Direct Measure
Upon completion of 15 credit hours of Honors general studies classes, Honors students complete 9 hours of “Honors Options” in their respective majors in which an Honors project is developed within the context of a required 300-400 level course. Generally students will opt for 1-2 h-options in the junior semesters, and complete the final h-option, the Senior Study, as a senior. Students work side by side with a professor to complete the Honors level work and through this mentoring gains much more knowledge of his or her discipline. Collaboration to determine what type of research and/or projects will take place within the context of the course is between the faculty mentors and the honors students. The purpose is to provide Honors students with the opportunities to explore particular topics in more depth within their respective disciplines, and to foster scholarly mentoring relationships with faculty in those disciplines.
The third and final Honors Option course, the Senior Study or Capstone Course is designed to allow Honors students to call upon their collective knowledge gained throughout their university careers, and bring this knowledge together in the form of a capstone project/research paper to be archived in the Honors Senior Study Archive/Library.
The Director and Associate Director of the Honors Program, in conjunction with the Honors Advisory Council (comprised of representatives of each college, 2 members from the Honors Student Advisory Board, and the liaison for the Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs, including the administrators of the Honors Program) will evaluate a random sampling of Senior Studies every other spring semester (including those Senior Studies submitted for December commencement). To determine student performance, a general rubric will be applied to each Senior Study.
Objective
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Participants
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Evaluators
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1, 2
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random sampling of seniors
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Honors Advisory Council
using general rubric
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Indirect Measure
To ascertain current student and alumni (involves all students) perspectives on the efficacy of the Honors Program's basic academic objectives, especially as this pertains to the Senior Study or Capstone Course, these surveys were conducted as part of the Academic Program Review, Fall 2003. They will continue to be part of an exit interview process for graduating seniors every December and May, and for alumni every three years.
Supplemental Assessment
Each semester approximately twelve to fifteen different general studies classes from a wide variety of departments are offered as Honors classes. These classes fulfill University general studies requirements as well as Honors requirements. The program also offers interdisciplinary seminars, designed to reveal the relationships between the disciplines. One course example is "The Human Genome," a class students may take for Political Science or Biology general studies credit. This class explores the scientific, legal, ethical, economic, and social aspects of the mapping of human DNA. Another example is "The Search for Myth," which can fulfill Psychology or English literature general studies credit. This class explores a wide variety of cultural and historical mythologies and their current significance through readings of literature and non-fiction. The evaluation and assessment of student output in these Honors general studies seminars is wholly under the aegis of the faculty of these courses.
Previous Plan, Replaced Spring 2006