Instructor Roles & Definitions

Updated 8/14/25

Instructor Roles in MSC

Instructor roles are assigned using Maintain Schedule of Classes (MSC) on the Meeting tab under "Instructors for Meeting Pattern". You will determine teaching role, grading access, visibility in the Schedule of Classes, and teaching load for each class section.

Primary Instructor (PI)

Instructors with the primary responsibility for creating course content and delivering course material use the instructor role "Primary Instructor".

  • Group taught courses: Multiple instructors are allowed when Load Factor adds up to 100%.
  • Individually taught courses may have multple Primary Instructors with Load Factor 100%.
  • Graduate Teaching Assistants (TA) teaching lecture sections alone.
  • eXplorance BLUE: Instructor & Course evaluations are generated when Load Factor not 0% or blank.
  • Guest lecturers or substitute instructors teaching during a short unplanned absence should receive 0% load.

Undergraduate TAs and Graduate TAs who are not responsible for final course grades or overall course management should be assigned the TA role.

Supervising Instructor (SI)

This is a workload role for faculty who coodinate multi-section courses or supervise other instructors or TAs. Effective Fall 2025 Secondary Instructor was updated to Supervising Instructor. Secondary Instructor is no longer an option; all instructors with teaching responsibilities should have the PI role.

  • eXplorance BLUE: No course evaluations even when Load factor is greater than 0%.
  • Instructors who are student facing, and need a BLUE evaluation, should ALSO have the Primary Instructor role.
  • VC classes: Use SI role to clarify which instructor should have a Zoom link when Load Factor is not a clear indicator.
  • Global classes: Use SI role to clarify which instructor will verify course content when Load Factor is not a clear indicator.

Teaching Assistant (TA)

Undergraduate or Graduate teaching assistants who assist the faculty with course or lab section instruction and are not responsible for assigning final course grades or overall course management. 

  • Designate a Load Factor % for TAs involved with student-facing instruction.
  • TAs who only assist with grading should added here and have Load Factor 0%.
  • Units should confirm that TA roles align with actual effort, such as leading labs or discussions.
  • eXplorance BLUE Graduate TA evaluations will be triggered when Load Factor is not 0% or blank.

Graduate TAs teaching a lecture section as the only instructor should be assigned the Primary Instructor role, not the TA role.

Faculty or Staff with administrative only function

Use Maintain LMS Users (MLU) to Canvas access for Chairs, faculty, or staff with grading or other administrative needs.

  • Access to Canvas is available 60 minutes after added to MLU.
  • Do not add to Maintain Schedule of Classes.
  • eXplorance BLUE evaluation is NOT triggered.
  • Permanent grading only access is available with the role "WSU CS SR 59: Enter Grades". Request from Crimson Service Desk.

Instructor Type in the Instructor Advisor Table

You will add an Instructor Type when adding/updating an instructor in the Instructor/Advisor Table. This field is not used in myWSU and we recommend that everyone be listed as "Instructor".