Honors Course Enhancement

Participation in the Bluefield State University’s Honors College requires 20 total credit hours of honors-enhanced curricula that augment courses in their program of study.

Although there will be variations by discipline, instructor, and class, honors-enhanced courses should provide students with the opportunity for an enriched academic experience, i. e. creative and active learning that augments the Honors Scholar’s depth of engagement of course content. Honors-enhanced courses should not simply require students to complete more work; instead, students should complete work that is different than that required of students earning regular credit for the class, and this work should facilitate more sophisticated critical engagement with the subject matter. Using the national guidelines set forth by the National Collegiate Honors Council, the following constitutes the basic principles and characteristics of an honors course. These are detailed below and in the NCHC’s “Models of Honors Learning” descriptions.

In general, honors-enhanced courses will:

• Provide more frequent and detailed teacher feedback
• Provide assessment instruments that invite active and creative responses. Essay exams are the norm, while multiple-choice, true/false, and short-answer questions will rarely, if ever, be used
• Provide students with evaluations based on standards and methods that require demonstrated competency and mastery of the course objectives rather than an accumulation of points, percentages, and grades
• Enhance course curricula by encompassing greater depth and breadth of the subject matter
• Expose the student to the current standards of excellence in the discipline
• Encourage the application of different theories in the field of study
• Provide students with the opportunity to develop discipline appropriate research skills
• Expose students to cutting edge research
• Stress using primary source materials in research rather than relying solely on discipline textbooks
• Stress rigor and challenge rather than creating more work. Quality over quantity
• Encourage the development of independent, creative and critical thinking skills
• Stress reasoning and synthesis of information
• Take an interdisciplinary approach to learning
• Emphasize written assignments
• Emphasize discourse seminar method of instruction
• Emphasize experiential and collaborative learning approaches to actively engage students in inquiry and analysis
• Create a community of learners by encouraging greater class participation and discussion by the use of debates, interviews, classroom presentation and panel discussions
• Encourage students to direct their own learning and take risks
• Emphasize development of social and leadership skills

Students interested in earning honors enhanced credit (i.e., for adding an honors enhancement to a regular course) should contact the course instructor, discuss the possibility, and make arrangements for honors credit PRIOR TO the fall or spring registration periods – well in advance of the semester when the student will actually take the course.

Instructors are under no obligation to agree to make their course an honors-enhanced course. If an instructor does agree to an honors enhancement, the student should complete the Honors Course Enhancement Form (see below) in consultation with his or her instructor. Completed Honors Course Enhancement Forms – which include a summary of the enhanced activity to be engaged in – must be submitted to the Honors College Director for approval. If approved, the director will request the Provost’s Office to create an Honors section for the student to enroll in (HONR 300 for a Junior level course and HONR 400 for a Senior level course).

Grade Requirements

Students must earn a grade of B+ or higher in an honors-enhanced course in order to earn honors equivalency credit for the course. Students who fail to successfully complete the honors-enhanced requirements for a course will still receive credit for the course – but that credit will not be counted toward the honors requirements. The course may be retaken for honors equivalency credit; however, the honors student need not retake the same course; he or she may select another course for enhancement in a subsequent semester. If a student falls below a 3.5 GPA, he or she will have a probationary period of two semesters to bring his or her average back above the minimum requirements. Any violation of the college’s academic honesty policy will result in automatic dismissal from the program. (See Probationary Status Policy.)

National Collegiate Honors Council “Models of Honors Learning”

Research and Creative Scholarship (“learning in depth”)

• Curricula are characterized by highly focused, often discipline-oriented learning experiences: an emphasis on research writing in the humanities and social sciences, including data analysis in the social sciences, and on experimentation, measurement, data analysis, and interpretation in the natural sciences.
• Programs are often departmentally driven, based, or focused; “departmental honors” is a term that often appears. Courses tend to be created within existing departments, with honors components supplementing regular work. The goal is specialized, in-depth learning in addition to self-reflective, analytical, and creative activity.
• The products are often documented scholarship that leads to new integrations, new knowledge, or new understandings of creative products; students pursue a track into post- graduate study, technical careers, or professional careers outside academe, such as telecommunications or theater.

Breadth and Enduring Questions (“multi- or interdisciplinary learning”)

• Curricula are characterized largely by core-curriculum honors courses, often with seminars that provide greater depth (not necessarily disciplinary depth).
• Programs confront students with alternative modes of inquiry, exploration, discovery, tolerance of ambiguity, and enduring questions. Coursework often requires integrative learning: both local and global learning with connections across time, genre, and disciplines, not always in classroom situations.
• The products often involve creative integrations of evidence from several disciplines with an aggressive emphasis on interdisciplinarity. Assessment of the products emphasizes process rather than product, focusing on meta- cognitive questions such as “how do you know?” Students are encouraged to dig deep without a prescribed result. Service Learning and Leadership
• The major emphasis is community engagement: often a single project or a series of collaborative projects that address

real-world problems and through which students acquire practical experience and skills that lead to engaged citizenship. Some opportunities are offered for credit, some not.

• Curricula are frequently decentralized or selected from a menu of departmental honors courses. Students may also earn credit for philanthropic or humanitarian service off- campus. This structure may operate at some smaller institutions that emphasize the humanities and social sciences.

Experiential Learning

• Curricula typically emphasize exploration and/or discovery rather than acquisition of specific knowledge sets; a focus on hands-on, usually supervised, practical engagement with usable outcomes can also occur.
• Programs focus on student-driven learning projects facilitated by faculty who provide no necessary, single conclusion to be drawn by all or many students. Programs often include international experience and active learning.
• The process often involves continuous reflective writing and oral presentation as the students articulate their discoveries and document their personal growth; this process may apply to all other modes described here.

Learning Communities

Curricula emphasize an identified cohort of students living and/or working in close quarters and heavily engaged in campus and/or residence-centered activity with a strong integration of academic, social, and/or service activities.

Programs foster a culture of thinking, growing, and inquiring within the living environment.

• Outcomes include connecting members to one another for the pursuit of common goals through interdependence and mutual obligation; respectful inclusiveness of economic, religious, cultural, ethnic, social, and other differences; and common inquiry in which members collaborate on solutions to common problems.

Honors Course Enhancement Form

Students interested in earning honors credit (i.e., for adding an honors enhancement to a regular course) should contact the course instructor, discuss the possibility, and make arrangements for honors credit during the fall or spring registration periods – well in advance of the semester when the student will actually take the course. Instructors are under no obligation to agree to make their course an honors-enhanced course. If an instructor does agree to an honors enhancement, the student should complete the Honors Course Enhancement Form in consultation with his or her instructor. This enhancement represents a 1-credit hour supplement to course credit hours.

Completed Honors Course Enhancement Forms – which include a summary of the enhanced activity to be engaged in – must be submitted to the Honors College Director for approval. If approved, the director will create a related Honors Recitation section for the student to enroll in and award honors equivalency credit if a grade of “B” or better is earned in the course.