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In order to facilitate the offering of more honors experiences to honors students in all colleges at the Ohio State University, the following guidelines will apply to the creation and monitoring of honors experiences embedded within current non-honors courses. This is not intended to be a replacement for offering honors courses, rather, an option that faculty may voluntarily offer to students. General guidelines are below, followed by instructions for faculty wishing to propose adding an honors embedded experience to a non-honors course

• Honors Embedded Student EvaluationForm
• Honors Embedded Course Approval Signatures

General

• The Honors Embedded (HE) experience will be limited to no more than 12 honors students enrolled within a non-honors course. In cases where the demand for an honors embedded experience is greater than 12 honors students, departments are encouraged to offer a regular honors section. Additionally, embedded honors experiences can not be offered in courses where honors sections already exist, except on the regional campuses. Individual colleges and faculty may decide to set further limits on the HE option.
• In general, the HE component will be taught by regular faculty.
• An HE student evaluation form should be used for all honors embedded courses (see page 5), with the option to add questions specific to the college or unit offering the course. The University Honors & Scholars Center will also elicit feedback on the effectiveness of these honors experiences from the faculty who teach them at the end of each quarter.

Registration

• Students should carry an Honors designation to qualify for enrollment in the embedded honors option, but non-honors students have the option of obtaining special permission to enroll.
• Under the current student information system, honors embedded courses will have a prefix of "E" and student’s transcript will have a translation of "honors embedded." Under the new student information system, courses will be designated as "HE."
• Honors embedded courses will have a separate call number from the regular course. A code to designate "Enrollment by permission only" will be listed for these sections as well so that students cannot add the course without instructor approval.
• Once approval for the HE course is obtained, HE will be listed as an option for the course in the online University Course Bulletin and eventually the printed Course Bulletin (deadline for revisions typically in February).
• Students will register for the honors embedded course at the time of registration. If they wish to drop the honors embedded part of the course (and transfer to the regular course), they will need to do so by the usual withdrawal deadline (end of third week of quarter).

Proposal Components

• A cover letter with a rationale for offering the honors embedded course.
• A description of how the course will offer honors students enhanced student/faculty interaction.
• A description of the enhanced expectations and experiences, which need to be more rigorous and enriching in ways that constitute honors content, and not simply additional work. Proposals should give the approximate amount of additional hours expected of the student per week.

Additional honors experiences may involve, but not be limited to:

• A related research project
• A special in-class presentation
• Presenting at an out-of-class activity related to the course
• Developing a teaching tool related to the course or assisting a faculty member in course improvement/development
• Enhance laboratory experience
• Differential assignments/learning experiences based on the honor student’s honors program
• Interaction with other students pursuing the HE option.
• College-wide enrichment experiences, such as an open-forum debate on a topic related to curricula in the College, a field trip to a research facility or industry location, or a prominently known guest speaker sharing research.
• Delving more deeply into the methodology, structure, and/or theory; addressing more sophisticated questions; and satisfying more rigorous standards than are generally expected.
• A description of the grading. The student’s grade should reflect all of the student’s work in the course, including work done in common with other students, as well as work done for the honors element. An agreement on grading procedures needs to be established in advance of the beginning of the course.
• The syllabus for the regular course and the honors embedded addendum.
• Completed signature page (see page 4).
• Note that a course change form is not required for honors-embedded courses.

Process for Approval

Faculty should request approval of a course for the honors embedded option by submission of the proposal for departmental review (regional campuses – regional honors director as well), and college honors review. Proposals should then be submitted to the University Honors & Scholars Center one quarter in advance of the offering. Approved proposals will be forwarded to the Office of Academic Affairs.

• The colleges and the University Honors & Scholars Center will maintain a list of courses approved for embedded experiences in a manner accessible to both students and faculty, e.g., college and H&S web sites, honors handbooks. Other means of publicizing honors embedded courses will include college and University Honors & Scholars Center listservs to the honors community, course fliers, and Honors Scheduling events to publicize next quarter honors offerings.
• Approval of a course for honors embedded experience does not obligate faculty to offer such an experience each time the course is offered.
• College Honors Committees and the University Honors Faculty Advisory Committee will review these guidelines periodically.

Miscellaneous

• No more than two honors embedded courses will count for the six course honors/upper division/graduate-level course requirement over the first two years, with the exception of the regional campuses, where any combination of honors-embedded and honors courses are permitted.
• The University Honors & Scholars Center will report annually to the Council on Academic Affairs on honors embedded courses approved and offered, including number, enrollments, and student and faculty feedback.