Learn About the Program

The Honors Foundations program will support between six and ten Honors Faculty Fellows from around the campus per academic year. 

Any full-time permanent Morgantown faculty member, with the support of the department chair, is eligible to apply. The deadline for 2023-2024 Honors Faculty Fellow applications and course proposals is Friday, November 11, 2022. 

Selected fellows will teach one or two sections of the same course, depending on the type of course proposed. These courses can be special topics “big-ideas” classes or enhanced classes with deeply engaged teaching and learning practices that bring faculty expertise to Honors students at the introductory level. They provide innovative course opportunities for Honors students and space for faculty to develop new curricular and teaching ideas to bring back to their home departments. 

Faculty Fellow Course Development Areas:

1. Development of a new course under the Honors Foundation course framework. These courses should be special topics “big-ideas” classes with deeply engaged teaching and learning practices that bring specific faculty expertise to Honors students at the introductory level.  Passion projects are strongly encouraged. Selected fellows will teach two sections of the same course — one in the fall, and one in the spring.
2. Integration of an innovative pedagogical approach into an existing GEF course to be delivered to Honors students. This opportunity will primarily allow faculty members to experiment with new approaches in the classroom with Honors students as their audience. These courses will only be taught for one semester.
3. Development of team-taught, interdisciplinary courses. These courses could be new courses developed under the Honors Foundation course framework (see above) or could be existing courses, with the integration of an innovative pedagogical approach (see above). These courses will be taught for either one or two semesters.
4. Development of an Honors add-on to an existing, larger course. It is our hope that these add-ons will allow Honors students to interact with the instructor and their peers in a more concentrated and focused environment to delve deeper into the subject matter and enhance their learning. These courses will only be taught for one semester.

In the year of their fellowship, Fellows will: 

• Teach one or two sections of their proposed course, to replace one course in their home department for one or two semesters,
• Deliver a public lecture based on their course material, and
• Serve on the committee that selects the next cohort of Honors Faculty Fellows. 

In exchange, Honors will compensate the Fellow and their home department in these ways:  

• For two sections of an HONR course per year, the Honors College will compensate the Faculty Fellow a $4,000 summer course development honorarium, $1,000 in professional development funding to be used within a three-year time frame and will reimburse the department/college at a negotiated per-course replacement rate each semester.
• For team-taught HONR courses, the Honors College will compensate the Faculty Fellows a total $2000 summer course development honorarium, split evenly among the participants ($1000 each), and will reimburse the department/college at a negotiated per-course replacement rate for each faculty member.
• Faculty Fellows re-envisioning existing 3-credit GEF courses are offered a $1000 course development stipend, and their colleges/departments are compensated $2500 to offset the reduced seat count of an Honors section.
• Faculty Fellows re-envisioning or designing a zero- or one-credit add-on to an existing course are offered a $1000 course development stipend and $50 per enrolled student of professional development funds, held in an account for their use for up to three years (unless the add-on is a part of the faculty member’s contractual teaching load, in which case the same amount is compensated to the college/department).

Questions should be directed to Associate Dean Damien Clement (Damien.Clement@mail.wvu.edu).

Applications

Applications will be open in Fall 2022 for 2023-2024 Honors Faculty Fellows.  Applications, with chair support, will be due to the Honors College by November 11, 2022. 

To apply, applicants will submit the following materials in a single PDF file:

• A cover letter that outlines:
• Course description,
• Faculty member’s qualification to teach the course, and
• Assessment of the niche for such a course, specifically for how the course is NOT currently covered in course offerings of the fellow’s home department or any other relevant department on campus.
• A detailed description of the proposed course that includes:
• Outline of the material covered, including key texts;
• Brief description of innovative methods, materials, or activities that the course will employ;
• Identification of any specific community service or leadership components to the course;
• Tentative listing of the section learning outcomes;
• Tentative description of how the course will assess section specific learning objectives.
• The applicant’s CV
• A statement of support from the faculty member’s chair, including the standard adjunct replacement cost for that faculty member and an indication of Dean’s office support. Applications should be emailed to Damien Clement (Damien.Clement@mail.wvu.edu) as a single PDF file.

Courses will be selected along several criteria, including but not limited to:

• Fulfillment of GEF goals
• Commitment to and proposed assessment of LEAP outcomes
• Innovative teaching tactics/learning activities
• Interdisciplinary learning opportunities
• Priority will be given to courses that fall within one of the above areas and that explore inclusion and representation across categories of identity and experience in their subject matter.

Selection Process

All Honors Foundations Course proposals must first be vetted by the chair in the home department in the statement of support.

Except in extraordinary circumstances pre-approved by affected chairs, no more than one faculty fellow will come from any given department within a single cohort. 

Efforts will be made to distribute Honors Foundation Course offerings across all six eligible GEF bins (2-7), and across multiple colleges across the university.

Faculty Fellows will be expected to participate in a two-and-a-half-day workshop on course design tailored specifically for them, led by Robynn Shannon in combination collaboration with The Teaching and Learning Commons. This workshop will take place mid-May 2023. The goal of this workshop will be to provide Faculty Fellows with: 1) professional development in the principles and evidence-based practices of backward course design; 2) dedicated time and space to make substantial progress on putting your course together; and 3) TLC support and the opportunity for peer feedback on course components. Please note that there will be no expectations that Faculty Fellows have a completed course syllabus for this workshop or anything beyond the course proposal submitted with their Honors Faculty Fellow application

Tentative 2023-2024 Honors Faculty Fellows Selection Timeline: 

• September 12, 2022: Call for applications for 2023-24 Honors Faculty Fellows
• November 11, 2022: Deadline for Honors Faculty Fellow applications and course proposals. The Associate Dean will perform an initial review of all applications. If an applicant proposes a course that extends into another discipline, the Associate Dean will seek sign-off from the chair of the department in question, before reinserting it into the batch of applications.
• November 30, 2022: Current Honors Faculty Fellows meet to review proposals to select the next cohort of Honors Faculty Fellows.
• January 6, 2023: selected Honors Faculty Fellows confirm participation and Honors curriculum committee submits selected courses to Faculty Senate GEF committee for information, ideally by February 2023 Faculty Senate Meeting.
• March 2023 (estimated): Fall 2023 courses are made visible to students.
• Mid-May 2023: Faculty fellows course design workshop.
• July 2023: Fellows receive summer course development stipend.
• August 2023:  Fellows teach first semester of courses.
• Fall 2023: Honors Faculty Fellows lectures held. 
• November 2023 - January 2024: Fellows participate in selection process for next cohort.
• December 2023: Fellows meet to discuss semester and share ideas, successes, tweaks for following semester.
• January 2024: Second semester begins.
• May 2024: Honors Faculty Fellows meet for postmortem discussion of year, offer feedback on program.