Honors Senior Project Information for Faculty

All students must have a mentor for their Honors Senior Project to help ensure the quality and rigor of the project. Faculty can mentor students through the process of proposing, completing, and submitting their Honors Senior Projects. It is the student’s responsibility to initiate and complete the Honors Senior Project. The mentor relationship varies based on the mentor, student, and project type, however, we do ask mentors to provide guidance and feedback to students on a continuous basis during the process. Mentors will be asked to verify their support of the student project, as well as approve the student’s completion of the Honors Senior Project at the end; see below for more details about final approval. Conditional approval from the project mentor may also be required for students who complete their Honors Senior Project shortly before their undergraduate graduation. Mentors will be contacted about the approval process from honorsadvising@MiamiOH.edu or directly from the student's Honors College advisor.

Here are some external links that provide resources for mentorship of undergraduate projects:

• University of Oregon: Mentoring Undergraduate Students
• Elon University: Ten salient practices for effective mentoring of undergraduate researchers
• Metropolitan State University of Denver: Mentoring Tips for Undergraduate Research & Creative Scholarship Program
• Practices for Equitable and Inclusive Mentoring
• University of New Mexico: Mentoring Institute
• Center for the Improvement of Mentored Experiences in Research Resources 
• Entering Mentoring

Approval of All Projects:

All completed projects must be submitted by the student before the last day of classes of their final undergraduate term. Students will submit their completed projects via an online form and a copy of their submission will be sent to their project mentor for approval. Mentors have until the day after grades are due for that term to approve the project. Some mentors may be asked to provide conditional approval of the projects earlier in the term to align with Commencement deadlines and that timeline will be communicated months in advance. Please contact the Honors College if you have questions about the approval process or approving a project via Honorsadvising@MiamiOH.edu. Below are specific thresholds for the different project types.

Collaborative Projects:

Students may work independently or in a group for the Honors Senior Project for both Citizen and Scholar project types. Groups can be comprised of all Honors College students or a combination of Honors College and non-Honors students. Please note that mentors will approve the entire completed project and each Honors College student's contributions during the approval process at the end.

A student's individual contribution to a group project should be equivalent in magnitude to the expectations of the Honors College for a solo Honors Senior Project and this must be outlined in the proposal form.

Citizen Projects:

The focus for all of these projects is activity that engages the world beyond the classroom through creative expression, community service and social impact, entrepreneurship and professional development and growth, and/or leadership and public service. All Citizen Projects require the following:

• A minimum of 400 total hours of activity as the basis of the project, e.g. internship, volunteering, substantial leadership role on campus, etc. 
• Students will need to spend at least an additional 50 hours working on a reflective analysis component and an inquiry component.
• The project must last for at least two academic terms, one of which must be a full semester (e.g., summer term and fall semester, or fall and spring semesters).
• A reflective analysis of the entire project (2000 word minimum) that includes general reflections on the significance of the project to the common good and/or society at the micro or macro level.
• An inquiry component:
  • We are defining inquiry as "the process of exploring issues, objects or works through the collection and analysis of evidence including combining or synthesizing existing ideas, products, or expertise in original ways to answer an open-ended question or achieve a desired goal" (Tennessee Tech University).
  • This should be 2500 words minimum that can take the form of a professional report, exploration of an original research question, or literature review on a relevant topic, such as community needs, outlook of the industry, etc.
  • The inquiry component can be completed before, during, or after the activity.
  • See the note below for creative based project exceptions.
• The completed project must be at least 20 double-spaced pages in total, either as one cohesive document or a portfolio of multiple documents.
• All components of Citizen Honors Senior Projects should be well written and executed to a professional level.

NOTE: Creative based projects can include an in-depth analysis that contextualize's how the student's creative work fits into the broader creative tradition, history, and/or genre(s) of the creative discipline as the inquiry component. This may result in an expanded reflection that includes at least 500 words grounding the student's project in existing traditions and/or artists. This analysis should include cited sources. Or a student may build an inquiry component into their project in another way.

Scholar Projects:

The majority of all Scholar projects will be original research conducted through independent studies, Departmental Honors, research lab involvement, research programs at Miami University (e.g. Undergraduate Summer Scholars), and in some cases, master's thesis projects completed in combined bachelor's-master's programs while a student is still classified as an undergraduate student.

• The Honors College does not have a set minimum length for Scholar projects, however, most projects will be a minimum of 35 pages, depending on the standards of the academic discipline. Projects that result in manuscripts submitted to be published in academic journals are accepted formats and the Honors College defers to the faculty mentor for the appropriate page length.
• This project will typically last two semesters, however, some students may continue a project started during the summer in the Undergraduate Summer Scholars program or other opportunity.

Capstone Based Projects:

One of the Scholar options is to build off a capstone course to develop a larger project. This allows students to continue developing projects created in capstone courses based on their interests and goals. Students may work independently or in a group for the Honors Senior Project specific portion of the project.

Requirements:

• The completed Honors Senior Project should be substantially larger than the standard capstone project/course requirements; or the Honors Senior Project must build upon/augment the capstone project in another term with additional work beyond the capstone course requirement.
• The exact page length for the Honors Senior Project will need to be determined between the student and their mentor, however, it may be appropriate to set a requirement threshold of as much as double the capstone course requirement, depending on the discipline, as most written Scholar Honors Senior Projects are a minimum of 35 pages.  
  • For example, if the capstone course requires a 20-25 page page report, a student may then expand the project to be a 35-45 page in-depth report for the Honors Senior Project or to add additional components to the capstone course report to further academic inquiry opportunities.
• The entire Honors Senior Project timeline should consist of the term the student completes the capstone course and another term, either the term proceeding or following the capstone course term.
• These are the minimum requirements, however, faculty mentors may work with Honors College students to set higher standards for the student's work.
• The student and faculty should agree on the specific Honors Senior Project goals. The student and mentor should determine how the entire Honors Senior Project is evaluated separately from the graded capstone project. 

Format Options:

• Capstone course plus an independent study to produce a larger academic work than is expected of the capstone course. Students are not required to register for an independent study and can complete their additional work without being enrolled in a course.
• Capstone course plus an internship (either for credit or not for credit) and a reflective analysis/report that ties the additional capstone course work and the internship together with an overall reflection on the process.
• Capstone course plus other non-academic based work, as appropriate. 

Recommended Timeline:

• Completing a capstone course in the fall semester of the student's final year, then continuing working on the extended Honors Senior Project into the following spring semester.
  • First completing a capstone course, then extended work in the subsequent term is the general recommended timeline.
  • Additional work completed the term before the capstone course, such as an internship or independent study, is permissible.
• It is possible to design an Honors Senior Project with a capstone course taken in a student's final term before their undergraduate graduation if the student works with their faculty mentor to start the project the term prior to their capstone course semester.

Honors Senior Project Proposal:

• Students must include the capstone course information in the "Project Description" question of the project proposal form. 
• Students must explain how they plan to build upon or expand the standard capstone requirements for their Honors Senior Project.