Delivering Honors Course Content    

Faculty may use three methods for delivering course content:

To ensure best practices, honors faculty who are designing an honors course or honors contract should:

• create courses that meet and exceed standards and assessments set by accrediting bodies such as the Southern Association of Schools and Colleges and the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology
• measure and assess student progress using standardized assessment tools
• integrate new teaching and learning methods
• and introduce and integrate appropriate technologies.

Experiment with innovative instructional methods within the classroom. Use the classroom as a laboratory to experiment with new subjects, approaches, and pedagogies.

Honors coursework should be rigorous, emphasize and stimulate critical thinking, discussion, and writing with the outcome that students experience intellectual growth.

At the outcome of the course, students should meet five objectives:

1. Develop effective written communication skills;
2. Develop effective oral communication skills (while recognizing that not all students are comfortable talking a lot in class);
3. Develop analytical and critical thinking skills;
4. Analyze and synthesize a broad range of material;
5. Understand how scholars think about and research a problem, formulate hypotheses, and draw conclusions or how creative artists approach the creative process and produce an original work;
6. Demonstrate their ability to use knowledge and logic when discussing an issue or an idea, while considering the consequences of those ideas, for themselves, for others, and for society.

Honors students should be encouraged to become independent, critical thinkers in and outside of the classroom.

Not sure how to achieve these outcomes? Click here for a listing of resources for a listing of resources to help get started.