How to Customize Your Honors Courses
Grading Philosophy
Lloyd International Honors College offers a variety of courses for Honors students in the International Honors Program and the Disciplinary Honors Program. To assure that students are not penalized for taking Honors courses, grades are assigned relative to the general University student population. As a result, Honors students who typically receive 'A's in their regular courses will typically receive 'A's in their Honors courses.
Honors Proseminars
The Honors Proseminar (HSS 198) introduces Honors students to (1) the purpose and value of a university education, (2) the international/global context of one's education, (3) cultural self-awareness and culture shock, and (4) how to design one's own education. Entering freshmen are required to take HSS 198 in the fall of their first year.
The elective Honors Proseminar in Research Methods (298) introduces sophomore students to the fundamentals of research methods in the sciences, social sciences, and humanities.
Honors Seminars
Honors Seminars are designed to foster discussion, collaboration, and mutual discovery among students and faculty. Capped at 25 students, in Honors Seminars, you are able to have more class discussion, collaboration, and mutual discovery, and you are evaluated primarily on your written and oral work. With rare exceptions, Honors Seminars satisfy University general-education requirements.
As an entering Honors freshman, in your first fall semester you must take an Honors Seminar. These seminars are for entering Honors freshmen only. These Honors Seminars satisfy University general-education requirements and offer you the in-depth exploration of a particular topic, with an emphasis on writing and analytical skills.
Regular Honors Courses
Lloyd International Honors College, in cooperation with other academic units across the University, offers Honors versions of regular University courses. These courses are typically capped at 25 students and allow you to get a more sophisticated treatment of the course material than is possible in the regular version of the course. Because of the small class size, you are able to have more class discussion, collaboration, and mutual discovery, and you are evaluated primarily on your written and oral work rather than through the types of testing used in larger courses. Many of these courses satisfy University general-education requirements, but some Honors versions of University courses satisfy particular major requirements, while others provide elective credit.
Embedded Honors Courses
Embedded Honors courses meet in lecture with a larger non-Honors course but have a minimum of 15 hours of additional contact hours arranged by the professor for further exploration of the material. Embedded Honors courses have different syllabi and may have different texts, readings, assignments, and/or tests than the non-Honors courses. The 15 additional hours of contact time may take a variety of forms ranging from weekly one-hour discussion periods to extended excursions or special activities on weekends or over breaks.
Embedded Honors courses may be used to fulfill requirements in the International Honors Program or the Disciplinary Honors Program. Faculty interested in offering embedded Honors courses are encouraged to talk to the Director of Lloyd International Honors College for more details.
Honors Contract Courses
Honors Contract Courses allow you to turn a regular course into an Honors course and may be used when pursuing Disciplinary Honors in your major. Contract courses completed in fall 2006 or later may not be used toward fulfilling the requirements in the International Honors Program.
All Honors courses emphasize independent work, greater depth and breadth of study, and more advanced work than do regular courses. Honors Contract Courses should embody these same qualities. Typically, Honors Contract Courses entail more writing, research, and hands-on practical work than regular courses.
The form of an Honors Contract varies according to the level of the course and the discipline. It may take the form of a redesign of the course’s entire structure, or it may enhance an existing course structure with such things as in-depth studies of special topics, research papers, oral reports, fieldwork, group projects, and class leadership. Such work should allow the student to get a fuller or more profound understanding of the course's subject.
Click here to see examples of previous Honors Contracts
Please note: all forms require the Adobe Acrobat PDF Reader, which can be downloaded from the Adobe web site.
The Instructions and forms for Completing an Honors Contract Course can be found in the LIHC Contract Course Bundle (*PDF).
Honors Independent Studies
Honors independent studies provide a way for you to design your own courses so that you get the education that better fits your needs and desires. Independent studies may involve studying subject matter through a set of directed readings, learning or improving academic skills through the a set of exercises, or conducting research of your own design. There are two ways to conduct Honors independent study:
XXX 493: Honors Work in XXX (3 to 6 s.h.) - This course allows you to do advanced independent study in your department, and is particularly useful for conducting preliminary work that leads to your Senior Honors Project or doing the Senior Honors Project itself. If you are qualified to take XXX 493 in your major and are interested in doing independent work in that course, contact the faculty Honors Liaison in your major or a faculty member in your major to arrange the details.
Submitting a Grade for XXX 493: In order to receive a grade for XXX 493, your faculty director submits the grade to the Instructor of Record. If the Instructor of Record is listed as "TBA," you must talk to your faculty director to determine which faculty or staff member in the department has grade submission authority. The Instructor of Record submits the grade, and your faculty director submits the Notice of Completion to the LIHC office.
Click here for a list of majors and programs that can offer XXX 493.
HSS 330: Honors Independent Study (1 to 3 s.h.) - This course allows you to do any of the activities noted above and is particularly useful for supplemental independent study activities that may not be worth a full 3 s.h. of credit, or which are interdisciplinary in nature. But it can also be used for other forms of independent study as well.
Instructions for developing and completing HSS 330: Honors Independent Study can be found in the LIHC HSS 330 Bundle (*PDF).
HSS 320: Honors Tutorial
HSS 320: Honors Tutorial is a great way for a small group of students to explore an agreed upon topic under the supervision and guidance of a faculty member. Credit for the course is 1 to 3 semester hours. One semester hour of credit is typically given for courses that place more weight on reading and group discussion and that meet once a week or for a short but sustained amount of time to work on a project. Three semester hours of credit are typically given for courses that meet more regularly and that include the same amount of work expected of regular 3-hour credit courses. Note also that the course may be repeated for credit as topics change.
Instructions for completing an Honors Tutorial (HSS 320) can be found in the LIHC HSS 320 Bundle (*PDF).
The Senior Honors Project
The Senior Honors Projects can take a variety of forms — a paper, a performance, a scientific experiment, a demonstration, a product. Whatever its form, the Project should have a written component, it should employ scholarship, and it should make a significant contribution to a body of knowledge.
Topics, methods of investigation, and modes of presentation vary from discipline to discipline. Typically, students announce a problem that they wish to solve, survey background information to define and explain the problem, and present evidence and reasoning in support of a thesis or hypothesis. The student's work culminates in an original essay, an annotated creative work or performance, a scientific experiment or report, or a product.
The length of Projects depends on the topic and discipline. A Project in the humanities could be a paper of 30 to 50 pages, whereas the written part of a Project in the sciences or performing arts could be considerably shorter. The Project can focus on any topic of the student's choosing. Senior Honors Projects must be supervised and approved by a UNCG faculty member from a department in which the subject under consideration is taught.
Examples of Senior Honors Projects
Lloyd International Honors College maintains a file of Senior Honors Projects. Previous students have said that reading through examples of previous years' projects helped them immensely. We would be happy to talk with you about your Senior Honors Project. Here are a few examples of past Senior Honors Projects.
- "Multi-Culturalism in the Choral Music of Dave Brubeck" (Music)
- "Factors Affecting the Postpartum Mother's Decision Regarding Rooming-in with the Infant" (Nursing)
- "Othello's Desdemona: An Exploration of the Actor's Approach to Shakespearean Performance" (Theater)
- "Effects of Nonpharmacologic Pain Relief in Acutely Ill Children" (Nursing)
- "Jesse Daniel Ames and the Women of the Association of Southern Women for the Prevention of Lynching" (History)
- "U. S. Foreign Aid Policy: Change or Continuity in the Post-Cold War Era" (Political Science)
- "German Romantic Historians: Interpreting the Past through Science and Faith" (History)
- "Vinylogous Cope Rearrangement in a Barbaralyl System" (Chemistry)
- "The Mystique of Perfect Love: Father-Daughter Conflict in Verdi's Operas" (English)
- "BVRI Photometry of Supernovae (SNe) 1999 dq, 1999 el, and 1999 eb" (Astronomy)
- "Teaching Clarinet Through the Theory of Multiple Intelligences" (Music)
For Senior Honors Project Guidelines, the Proposal Form and the Notice of Completion Forms, here is the LIHC Senior Honors Project Bundle (*PDF).