Propose an honors course

The Honors College invites faculty from across the University to propose an honors course that draws on their expertise and emphasizes the core elements of honors pedagogy. Honors courses combine the best of both graduate and undergraduate education. While they are not graduate courses re-labeled, honors courses challenge instructors to become more effective mentors and students to become more independent thinkers.

Core elements of Honors College courses include:

• a developmental approach to working with students,
• an enriching interdisciplinary focus (our students come from all majors),
• innovative themes and emphasis on concepts,
• student-driven inquiry/discovery-based learning, 
• cognitively interesting and intellectually challenging work versus more/hard work,
• writing to learn and reflect,
• collaboration with research faculty,
• connections and collaborations with other honors students,
• effective student oral and written presentation of results,
• leadership and teamwork,
• opportunities to think creatively/critically and to problem solve.

Review Timeline 

• May: Proposal application is available
• September 15, 2026: Proposals due 
• October: Committee review
  • The review committee will give each application full consideration. Review members include the Associate Dean and Assistant Teaching Professor in the Honors College, and 2 Honors Faculty. 

Proposals are evaluated using the following criteria:

• Quality of the written proposal:  This includes evidence of honors pedagogy, alignment with the core elements of Honors College courses, potential student interest, and clarity of writing.
• Course history: For existing honors courses, this includes when the course was last taught. Student evaluation feedback will be considered for repeat proposals and for experienced honors instructors proposing a new topic.
• Programmatic considerations: This includes course needs, anticipated student enrollment, and the Honors College budget.
• Curricular balance: This includes the goal of offering students a diverse range of high-quality courses each semester across topics, disciplines, and instructors.

Course Options:

Instructors can submit a proposal for the courses listed below. Reminder: Selection criteria for proposals includes demand for the courses.   

• XXXX 1501 Global Social Science
• XXXX 1502 Global Arts & Humanities
• XXXX 1501 Local Social Science
• XXXX 1502 Local Arts & Humanities
• AMDM 1575 (or equivalent such as CAPI 1575, POLS 1575, HIST 1575)
• CTCM 2530 Interdisciplinary Critical Thinking & Communication
• HONR 3700 (Special Topics – instructor must have a terminal degree in their field closely related to the course topic. We ask that instructors include the HONR 3700 SLOs in their course) 

Honors instructors teach at the main campus or at The Dubois Center. Courses taught in the fall and spring are delivered in person. Courses taught in the summer are delivered synchronously online. 

Additional information is located in this Google Drive folder.