Fran Coulter Honors Program at ASUMH

Faculty Selection and Course Proposal
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Application: Current Student, 1st Semester
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Faculty Selection and Course Proposal
Sample Honors Forum Syllabus
Sample Honors Forum Schedule

Faculty Selection
Selection of instructors to teach honors courses will occur semester to semester, depending on program course needs. Instructors will be appointed by the Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs with input from the Honors Committee. Additionally, faculty who are interested in teaching honors courses may volunteer, and their applications will be reviewed by the Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and the Honors Committee.

Creation of an Honors Course Component

Faculty who teach courses listed with an honors component will create an honors component for those honor students who enroll in the honors section of their course. For example, a college algebra course would be offered with 25 seats. Twelve students from the honors program could fill twelve of those seats with the other thirteen seats being filled by students not participating in the honors program.

 

The creation of the honors component for a class is up to the faculty member offering the course, with review by the honors committee.

 

Honors Courses Instructional Criteria

 

Honors courses should have the following characteristics to establish and maintain the academic rigor expected of an honors course.

1. Presentations, projects, and papers should challenge students to demonstrate creativity.  In addition, these assignments should require students to demonstrate the ability to synthesize and critically evaluate course and other relevant materials . Both written and oral presentations are legitimate measurements.

2. Exams should require students to demonstrate the ability to synthesize and critically evaluate course and other relevant materials. Both written and oral assessments are legitimate measurements.

3. Honors courses should be reading intensive and should include reading assignments from books and journals that reflect recent scholarship in the discipline.

4. Honors courses should be writing intensive, including writing assignments that are evaluated not only on content, but also on grammar and style.

 

Grade distribution

Instructors of honors courses should not expect a normal distribution of grades, nor should they use a norm-referenced grading scale such as a bell curve.

 

 

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