Honors courses emphasize independent work and more advanced study than do regular courses. Honors courses foster discussion, collaboration, and mutual discovery among faculty and students, with a number of ways for faculty to engage Honors students. Honors courses are likely to entail more writing, research, and hands-on practical work than regular courses. Following the mission of the Honors College, Honors instructors are encouraged to incorporate play and improvisation as pedagogical methods for their Honors courses. We see the classroom, lab, or field as places where instructors and students alike are co-creators of their learning environment. This performative/playful perspective and approach could include reminding students to ‘perform’ being attentive to each other, listening, and then building on what others say; or, if students are presenting, to think of how students project or connect with others, being intentional with body language, for instance, to demonstrate attention. (This work is grounded in a combination of the research and insights regarding human development, learning, and methodology, such as Lev Vygotsky’s insights about ‘tools and results’ and the co-creation of learning environments, Ludwig Wittgenstein’s ‘language games,’ and Carol Dweck’s ‘growth mindset.’) See Lois Holzman’s “Become a Vygotskian!”; Omar H. Ali and Nadja B. Cech’s “‘Yes, and’ as Teaching-Learning Methodology“; and Lenora B. Fulani’s “The Development Line.”)
Lloyd International Honors College offers Honors Seminar courses for the Global and International Honors Programs, typically at the 100- and 200-levels. Most of these courses, which bear the prefix HSS, satisfy UNCG General Education requirements and are cross-disciplinary in nature. Honors seminars tend to have significant international and/or global perspectives incorporated in their content. All new Honors College Seminars will now also include an Honors College Student Learning Outcome (SLO): “HC SLO: Build critical oral communication skills using creative pedagogies and modes of learning that incorporate performance, improvisation, and play as part of developing social and emotional intelligence for greater global competency.”
Lloyd International Honors College is always looking for faculty to teach Honors seminars. This is a wonderful way for faculty to work with high quality students, teach topics of interest to the faculty member that cannot be offered within their department, or to experiment with new courses based on innovative subject matter or teaching methods. If you or any of your colleagues are interested in teaching an Honors Seminar, please contact your department head (or dean) and the Dean of Lloyd International Honors College. Funds are available to reimburse the home department or school so that you can teach an Honors seminar.
Faculty may also teach an Honors version of a regular UNCG course to Honors students. This type of course also requires the agreement of Lloyd International Honors College and the associated department or school. Please, talk to your department head or dean and the Dean of Lloyd International Honors College about this option. Only Honors students may register for the Honors section of a regular UNCG course.
Embedded Honors courses are special sections of regular UNCG courses that meet in lecture with a larger non-Honors version of the course. While Honors students in embedded Honors courses share lectures with their fellow non-Honors students, they have a different syllabus and may have different texts, other readings, and assignments. Embedded Honors courses require the approval of Lloyd International Honors College and the associated department or school.
Honors students can earn credit for the Disciplinary Honors Program for a regular UNCG course by coming to an agreement with the course’s instructor about how the course is to be enhanced to earn Honors credit.
While Honors contract courses are typically initiated by students, faculty and departments (or schools) are welcome to design a “standard” honors contract for courses they teach and to let Honors students know that such contracts are available to Honors students.
Typical enhancements in Contract Courses include such things as in-depth studies of special topics, research papers, oral reports, field work, group projects, class leadership, and additional meetings with the course professor. All contract course proposals must be approved by the department Honors liaison and the Honors College.
The Senior Honors Project represents the culmination of a student’s Honors work and can take a variety of forms – a paper, a performance, a scientific experiment, a demonstration, a product. The Project must have a written component, should employ the scholarship learned by the student at UNCG, and 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 identify a problem 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 an equivalent product.
The length of the project 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 significantly shorter. The project can focus on any topic of the student’s choosing, but all projects must be supervised and approved by a UNCG faculty member from a department in which the subject under consideration is taught.
Students typically engage in their Senior Honors Project by taking HSS 490: Senior Honors Project and/or XXX 493: Honors Independent Study in XXX. Students completing their Senior Honors Project under the support of the Undergraduate Research and Creativity Assistantship Program must also enroll in HSS 490: Senior Honors Project to receive academic credit.
Past Senior Honors Projects are archived in NC DOCKS. If you or your colleagues are asked to supervise a Senior Honors Project, please feel free to contact Lloyd International Honors College about the process or the quality that is expected for the project.
Honors independent studies provide a way for students to design their own courses to assure that their education better fits their needs, desires, and abilities. Independent studies may involve studying subject matter through a set of directed readings, learning or refining specific academic skills through a set of exercises, or conducting research of the student’s own design.
HSS 330: Honors Independent Study – This course, which can carry from 1 to 3 hours of academic credit, allows the student to do any of the activities noted above. This course is particularly useful for supplemental independent study activities that may not be worth 3 hours of credit, or which are interdisciplinary in nature. But it can also be used for other forms of independent study as well.
All Honors-approved international experiences should be developed with and approved by the International Programs Center (IPC). In addition, faculty planning to create short-term international experiences with Honors approval should keep the following characteristics of approved international experiences in mind when designing the trip:
International Programs Center (IPC) contact: www.uncg.edu/ipg
On behalf of the Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor’s Office, Lloyd International Honors College is now inviting nominations for the Student Excellence Award which is conferred each spring at the Student Honors Convocation. This award is the highest academic honor given at UNCG. The Honors Council of Lloyd International Honors College celebrates the most outstanding of UNCG’s students by selecting the winners from among the nominees.
The 2024 Provost Student Excellence Award nominations due March 11,2024.
To nominate a student, please visit the following links for more information:
Honors Liaisons serve as the link between UNCG’s various majors and programs and Lloyd International Honors College. With their help, Lloyd International Honors College is able to provide every student with a resource person familiar with both the major or program and Lloyd International Honors College. Faculty with questions about Honors at UNCG are encouraged to talk to their departmental Honors Liaison, and faculty interested in serving as a Liaison should talk to their department head.
Liaisons are invited to meet with the Dean of Lloyd International Honors College to talk about the latest developments in the College and to share any ideas or concerns of particular interest to the Liaisons. Liaisons are kept informed of upcoming Honors activities through the Honors Listserv as well as other means, and are provided periodically with a list of Honors students in their programs. Liaisons are asked to support current Honors students in their programs and to help facilitate arrangements with independent studies, Honors Contract Courses, and Senior Honors Projects that an Honors student may need to complete Honors work in the Liaison’s program. Liaisons are also asked to encourage outstanding students in their programs who are not members of Lloyd International Honors College to consider joining.
Central to the mission and work of Lloyd International Honors College are the talented UNCG faculty who teach Honors courses and work closely with our students as research mentors. The Rebecca A. Lloyd Distinguished Resident Fellow (formerly the Chancellor’s Resident Fellow) teaches three seminars in the Honors College (one in the Fall and two in the Spring), delivers a public lecture in the Fall, and helps build the life of the Honors community over the course of the academic year. Fellows receive a $3,000 research award to be used during the year of the Fellowship, and have their own office. The Fellowship is open to all full-time UNCG faculty.
REBECCA A. LLOYD (1929-2013)
Rebecca A. Lloyd, a 1950 graduate of Woman’s College (UNCG), gave her family’s name and her financial support to Lloyd International Honors College. In 2006, Lloyd gave UNCG a $4 million gift to endow the Honors College, the largest alumni gift the university has ever received. The daughter of grocer Aubrey Paul Lloyd and seamstress Georgia Garrison Lloyd, she was born May 29, 1929, in Greensboro, North Carolina. The Honors College is named for her parents. After graduation, she joined the U.S. Navy. While working on her master’s degree in personnel management at New York University, Lloyd served as a course instructor in the Naval Correspondence Course Center. In addition, she served in Washington, D.C., as Communications and Budgeting Officer at the Office of Chief Naval Operations, and in Yokohama, Japan, as Assistant Chief Staff Officer, and in the Amphibious Force, Pacific Fleet. Lloyd later worked as a commercial realtor in San Diego, California. In 2009, UNCG awarded her an honorary doctorate, naming her Doctor of Humane Letters. Of her support for the Honors College, Lloyd once said, “The International Honors College will give students the international viewpoint that’s needed in their education. To the extent that my gift could help world peace come about, I’m happy to be making it.”
The Honors College regularly invites applications for the Rebecca A. Lloyd Distinguished Resident Fellowship. The Fellowship is open to all full-time UNCG faculty and runs for the full academic year.
In order to recognize the extraordinary contribution faculty make to the success of the Honors College and to tap the expertise, commitment, and talents of our very best faculty, the Honors College has established the Faculty Fellows Program. A Fellow is a UNCG faculty member who has taught three or more dedicated Honors Courses for the Global or International Honors Program (seminars, honors sections, and embedded sections). Every other spring Fellows will be recognized at a reception hosted by the University Provost. Their important service to the UNCG will be publicly acknowledged. Throughout the year Fellows will be invited to participate in all Lloyd International Honors College activities and to interact with Honors College students whenever possible.
In order to recognize the extraordinary contribution faculty make to the success of Disciplinary Honors, the Honors College has established the Disciplinary Honors Faculty Mentor Program. A Mentor is a UNCG faculty member who has mentored Honors students in at least ten Disciplinary Honors Contracts and/or Senior Honors Projects. Each fall Mentors will be recognized at a reception hosted by the Honors College. Their important service to the UNCG will be publicly acknowledged. Throughout the year Mentors will be invited to participate in all Lloyd International Honors College activities and to interact with Honors College students whenever possible.
Lloyd International Honors College
UNC Greensboro
Physical Address:
205 Foust Building
Greensboro, NC 27412
Mailing Address:
P.O. Box 26170
Greensboro, NC 27402
Phone: 336.334.5538
Fax: 336.334.4199
Email: askhonors@uncg.edu
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