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Characteristics of an Honors Course

"Honors education is characterized by in-class and extracurricular activities that are measurably broader, deeper, or more complex than comparable learning experiences typically found at institutions of higher education. Honors experiences include a distinctive learner-directed environment and philosophy, provide opportunities that are appropriately tailored to fit the institution's culture and mission, and frequently occur within a close community of students and faculty."  – National Collegiate Honors Council (NCHC), "Definition of Honors Education," 2019.

The Miami University Honors College offers a rigorous, engaging, and distinctive learning experience for its honors students, utilizing the NCHC’s definition above as the foundation for its academic mission. The Honors College fosters an academic environment within its course offerings that builds community and inspires and challenges honors students to build their academic competence by connecting classroom learning to their learning outside the four walls of a classroom, and integrating intellectual concepts and tools to assume deeper relevance and application to the world at large. To this end, Miami faculty, staff, and student members of the Honors College Advisory Committee (HCAC) have developed the following set of defining characteristics of Honors College courses, to be used by faculty to shape the pedagogical spirit of their course.

Faculty who propose new Honors College course offerings, and those who teach existing courses, integrate these characteristics into their plans and approaches for their courses. Although these characteristics are defined here individually, it is the judgment of HCAC that each of them can be conceived as working well in conjunction with one another. These characteristics will assist faculty in developing courses into a learning experience distinct from non-Honors versions of the same course and/or other non-Honors courses in their cognate areas. These characteristics are also designed to be flexible enough to give faculty the freedom to design lessons, projects, and assignments that align with their particular cognate area. HCAC recognizes that there is no one way to teach an Honors course. However, these characteristics acknowledge that there are best practices and approaches which each faculty member should consider when designing Honors courses, which makes an Honors learning experience distinguishable.

From the following list of characteristics, faculty are required (A) to incorporate research at some level; and (B) to demonstrate how they will embed at least one (1) of the other characteristics into the course.

Research

A unique component of an Honors student’s education is engaging in a research experience that builds from a semester-long course and accumulates across a student’s time in the Honors College. In Honors courses, students will be exposed to various methods and approaches to conducting research, whether in a laboratory, classroom, library, school, or field setting. Within the disciplinary and subject constraints of a particular course, the faculty member will provide students with some degree of freedom in research topic, design, activities, and/or write-up. This degree of freedom is necessary to facilitate student curiosity, the ability to delve into ideas at greater depth, and encourage ownership of their intellectual adventures across courses.

Connections to concepts outside the classroom

Honors students connect course material to larger issues beyond the classroom, appreciating the reach and relevance of their learning to local and/or global issues and concerns. Faculty challenge students to reflect on what they have learned, identify gaps in their current knowledge, and understand how their learning to date can be applied in the world.

Student-directed learning

Honors students are encouraged to take initiative in their learning. They are given a variety of opportunities to become active participants in the exploration and application of course material. With activities such as data collection and analyses, critiquing various sources of information, leading class discussions, and peer editing work, faculty allow for honors students, individually and collectively, to intensively explore ideas, topics, and material throughout the semester. Student-directed learning contributes to academic competence and intellectual curiosity, engaging in projects that are both challenging and rewarding as they are on the path to becoming critical thinkers and active learners.

    Contact Honors

    All Miami faculty with an interest in teaching an Honors course with these characteristics should consult the Teach in Honors page for more information.

    Contact the Honors College

Honors College

Peabody Hall
701 Western College Drive
Oxford, OH 45056
513-529-3399
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