This resource is meant to provide the information faculty need to get started working on Honors Course Proposals.
Guidelines and Tips for Instructors Proposing an Honors Course
Types of Honors Courses
While Honors Courses take many different forms (and we love supporting creativity!), they typically fall into three main categories from an instructional perspective:
Combined/Cross-Listed Honors Courses
If you choose to teach a cross-listed Honors course, some of the seats in a course you're already teaching will be reserved specifically for Honors students. Honors students can be given additional assignments on top of the work assigned to the whole class, or you can substitute some of your regular course material and/or projects for more substantive options.
These are the Honors versions of courses that have preexisting regular counterparts. Enrollment is restricted to Honors students and your Honors class will replace the regular version of the course in your students' degree requirements. You'll be expected to teach the same core skills, but you'll have the option to bring in more (or more complex) material, assign more involved projects, and/or adjust the coursework for more engaged students than you might expect in a regular version of the course. Additionally, we try to limit enrollment in these courses to approximately half the size of their regular counterparts.
We aim for Honors Program courses to be unique, interdisciplinary courses that could only happen in Honors! These courses are not required by any current degree plan and would be electives for your students. Honors Program courses give you the ability to dive deep into your niche specialty interest with your students or bring together disparate topics in an interesting and compelling way. Enrollment in HONR courses is also restricted to Honors students and the class sizes are very small (sometimes as few as 5-10 students!)
Features and Elements
We'd like for all versions of Honors Courses to have some key shard features:
Discussion Based Instruction - We want students to feel like they're active participants in their courses and that their viewpoints are a valued contribution to the discussion.
Academic Autonomy - The Honors Program deeply values interdisciplinary work and many of our students join because they want the freedom to explore the things that interest them most. We've noticed that sometimes letting students take the reins while providing support yields compelling and creative results!
Positional Awareness - We hope that all of our students graduate from the Program with the knowledge and skills they need to be compassionate and responsible members of their communities. Reflecting on how course material affects others and practicing implementing ideas with integrity and flexibility can help your students learn to be more conscientious in their interactions with others for life!
Values
Our values are the thread that connects every aspect of the Program. We ask that you consider them when choosing material and working on your design for any Honors Course.
Responsibility - taking intentional action across contexts, considering individual experiences, abilities, and circumstances
Growth - co-creating spaces that nurture meaningful development
Courage - taking value-driven stances to challenging and complex conditions
Belonging - respecting all individual perspectives and unique and inherently valuable to our community
Curiosity - centering the process of exploration in learning as a fundamental human need
Delight - welcoming and savoring opportunities, simple and grand, for wonder
Student Learning Outcomes
In order to ensure that our values are reflected in each Honors Course, we require that instructors proposing courses choose three of our Student Learning Outcomes and explain how they plan to encourage students to work toward these goals with their course material, activities, and/or assignments.
Honors Program Student Learning Outcomes:
| Critical and Creative Inquiry | students will demonstrate the ability to explore, question, and generate new ideas through critical analysis and creative expression across disciplines |
| Effective and Ethical Communication | students will communicate ideas clearly, responsibly, and persuasively in diverse contexts and formats, engaging with others through substantive and respectful discourse |
| Integrative and Applied Learning | students will integrate knowledge and skills from multiple contexts and experiences to address complex, real-world problems in personally meaningful ways |
| Self and Community Awareness | students will demonstrate awareness of their own positionality, values, and growth while appreciating and valuing diverse perspectives |
| Joyful and Purposeful Engagement | students will identify and pursue areas of study, practice, and collaboration that bring them a sense of purpose, guided by their values |
| Leadership Through Integrity and Initiative | students will take informed action in service of their communities and disciplines, demonstrating integrity, initiative, and adaptability |
Reflections
We also require that Honors instructors formally encourage their students to reflect on their academic experiences and progress.
You'll be asked how you plan to prompt and collect your students' reflections in your course proposal.
You are welcome to use your own prompt for reflections, but we also have a prompt that you can use if you'd prefer.