Accelerated Honors courses are either specially designed courses or sections of courses that cover more content or go into greater depth, often at a theoretical level, than non-Honors versions of a course. This type of Honors course is not limited to Honors Program students, but may have other eligibility criteria.
Offering Accelerated Honors courses can offer dedicated students a quicker path to upper-level coursework and/or opportunities to engage more deeply with material than what is required by the standard curriculum in a particular field. Additionally, some programs currently have capstone courses that have the Accelerated Honors designation. This type of Honors course can support students’ desire and preparation to achieve a high level of proficiency in a field and can facilitate rewarding student-faculty collaboration.
What can make a course “Accelerated Honors”?
- Students synthesize knowledge and apply techniques/skills to new areas at a faster pace than in the non-Honors curriculum.
- Several departments offer Accelerated Honors courses that allow qualified students to achieve learning outcomes that are otherwise divided over a two-semester sequence or in two separate courses.
- Students wrestle with more challenging problem sets or questions than in a non-Honors version of the course.
- Readings are highly theoretical and students engage with cutting-edge scholarship in the field.
- Students apply discipline-specific methods earlier or more extensively than in the standard curriculum.
- Students complete a particularly in-depth capstone experience at the junior or senior level.
Examples of Accelerated Honors Courses
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Economics 111: Principles of Economics-Accelerated Treatment
Physics 247: A Modern Introduction to Physics
Calculus-based introduction to physics intended for Physics, AMEP, and Astronomy-Physics majors. Mechanics, waves, thermodynamics and statistical mechanics, topics in modern physics; with computation. A more mathematically rigorous and in-depth introduction to physics than the other introductory physics sequences.
History 600: Advanced Seminar in History (Multiple Topics Offered Each Term)
Development and application of advanced research skills to a specific historical topic. Intensive writing and small group discussion results in a project demonstrating original or creative analysis of primary and secondary sources. Department consent required for enrollment.
General Structure
- Typically lower enrollment caps than in non-Honors sections or parallel courses.
- Enrollment not limited to students declared in the Honors Program, There may be other requisites that distinguish the course from the non-Honors curriculum.
- All students in an Accelerated Honors section complete the same work; no way to opt out of Honors while in that section and no extra Honors assignments for certain students.
Grading Policies
Guiding Principle
Course content and pace supports meaningful depth of learning while also supporting students who may not have previous experience with the topic beyond listed enrollment requisites.
In all cases, faculty are encouraged to clearly articulate grading policy in their syllabi and explain expectations at the beginning of the semester.
Assignments
All students in the Accelerated Honors section(s) should be required to complete the same work and will be graded with the same (Honors) syllabus. Honors credit cannot be removed for individual students.
Accelerated Honors sections frequently have different assignments or assessments than the non-Honors sections of the course. Just as there is great flexibility in designing Honors assignments and courses, instructors are free to select the grading options and rubrics that best reflect their course activities and desired learning outcomes.
B or Better Rule
Students must earn a final grade of B or higher in an Honors course in order for the course credit to count towards an L&S Honors degree requirement. This is true for all types of Honors courses and for all L&S Honors degree tracks.
If a student completes an Accelerated Honors course but earns a final grade below a B, DARS will not count the course credit toward Honors-specific requirements for that student. The transcript will still show that the student was in an Accelerated Honors version of the course.
Contact Us
Honors staff are eager to support you at any stage of developing or teaching an Honors course. We would also love to hear and share your ideas of what has worked well while teaching an Honors course!
- Email us at honors@honors.ls.wisc.edu