechanics

Did the student use correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation?

• Use any required rubrics to assess assignments when providing feedback.

  • • Feedback should be personalized using the student's name.

    • The amount and type (i.e., using a general rubric that is filled out and returned to the student, copying and pasting frequently repeated comments from a central template of sample comments, or writing more detailed, analytical comments on an assignment) of feedback provided to students should be proportional to the complexity of the given assignment.

    • Feedback should provide both supportive and corrective comments.

• Be available to communicate with students between 3-6 hours per week via live and remote methods, such as email, chat, phone, or video conference, including responding to student email within 24 hours.

• Notify lead instructor if issues of academic integrity arise.

• Communicate and collaborate with the lead instructor and other course co-instructors with the goal of developing a cohesive instructional team and assuring a common student experience.

• Keep track of questions and issues during the course; work with lead instructor to propose revisions to materials for future class offerings.

• Maintain confidentiality about student performance and work and discuss confidential information obtained in a course or through the program only for appropriate professional purposes and only with persons clearly concerned with such matters.