The cornerstone of the L&S Honors Program are “Honors Only” seminars and faculty-led discussion sections, which promote enriched intellectual engagement, active learning, and community for Honors Program students.
General Structure
- A low-enrollment seminar or faculty-led discussion section (typically capped at 25 students or fewer)
- Enrollment limited to students declared in the Honors Program
- All students in an Honors Only section complete the same work, following an Honors-specific syllabus; no way for individual students to opt out of Honors while in that section
Why teach an Honors Only seminar/section?
Students pursuing Honors in the Liberal Arts are required to have a certain number of their Honors credits come from Honors Only or Accelerated Honors courses, and Honors Only courses can help attract some of the university’s most intellectually curious and motivated undergraduates to explore your department and discipline. Instructors of Honors Only sections often report that these are their most enjoyable teaching experiences.
What can make a course “Honors”?
- High value placed on inclusive discussion and meaningful student-faculty interactions
- Emphasis on the application(s) of course content, potentially including projects that take students outside of a classroom
- Focus on developing critical thinking and research skills, prioritizing primary texts, datasets, and academic papers over textbooks
- Topics, lessons, and projects are more student-driven than in a non-Honors course
- Additional insight into the instructor’s background, research interests, and expertise
Teaching Ideas
Activities
- Plan a class field trip and have students prepare the questions or activities to complete onsite or as a debrief
- Ask students to select topics that complement the standard syllabus and present and/or lead discussion about those topics
- Help students find and interview experts in the field
- Read foundational texts in your field and discuss the merits and limitations of earlier scholarship
- Encourage multiple modalities for synthesizing and presenting information; students can collaborate to create a website, record a podcast or video, or write and draw a comic
- Build in required interactions with campus resources such as the DesignLab, research librarians, and Writing Fellows (note that many Writing Fellows are Honors Program students!)
Examples
You can read about faculty experiences teaching Honors Only seminars and discussions in the annual Honors Challenge newsletter!
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- 2020, page 8: Jonathan Martin teaches an Honors Only discussion section of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences 101: Weather and Climate
- 2021, page 4: Jamie Henke teaches an Honors Only seminar version of Music 151: Basic Concepts of Music Theory
- 2025, page 6: Kelly Wright pilots her Linguistics 213: “Things You Can’t Say” topics course as an Honors Only seminar.
Grading Policies
Guiding Principle
The Honors Program’s guiding principle for grading, affirmed by the Faculty Honors Committee, is that no student should be disadvantaged through having undertaken (or attempted) an Honors project.
Honors Only courses are NOT defined by being particularly accelerated or rigorous, and the overall workload should still align with the level and credits awarded for the course. Ideally, course content and pace supports meaningful depth of learning while also supporting students who may not have previous experience with the topic or discipline. Note that course requisites still apply.
In all cases, faculty are encouraged to clearly articulate grading policy in their syllabi and explain at the beginning of the semester.
Assignments
All students in the Honors section 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.
Honors Only discussion sections frequently have different assignments or assessments than the non-Honors sections of the course. Honors students may, for instance, complete a group project, a presentation, or community activity instead of (or in addition to) a standard writing assignment or test. 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 Honors Only 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 Honors version of the course.
Student Perspectives
- “I am incredibly grateful for my time in L&S Honors. One of the most valuable aspects of my Honors experience was having discussion each week with my professors. I appreciated getting to know my professors outside of lecture and delving deeper into the content they were very passionate and knowledgeable about.”
- “I liked the challenge my honors classes gave me, and it was refreshing to be around other students who actually appreciated that challenge too, and found the topics at hand as interesting as I did.”
- “The Honors Program has allowed me to take a whole host of classes that I probably wouldn’t have taken otherwise; many in subjects that I never knew interested me. Working directly with professors also made a lot of the material that much more enjoyable.”
Contact Us
We 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 Christine Evans, Associate Director of Advising and Curriculum, at cmevans3@wisc.edu.