What is an Honors Course?
Honors courses provide students with an enriching and engaging experience that articulates with some or all Honors Program Learning Outcomes. What differentiates an honors course is the level of engagement with the subject matter that emphasizes exploration, discovery, and critical thinking as opposed to factual learning. Enrichment might include supplementary units, in-depth units, specialized units, supplementary texts, primary texts, interdisciplinary approaches, etc.
Courses are qualitatively more demanding than other courses with more ambitious assignments but are not required to be quantitatively more exacting. Assignments might include research papers, oral presentations, group and individual projects, hand-on experiments, etc. Honors sections favor assessment of learning objectives that involve writing, problem-solving, and experimenting rather than objective testing, such as multiple-choice tests.
In honors courses students take greater responsibility for their individual learning based on their own insights and creative abilities. Instructors and departments have a great deal of leeway in determining what is considered to be "honors" within their own disciplines.
If you wish to convert a regular course into an Honors course, there is an expressed process for doing so. Please contact us at honors@ucmerced.edu for additional information.
Honors Program Learning Outcomes
PLO 1 - As a result of participation in the program students will be able to produce research and/or creative products using methods appropriate to their chosen field of study. Graduates will be able identify problems/topics, generate questions, design appropriate methods, execute a plan, and synthesize results.
PLO 2 - Students will demonstrate advanced critical thinking skills by combining knowledge and analytical tools from more than one discipline to evaluate and synthesize information.
PLO 3 - Students will demonstrate exceptional communication skills that explore and convey complex ideas. This includes use of written, visual, oral or other modes of communication intended for various audiences and forums.
PLO 4 - Students will exhibit perspective taking and self-awareness that includes the capacity to deal with ambiguity, to respectfully exchange ideas, and to understand and appreciate diverse outlooks, cultures, histories, and worldviews.
PLO 5 - Students will successfully collaborate within and across diverse communities and leverage their academic expertise to benefit society. This skill set will include the capacity to create inclusive teams and experiences, engage with ethical dimensions of leadership, and embrace opportunities to be change agents for positive social impact.
Funding for Faculty Course Development
Funding is available for Senate Faculty to create a new Honors-designated course or to convert an existing course to an Honors version. To apply for faculty development funding, consultation with Center for Engaged Teaching & Learning (CETL) and the Division of Undergraduate Education Executive Committee (DUE-EC) is required. To apply for funding, submit your application to our Honors Program Staff at honors@ucmerced.edu.
Please note that courses may be developed independently of the Faculty Development Funds. These do not require preapproval or consultation with CETL.
Faculty development funds are available to Senate Faculty or to Departments to create new Honors courses or to add an Honors designation to an existing course. To receive funding, the faculty member will submit a letter or email from the department Chair stating that the course will be offered within the next 2 academic years. The author of the course will work with the Center for Engaged Teaching & Learning on course development. At the completion of the syllabus the course will be submitted to the Division of Undergraduate Education Executive Committee (DUE-EC) Honors Program Subcommittee for preapproval before the course is entered into Curriculog. The faculty member will receive a letter of preapproval from the committee that can accompany the Curriculog request.
Providing that there are no curricular changes (such as GE designations, course units, etc.), existing courses seeking an Honors designation will be approved using an expedited process. Following the course approval by the academic Senate in the case of new courses or by the DUE-EC in the case of existing courses, the course author or hosting department will receive $1500 for a successful new course development or $500 for a course conversion. Individual faculty will receive incidental discretionary funds.
Please note: if this is a new course, it will not be pre-approved for GE designations only the Honors designation. If you are developing a new course with GE designations, you will be required to upload a syllabus in Curriculog.
Process
Please contact Eileen Camfield (ecamfield@ucmerced.edu) to set up a consultation with the Center for Engaged Teaching and Learning (CETL).
Once you have consulted with CETL and you are ready to apply for faculty development funding, submit your application and our staff will follow up with next steps.
