There are many ways that faculty members can work with Honors students to enhance
their pathway through the university. These experiences not only enrich students'
educations, they can be quite invigorating for faculty members as well. Some
available options for faculty members are listed below. Please contact
the Honors College Associate Dean, or work with your department chair to determine the best option for you.
Earning Honors Foundation Credit
The Honors Foundations program is a two-year Honors program designed to enrich students’
first years on campus.
Students can earn Honors credit via the following course types:
- Traditional courses: Most standard Honors courses are special sections of standard classes with a reduced class size (less than 30) and a specially selected Honors faculty member. These classes typically are more focused on open discussion and interaction. These courses are also small in size and are lead by an Honors instructor.
- Honors Foundations Courses: These special-topics Honors courses are developed to meet GEF goals. Participating faculty typically work through the Honors Faculty Fellows program and teach one section per semester of their proposed course.
- Add-on courses: Students may register for a non-Honors course while also registering for an Honors add-on section for that particular class. Add-on sections delve further into coursework. By completing the regular course and the Honors add-on requirements, students receive Honors credit hours equivalent to the number of hours offered for the regular course (typically 3 hours).
- Contract courses: Students may also receive credit for a non-Honors course by contracting it as an Honors courses. By adding some additional course requirements (usually through more intense reading requirements, a special paper, and/or a final project), students receive Honors credit for the non-Honors course. In order to do this, students should contact their professor very early in the semester to fill out a contract form online (see Contract Course Information). The form, when completed, will be reviewed on a rolling basis up until the Friday of week 7 of a given semester.
- Cross-listed Honors Section: For smaller courses that do not have a critical mass of Honors students to support a whole section, a cross-listed course can provide an option to add enriched content for a smaller segment of the whole course. For example, a course that usually enrolls 50 could have section 001 enroll 45 students and section H01 enroll 5 Honors students. Both sections meet together, but the Honors section has a different syllabus with an additional enrichment components. Ideally, such sections would also provide an opportunity for Honors students to collaborate or interact in some meaningful way.
- Independent Study/Research: First and second year Honors College students enrolled in the Research Apprenticeship Program (RAP) can earn Honors credit by taking HONR 297 (1 credit). This course is repeatable up to three times for a total of three credits. However, if repeated the course will still only count as one course out of the required five distinct courses for Honors Foundations Program completion, fulfilling between 1-3 credits depending on how many times it is repeated. Contact the Office of Undergraduate Research for more information on this program.
- Tutoring: Members of the Honors College can serve as peer leaders/tutors. Tutors make their services available to the University. See more information on testWELL Learning Center locations and hours here.
- Mentoring Honors 102: Members of the Honors College can serve as mentors, facilitators, and educators for first-year students enrolled in HONR 102. Learn more about the program here.
Courses for the Honors EXCEL Program
The Honors College Experiential Learning Program (Honors EXCEL Program) supports WVU undergraduate students in experiential and community-engaged learning.
- 1-credit Project Development Course (HONR450)
- 1-credit Honors EXCEL Capstone Course (HONR451)
- Applicable Courses: 300 or 400 level classes that leave some time for students to work on their EXCEL projects. These courses can be major specific if the major class allows time to work on the project. This gives students the opportunity to earn credit both for EXCEL and their major. Students may also take a class from a different major or college.
- Honors Independent Study: These courses give students the opportunity to utilize class time for their EXCEL projects by allowing them choose their class projects and products. This option can be used if the student cannot find any 300 or 400 level courses that support their project.
- Paid Experiences: In order for a paid internship/experience to be counted for EXCEL credit, it must be approved by the student's department and college for use as a 491 course as well as meets EXCEL expectations. If the experience is not related to the student's EXCEL project, it will not be used as credit. The student is responsible for connecting the paid experience to their project.
Contact us for more information.