The items below represent potential enhancements to existing courses offered as part of the general education component of the undergraduate degrees offered at Northwest Missouri State University. (The word course in this and other parts of this document means section of an existing course, and not a separate free-standing course.) An Honors section should allow the students to have greater participation, and a stronger investment, in their own educational process. The following are offered as a guide to program-wide potential actions to accomplish this, with the understanding that each instructor will tailor these to the content of his or her own course.
Course enrollments usually will not exceed 20-25 students.
Students should, in groups or individually, study seminal writing within the respective disciplines to gain a more meaningful appreciation for both the history of the subject and the inquiry process.
Course sessions should emphasize considerable portions of class time to be used for student-initiated discussion concerning assigned content.
A great emphasis should be placed upon the correlation between course content and the role that said content plays in other academic disciplines and in contemporary issues.
Students should be provided with opportunities to do original inquiry on a scale conducive to the time and resources allowed.
With fewer enrollment numbers, more unique enhancement opportunities for engaging students should be made available such as field trips, guest lectures, public presentations of research, visits to other classes, discussions with multiple faculty from one department for multiple perspectives on a given issue, etc. Funding may be available to Honor faculty for these special student opportunities.
Assessments tools will normally focus on higher order thinking skills and deemphasize rote memorization.
Where applicable, a service-learning component may be incorporated into the course.
