Honors instruction is a valued high-impact practice in L&S and provides you with an opportunity to develop inspiring courses and collaborate with some of the most engaged, intellectually curious undergraduates on campus. Support L&S students and the L&S mission by teaching and mentoring students in the Honors Program!
Ways to Teach Honors
Honors Only
Offer low-enrollment seminars or small, faculty-taught discussion sections for Honors Program students intended to foster enriched intellectual engagement, active learning, and community.
Accelerated Honors
Cover notably more content or go into much greater depth, often at a theoretical level, than the standard version of a course/curriculum.
Accelerated Honors courses are not limited to Honors Program students, but may have other eligibility criteria.
Honors Optional
Allow individual students to select the Honors Option during enrollment and then complete an Honors-specific project or experience that enriches their learning and complements the standard work for the course.
Green Sheets
Form an official, student-initiated agreement that allows a student to earn Honors credit in a non-Honors course.
If you are open to supporting multiple students who wish to earn Honors credit, consider setting up your course as Honors Optional.
Mentored Research
Support Honors students who are seeking introductory research experiences over the summer or completing a Senior Honors Thesis
Which courses to offer for Honors?
Course characteristics particularly sought after by students and helpful to the Honors in the Liberal Arts curriculum include:
- No or few prerequisites, including courses open to first-year students
- Science courses intended for students pursuing non-science majors
- Connect to current issues, technology, health, or law/policy
- Interdisciplinary profile
Please keep the following in mind with regard to course designation of courses offered for honors:
- Courses with no breadth designation are of limited value to the Honors in the Liberal Arts curriculum, though they may support Honors in the Major requirements or students with specialized interests.
- There is a particular need for more Honors Only and/or Honors Optional courses with “B” (biological), “P” (physical) and “N” (natural) science designations.
- While a course with any breadth designation can be valuable for Honors in the Liberal Arts, Honors Only courses with the “L” (Literature) and “Z” (humanities or social science) breadth designation generally have more success attracting students than courses with the “H” (humanities) designation.
- Honors Only and/or Honors Optional courses that can satisfy the ethnic studies requirement (ESR) are highly desirable.
- While Honors Only courses with a Comm B designation can be helpful to some students, we recommend that you consult with the Honors Program if potentially offering an Honors Only+Comm B course so that we can help ensure that there are not more of these courses than demand justifies.
If you are developing a new course intended for a broad student population, consider piloting the course with highly engaged Honors students by offering it as an Honors Only seminar or with an Honors Only discussion section.
Contact us
Please reach out to the Honors Program with questions or to get support with Honors planning for your course/unit.
- Dan Kapust, Faculty Director, director@honors.ls.wisc.edu
- General inquiries, funding, Faculty Honors Committee
- Christine Evans, Associate Director of Advising and Curriculum, cmevans3@wisc.edu
- Honors course development, curricular updates, e.g., for Honors in the Major, questions impacting Honors students in a current or upcoming course
- Pete Keys, Associate Director of Admissions and Engagement, pkeys@wisc.edu
- Refer a student to the L&S Honors Program, research funding for Honors students, co-curricular connections with Honors students
- Aren’t sure where to start the conversation? honors@honors.ls.wisc.edu