Draft Curriculum Proposal

Cat

February 2019

If you have not already done so, please read this background information about the revision proposal.

The hallmarks of the Honors program are its interdisciplinary approach and emphasis on active learning. We teach topics, not subjects, and we learn together--socially and collaboratively. We tell prospective students that the Honors College is for students who want to make the most of their time at GVSU. Honors is for students who want to engage deeply in classes, explore multiple interests, work closely with faculty, get active on campus, and explore the world off campus. Honors is an experience, not just a credential. It’s not for students looking for the quickest path to graduation or simply an impressive line on their résumé.

The current revision seeks to enhance the already strong experience Honors College students have at Grand Valley. With it, we pursue greater continuity across all four-years, including a stronger second-year experience and a standardized senior project. We also seek ways to give students depth as well as breadth with departmental Honors courses that might also count towards major or minor requirements.

Our interdisciplinary curriculum has long been an efficient alternative to the disciplinary GE program of 35-41 credits. The current Honors curriculum ranges from 16-36 credits, with most students completing 22-28. Here, we detail a draft plan of 27 credits--still well below the standard General Education requirements.

The Current Curriculum

First-Year Interdisciplinary Sequence (12 credits)

  • Students choose one of 17 or 18 first-year sequences, which are now separately numbered (HNR 209/210/219/220 is Middle East Beyond the Headlines, for example). Each sequence commits to covering the content and skills goals of 5 or 6 GE categories plus SWS.
  • Some students choose a 12-credit sequence, while others choose a 9-credit sequence plus the 3-credit HNR 201: Live.Learn.Lead.

Disciplinary Courses (0-17 credits)

  • The first-year interdisciplinary sequences satisfy 5 or 6 of the 13 categories of General Education requirements. The junior seminar can satisfy another 2. Students satisfy the remaining categories either by applying AP, IB, dual-enrollment, or transfer credit, or by taking disciplinary courses in the Arts, Social Sciences, Natural Sciences, and Mathematics. Exact requirements are determined on a case-by-case basis in consultation with an Honors advisor. Most students end up taking two or three of these disciplinary courses (6-10 credits).

Junior Seminar (3 credits)

  • All Honors students take one 3-credit topics-type seminar that is interdisciplinary in nature and encourages students to make connections with their major, usually through a substantial scholarly or creative project.

Honors Senior Project (1-4 credits)

  • The Honors Senior Project is an individually designed project offering students an opportunity to do intensive study, writing, and research in their major or another field of interest. Working with a faculty advisor/mentor of their choice, students determine the size and scope of their project, which may count for one to four credits.

Total credits: 16-36 (typically 22-28)

The Proposed Curriculum

First -Year Interdisciplinary Sequence (12 credits)

  • Students would still choose between 17 or 18 sequences, but now they would be listed as sections rather than as separately numbered courses. Many sequences would or could retain their topical titles--The Middle East Beyond the Headlines; Urbanism; The History of Science; Culture, Power, & Inequality. Others might change their titles.
  • All sequences would satisfy the overall requirements of HNR 151, 152, 153, and 154--attention to the I's, WRT 150 and SWS credits, co-curricular activities. Individual sequences, and changes to individual sequences, would have to be approved by the Honors Curriculum and Development Committee (HCDC).

Second-Year Experience (9 credits)

  • HNR 200: Campus/Community Engagement (3 credits)*
  • HNR 201: Honors Colloquium Course (3 credits)
  • HNR 250 or 251: Project-Based Learning (3 credits)*

Integrative Seminar (3 credits)

  • HNR 350 or 351: Integrative Seminar (3 credits)

Honors Senior Project (3 credits)

  • HNR 401: Senior Project Prep Course (1 credit)*
  • HNR 499: Honors Senior Project (2 credits)*

Total Credits: 27

* Departmental offerings approved for Honors credit by HCDC may substitute for HNR 200, 250/251, and 401/499.

Full Version

Connect – the First-Year Sequence

HNR 151, 152, 153, 154. First-Year Interdisciplinary Sequence (12 credits)

Course Descriptions:

  • HNR 151: The first course in an integrated two-semester sequence. Students explore a significant topic while making connections between ideas, disciplines, world views, and ways of engaging. The sequence as a whole emphasizes inquiry, integrity, inclusion, interdisciplinarity, innovation, and internationalization. HNR 151 carries WRT 150 credit. Must be taken concurrently with HNR 152.
  • HNR 152: The second course in an integrated two-semester sequence. Students explore a significant topic while making connections between ideas, disciplines, world views, and ways of engaging. The sequence as a whole emphasizes inquiry, integrity, inclusion, interdisciplinarity, innovation, and internationalization. Must be taken concurrently with HNR 151.
  • HNR 153: The third course in an integrated two-semester sequence. Students explore a significant topic while making connections between ideas, disciplines, world views, and ways of engaging. The sequence as a whole emphasizes inquiry, integrity, inclusion, interdisciplinarity, innovation, and internationalization. HNR 153 fulfills one SWS class. Must be taken concurrently with HNR 154.
  • HNR 154: The fourth course in an integrated two-semester sequence. Students explore a significant topic while making connections between ideas, disciplines, world views, and ways of engaging. The sequence as a whole emphasizes inquiry, integrity, inclusion, interdisciplinarity, innovation, and internationalization. Must be taken concurrently with HNR 153.

The proposed revision here is a sharpening rather than a wholesale change to the existing first-year sequences. First, all sequences will comprise four courses, or 12 credits--roughly 40% of a student's first-year coursework, which seems to us a reasonable commitment to general education in the first year. In addition, all of the four-course sequences will attend in some way to Inclusion, Integrity, Inquiry, Interdisciplinarity, Innovation, and Internationalization. Co-curricular activities (campus events, field trips, shared meals, etc.), which are encouraged now, will be required at some point in all sequences. Finally, as is the case now, students will earn WRT 150 credit in the fall (through HNR 151) and SWS credit in the winter (through HNR 153).

Explanation: We propose restructuring the first-year sequences along the lines of our current variable-topic junior seminars. That is, we’ll create a single set of container courses and offer individual first-year sequences as sections of these courses, with the topics clearly identified in Banner and on our website. Existing sequences—Middle East Beyond the Headlines, The Worlds of Greece and Rome, Urbanism, Food for Thought, etc.—may become part of this new structure, provided they establish a topical focus, attend to the I-words above, and integrate co-curricular activities.

This plan has two main benefits:

  • It will create greater unity among the first-year sequences, as all will adhere to the overarching syllabus of record of the numbered courses. The syllabus of record will, of course, reflect much of what is already happening in the sequences—plus the changes we are proposing here.
  • It will allow for more flexibility and evolution of sequence topics. Currently, all new sequences (and changes to sequences) need to go through SAIL, but in the future all individual sequence proposals will just have to be approved by HCDC, which will be responsible for ensuring that all sequences adhere to the syllabus of record.

We have intentionally left the I-words (Inclusion, Integrity, etc.) undefined in order to encourage faculty proposing new or revised Honors sequences to draw from their own disciplines and experiences to articulate ways they can address these important values in their courses.

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Engage – the Second-Year Experience

HNR 200. Campus/Community Engagement (1- to 3-credits; 3 overall credits required)

Course description:

  • HNR 200: A second-year course. Students actively engage their surrounding communities in ways that promote listening to and understanding cultural differences, working with shared communal concerns, and promoting the importance of mutual understanding. Admission to the Honors College is a prerequisite. Variable credits.

Students will engage in some form of approved campus or community leadership or service. This may be an existing for-credit experience that includes a high degree of campus or community service or engagement. Any for-credit study abroad or study away experience (including both Semester in Detroit and Semester in Grand Rapids) will apply, as will any course with the Community Based Learning (CBL) designation. Other examples include IDS 350 (Civil Discourse—3 cr.) and WRT 306 (Seminar for New Tutors—1 cr.). A reflection component will be required for Honors credit. Other for-credit opportunities may be approved as we move forward.

Another possibility is for students to complete 1-, 2-, or 3-credit sections of HNR 200. Credit will be given for such experiences as serving as a peer mentor or student committee leader in the Honors College; serving as a teaching assistant in an Honors first-year interdisciplinary sequence or colloquium course; serving in the Cook Leadership Academy or Design Thinking Academy; or serving on the executive board of an approved student organization. Other service activities will be considered as we move forward. Each academic credit requires at least 45 student learning hours (including both the activity itself and the time it takes to complete assignments). The Honors director or designee will be listed as instructor, and students will complete a series of Blackboard assignments aimed at both logging activities and reflecting on the service or leadership experience. Students may repeat these sections for credit—up to and beyond the 3-credit requirement, if they wish.

Explanation: The idea here is for all Honors students to engage meaningfully in campus life or the larger community. Many Honors students already study abroad, tutor for course credit, and take CBL courses, and those credits would count here. Other students already serve—usually without formal course credit—as classroom assistants, Cook Leadership Academy fellows, Design Thinking Academy fellows, Honors College peer mentors, or leaders in other organizations—including ANCHOR, Student Senate, and other approved student organizations. This three-credit requirement is intended to ensure that all Honors students engage in these kinds of activities. The HNR 200 course would be available in 1-, 2-, and 3-credit sections, and all students would be required to complete three credits overall.

A note about study abroad: We want as many Honors students as possible to study abroad, so we are happy to count up to six credits of any study abroad program toward the 27 credits required in Honors. In consultation with our advisers, students will be able to apply their study abroad credits in place of HNR 200, HNR 250/251, or HNR 350/351.

HNR 201. Live, Learn, Lead: Honors Colloquium (3 credits)

Course description:

  • HNR 201: This course is structured around a series of campus and community lectures, performances, exhibits, or other events. Readings and classroom activities prepare students to experience each event as fully as possible. Group attendance, follow-up discussion, and written reflections help students derive meaning from each experience and place it in larger contexts. The ultimate aim of the course is to equip students to engage in intelligent participation in public dialogues.

As an extension of the strong cohort experience of the first-year sequences, this course will draw on regular campus and community events (Fall Arts Celebration, Meijer Lectures, Civil Discourse Symposium, ArtPrize, etc.) as well as a thematically-focused Honors colloquium series featuring invited speakers and performers. Themes will vary from year to year. Individual students will attend and reflect on four to six of the dozen or more events approved for course credit. Coursework will include research, reading, and writing connected to the topics as well as pre- and post-event discussions. All students will complete preparatory assignments and participate in follow-up discussions, regardless of whether or not they actually attend the events.

Hybrid Structure. Students will participate in HNR 201 by attending weekly lecture/discussion sessions led by faculty, attending four to six approved campus or community events, and participating in weekly small-group discussion sessions led by Honors student assistants. They will also complete reading and writing assignments. The hybrid structure and use of classroom assistants will allow for sections of 60 students, so no more than six or seven sections per year will be needed. The 60 students will form one cohort, and then each class will also form six smaller cohorts of roughly ten students each, led by the student assistants.

HNR 250 or 251. Project Based Learning (3 credits)

Course descriptions:

  • HNR 250: Teaches students through the pedagogy of Project Based Learning. Students learn how to delineate a problem or issue and its context, articulate any past efforts to address it, and produce a presentation or product which addresses the issue. Content varies by section but always involves interdisciplinary learning and problem-solving skills.  
  • HNR 251: Teaches students through the pedagogy of Project-Based Learning. Students learn how to delineate a problem or issue and its context, articulate any past efforts to address it, and produce a presentation/product that addresses the issue. Content varies by section but always involves interdisciplinary learning and quantitative problem-solving skills. 

Project-based courses ask students to learn about a subject by working in groups to produce artifacts (works of art, structures, programs, etc,) or otherwise to address open-ended problems. PBL courses outside of Honors may substitute here if approved for Honors designation. HNR 251 includes quantitative modes of inquiry.

Explanation: We want all Honors students to experience at least one project-based learning course, whether in the interdisciplinary context of HNR 250/251 or the more discipline-based contexts of departmental courses. Project-based learning aligns with professional practice, building skills in project management, professional behavior, critical thinking, problem-solving, communication, collaboration, and innovation. To ensure exposure to multiple modes of inquiry, students who take HNR 250 will be required to take HNR 351 (see below), and those who take HNR 251 will be required to take HNR 350.

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Deepen – the Integrative Seminar

HNR 350 or 351. Honors Integrative Seminar (3 credits)

Course descriptions:

  • HNR 350: An intensive, in-depth study of a special problem or topic. The seminar, taken in the junior or senior year, is a capstone for the liberal arts component of the student's education. It provides an occasion for considering the ways in which themes and problems can be considered from an interdisciplinary perspective. Prerequisite: junior status.
  • HNR 351: An intensive, in-depth study of a special problem or topic with an emphasis on quantitative literacy. The seminar, taken in the junior or senior year, is a capstone for the liberal arts component of the student's education. It provides an occasion for considering the ways in which themes and problems can be considered from an interdisciplinary perspective. Prerequisite: junior status.

Topical explorations with interdisciplinary scope. Courses draw intentionally from the diverse disciplinary knowledge of the students and attend in some way to Inclusion, Integrity, Inquiry, Interdisciplinarity, Innovation, and Internationalization. HNR 351 includes quantitative modes of inquiry.

Explanation: The current junior seminars (HNR 311, 312, and 313) are small graduate-style seminars that earn GE Issues credit, SWS credit, and either Global Perspectives (HNR 311) or US Diversity (HNR 312) credit. We propose keeping these more or less intact, substituting the I-words for the GE designations. We also propose removing the SWS designation because Honors students will already earn one SWS credit through the first-year sequence, and we want their second SWS to come from within their major or minor program. Note that students must take one -50 course (HNR 250 or HNR 350) and one -51 course (HNR 251 or HNR 351).

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Apply – the Senior Project

HNR 401. Senior Project Preparation (1 credit)

HNR 499. Honors Senior Project (2 credits)

For some years now, Honors has accepted the School of Engineering's Senior Engineering Project as a substitute for HNR 499, the Honors Senior Project. This capstone experience consists of the 1-credit EGR 485 (Senior Engineering Project I) taken one semester and the 2-credit EGR 486 (Senior Engineering Project II) taken the next semester. Because we want our students to experience the depth of an Honors-level project within their primary field of study, we propose to extend to all departments the possibility of substituting for the Honors Senior Project an intensive senior-level project experience in the major. This could be a capstone course required of all students in the major, as in Engineering, as long as the course requires a suitable project; or it could be an experience designed by the department specifically for Honors students and either added to a capstone course or designed as some kind of independent study. This experience must include some form of public presentation. It may or may not be a full three-credit course. Students who satisfy the Honors Senior Project in this way would be exempt from HNR 401 and HNR 499.

For the Honors Senior Project itself, we propose to follow the EGR 485/486 model. Over the years, many Honors students have called for some of kind of formal prep course for the senior project, so we propose creating a 1-credit course to ensure that all Honors students have direct guidance in thinking about and preparing a successful senior project proposal. So for those students who complete the Honors Senior Project within Honors, the requirement would be to take the 1-credit HNR 401 (Prep Course) one semester and a 2-credit HNR 499 (Honors Senior Project) the next. So the entire senior project requirement would be 3 credits.

Course descriptions:

  • HNR 401: Students review project possibilities, methodological options, and the proposal process, connecting their proposed project with their overall college experience and articulating ways in which the project can create opportunities beyond graduation. By the end of the course, students will identify a mentor and develop an approved project proposal. Permit required.
  • HNR 499: An individually designed project that is the culminating study in the student’s field of interest. Offers an opportunity to do intensive study, writing or research in the major or principle cognate field. Includes a showcase requirement. Permit required.

We’re standardizing the senior project at a total of three credits to ensure a substantial project. We’re adding the showcase requirement to ensure that all Honors students share their work in public. Existing public presentations and exhibitions—Student Scholars Day, the Summer Scholars Showcase, and official local, regional, national, and international conferences—will satisfy the showcase requirements, as will written work published or accepted for publication in approved outlets. Submission to ScholarWorks is expected but not sufficient to satisfy the showcase requirement. To provide an additional venue for students to share their work, Honors will sponsor a showcase series of presentations each semester.

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AP, IB, and dual-enrollment credit

At Grand Valley, all AP, IB, and dual-enrollment credits accepted by the university count toward the overall requirement of 120 credits for graduation. That will continue to be the case with the new Honors curriculum.

In the current program, students may substitute AP, IB, and dual-enrollment credit for the disciplinary courses, typically science, math, and social science credits. The average current Honors student applies 8 to 11 GE-equivalent AP, IB, or dual-enrollment credits toward the overall Honors requirements. Others are waived from specific disciplinary requirements--again, typically math, science, or social science--based on courses required in their major or minor programs. This is why few, if any, Honors students take the entire 36 credits that are required in Honors. Most Honors students currently end up taking 22-28 credits in Honors.

The proposed curriculum has no "disciplinary" requirements, so substituting the discipline-based equivalencies will be less appropriate than it is now. Our general view is that while AP, IB, and dual-enrollment credits are excellent preparation for Honors, they do not substitute for the dynamic interdisciplinary and experiential curriculum we are proposing. Therefore our plan is to evaluate equivalency credits on a case-by-case basis, focusing less on the specific disciplines covered and more on the experiences students have had, both inside and outside the classroom. We will, of course, help Honors students find a place to "count" their AP, IB, and dual-enrollment credits--either in the major or minor, or as elective credits--and we will accept equivalency credits where appropriate within our own curriculum.

The proposed Honors curriculum is 27 credits. Six of these may be covered by a study abroad experience. Nine, potentially, may be covered by courses required in major or minor programs. But even students who do not study abroad and do not take any departmental Honors courses will take just 27 out of their 120 (or more) credits overall to satisfy their general education requirements. This means that no more than 22.5% of a student's academic requirements will be in Honors. Our aim is to make that 22.5% as meaningful and impactful as possible.

Let Us Know What You Think

Thank you for reviewing the draft proposal. Please provide feedback by emailing us at [email protected].



Page last modified August 6, 2019