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A Call To Serve: Novice Urban Catholic School Teachers' Sense Of Purpose In Life, Compassion, Faith, And Justice, Ella Anghel, Kierstin M. Giunco, Audrey A. Friedman, Myra Rosen-Reynoso, Charles T. Cownie Iii, Cristina J. Hunter

Journal of Catholic Education

Educators are instrumental in nurturing students’ sense of purpose, particularly in urban schools. Consequently, these educators must not only have a strong sense of purpose but also possess other key virtues. This mixed-methods study explores these virtues among a group of 30 urban Catholic school teachers. They responded to scales measuring purpose, compassion, faith, moral development and agency, and completed a modified Youth Purpose Interview online. Scores were compared to those of the original samples upon which these scales were validated as they were also emerging adults. Participants scored significantly higher on almost all scales than the original samples. These …

2023-2024 - Undergraduate Curriculum Council Annual Report, Undergraduate Curriculum Council, East Tennessee State University

Undergraduate Curriculum Council Minutes

No abstract provided.

Onboarding Students At Scale: A New Student Orientation Course That Prepares Students To Succeed In Their Online Degree Programs, Heather J. Leslie Phd

Learning Design Center: Staff Scholarship

A new online orientation course equips students with the tools and skills to thrive in online programs. It welcomes them to the university, introduces the learning management system, fosters peer connection, and locates essential resources. Additionally, it teaches valuable strategies for time management, motivation, and success in online learning. This adaptable base course caters to the university’s diverse online programs while maintaining a core structure. Designed for efficient facilitation by Academic Directors, it also allows for a personalized touch. Surveys indicate the course effectively prepares students for their first online course. Notably, completing the orientation has become the strongest predictor …

Through The Looking Glass: Honors In Virtual Reality, Betsy Greenleaf Yarrison

National Collegiate Honors Council Monographs: Chapters

Within the context of the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, the author discusses the potential role of virtual reality technologies in honors programs in instiitutions of higher education.

Reimagining Honors Curriculum: Delivered Through Technology Utilizing Our Alumni Community, Mollie Hartup, Amy Cossentino, Lexi Rager

National Collegiate Honors Council Monographs: Chapters

This chapter describes our thought process and the practical steps we took as we created a new course. It also provides student, faculty/ staff, and alumni perspectives on our triumphs and tribulations throughout the year. We hope that by sharing the early results of our efforts, other honors colleges or programs also looking to reimagine their first-year experience will benefit from the lessons we have learned.

Exploring Incoming Honors Students’ Beliefs About Online Courses, Kristy Spear, Pavlo D. Antonenko

National Collegiate Honors Council Monographs: Chapters

This essay highlights the findings of a 2018 longitudinal mixedmethod explanatory sequential design study conducted at a large research institution with this purpose in mind. The study explored incoming honors students’ beliefs about online courses and how beliefs changed after the first semester of college coursework. Beliefs about online courses were deconstructed using the Community of Inquiry framework (Garrison, Anderson, and Archer 88), a questionnaire aligned with this theory (Arbaugh, Cleveland-Innes, Diaz, Garrison, Ice, Richardson, and Swan 135), and semi-structured interviews. The findings, highlighted in this essay, provide valuable insight into design and instructional strategies that support online learning and …

Online Faculty Professional Development And Community As Nexus, John Zubizarreta, Beata M. Jones, Marca V. C. Wolfensberger

National Collegiate Honors Council Monographs: Chapters

Our goal is to share ideas and experiences related to the design of dynamic, interactive professional development opportunities that focus on learning skills for managing remote or online teaching but more importantly that create a relationship-rich sense of community. Our Honors International Faculty Learning Online (HIFLO) model is a successful example in honors, but it offers reasonably adaptable strategies that can be used in future virtual professional development ventures inside or outside of honors. No matter what other topics may be addressed in later Honors International Faculty Institute (HIFI) or HIFLO seminars, the essential principle of community will always be …

International Virtual Exchange During And Beyond The Pandemic, Ian Mcintosh

National Collegiate Honors Council Monographs: Chapters

The first goal of this chapter is to describe the virtual class. The second is to demonstrate just how easy such exchanges are when using technology such as the CN (Course Networking), which is like Facebook for academia. This software, plus the use of What’s App for free mobile calling, allowed students from both countries to get to know one another and explore course topics well beyond what can be delivered in a classroom setting. Finally, I will share information on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and some of the impressive discoveries made by the students in their respective …

Online Education, Honors, And The Engaged University: Modeling Experiential Learning For Fully Online Students At Fort Hays State University, Kevin S. Amidon, Gregory Atkins

National Collegiate Honors Council Monographs: Chapters

This essay outlines the principles upon which the Fort Hays State University Honors Online initiative will be based and proposes ways of achieving successful honors outcomes in student-centered ways that are appropriate and meaningful to both on-campus and online cohorts. We propose a structure guided by a Community of Inquiry (COI) framework that respects and reflects the social, cognitive, and academic needs of diverse students as individuals and groups. This results in a concentric curricular model in which the student’s academic major field provides a broad, encompassing space for inner fields of co-curricular experiential learning and service. Honors staff work …

Cultivating Delight, Crossing Divides, And Solving Impossible Problems: Lessons Learned From A Year Of Virtual Conferences, Jon Blandford, Kathy J. Cooke, Erik Liddell, Kathryn M. Macdonald, Tara M. Tuttle

National Collegiate Honors Council Monographs: Chapters

This chapter highlights some of the lessons learned from a year of virtual conferences held by three different honors organizations, the Southern Regional Honors Council (SRHC), the Northeast Regional Honors Council (NRHC), and the Kentucky Honors Roundtable (KHR) during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Building Virtual Community: The Power Of Peer-Led Engagement, Emily Clossin, Shane Collins, Lisa Ruch, Kristina Horn Sheeler, Kara M. Woodlee

National Collegiate Honors Council Monographs: Chapters

The Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) Honors College developed a multi-layered strategy to foster interpersonal connection and a sense of belonging among incoming students as well as continued opportunities for engagement among the entire community of scholars. Via social media posts and takeovers, peer mentor commitment, and virtual activities organized and led by students, along with more traditional face-to-face events, our new students developed connections, relationships, and a sense of identity as honors scholars. Our continuing students took on new leadership roles in the honors college, displaying their talents and contributing in ways they had not before in face-to-face formats. …

Before They Set Foot On Campus: Building A Virtual Summer Community For Incoming Honors Students, Laura G. Eldred, Gillian Wenhold, Jacquelyn Mcbride

National Collegiate Honors Council Monographs: Chapters

Discusses the launching of a brand-new program rooted in community creation during a pandemic, which meant that traditional modes of cohort building were not going to fly. That said, although the impetus was pandemic-specific, the lessons learned about the creation and value of virtual communities are not limited to one historical moment.

Harnessing Flip In Both Hybrid And Fully Online Honors Courses To Build Community, Monica Vandieren, Sylvia A. Pamboukian

National Collegiate Honors Council Monographs: Chapters

To encourage emotionally and socially significant student collaboration, the University Honors Program at Robert Morris University developed a variety of Flip assignments and activities, including scavenger hunts, journals, and peer-advising, that were integrated into online and hybrid courses in order to create a sense of community for students from their first year through their senior year.

Peer Mentoring In A Pandemic: An Honors Experiment In Community Building, Jennifer Schlegel, Alexis Duhadaway

National Collegiate Honors Council Monographs: Chapters

During fall 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic created a situation that necessitated initiative and required agency across all domains of society and every aspect of higher education, we prioritized the physical and mental health and well-being of our students at Kutztown University, and we recognized the increased significance of establishing social connections when so many had been disrupted. For a generation that has grown up with smart technology, flipping peer mentoring makes sense because it provides a context for the students’ immediate development and assertion of agency in familiar modalities for social and academic connections.

Transcending Distance: Connecting During Imposed Seclusion, Lauri B. Cockfield

National Collegiate Honors Council Monographs: Chapters

Although the world endured many losses because of the COVID- 19 virus, including missing the hustle and bustle of seeing and socializing with our students in person on campus, I am pleased with the way the honors college at Perimeter turned this challenging time into an opportunity to focus on and build the community our students and faculty have told us they want. We are now adept at archiving virtual events, and our practice is to seek permission from all our speakers to record and archive their presentations. Our plan is to track views of these recorded sessions so we …

The Tightrope Walk Of Academic Creativity: Eliciting Growth In Online Honors Courses, Jacob Arnold

National Collegiate Honors Council Monographs: Chapters

This essay reflects upon and explicates the inception, implementation, and publication of the experimental assignment, “A Quibbler,” from a course entitled “Forms of Literature: Influences of and on Harry Potter” (ENGL 2341) at North Central Texas College in Gainesville, Texas.

Honors Online: Teaching, Learning, And Building Community Virtually In Honors Education: Front And Back Matter, Victoria M. Bryan, Cat Stanfield

National Collegiate Honors Council Monographs: Chapters

Front and back matter from Honors Online: Teaching, Learning, and Building Community Virtually in Honors Education (NCHC, 2024), edited by Victoria M. Bryan and Cat Stanfield.

Interviewing K-12 Education Experts And Elites, Jose Eos Trinidad

Interdisciplinary Studies Faculty Publications

Understanding education experts and elites is crucial in the context of their larger influence on education and the public’s greater skepticism and criticism of their work. This paper distinguishes between traditional and expert/elite interviews (EEIs), and highlights strategies for conducting them. Experts and elites have relatively broader influence, more synthesized but less situated knowledge, more embedded professional networks, and less anonymity than the lay public—and interviews need to adjust to these differences. To do so, researchers should consider strategies for (1) access, (2) trust, (3) preparation for interviews, and (4) asking sensitive and awkward questions in contexts of significant power …

“We Advocate A Semi-Revolution”: An Honors Conference Undergoes Transformation, Betsy Greenleaf Yarrison, Bruce Thompson

Honors in Practice Online Archive

Since the 1980s, the Maryland Collegiate Honors Council has offered an annual conference on a host campus in late February. In 2020, MCHC slipped in the conference just before the apocalyptic arrival of COVID-19 in March. Because this conference is hugely popular statewide, we decided to organize it virtually in 2021. Our topic—In Honors…Black Lives Matter—was too important for us to wait out the pandemic. We charged nothing, partly to encourage students and member institutions to participate and partly because it cost us nothing. Attendance tripled. Students who could not miss class or work were able to attend. Programs were …

Remembering Ada Long, May 20, 1945–February 4, 2024, Jeffrey A. Portnoy, Larry Andrews, Bernice Braid, James J. Clauss, Lisa L. Coleman, Kevin W. Dean, Joan Digby, Linda Frost, Galit Gertsenzon, Devon Graham, Raymond Green, Annmarie Guzy, Jerry Herron, Mimi Killinger, John A. Knox, George Mariz, Mitch Pruitt, La Tanya L. Reese Rogers, Rae Rosenthal, Rusty Rushton, Chris Simon, Michael E. Sloane, Michaela Ruppert Smith, Christopher J. Syrnyk, Maria V. Tarasova, Norm Weiner

Honors in Practice Online Archive

As part of the National Collegiate Honors Council’s collection of essays honoring the life and work of Dr. Ada Long (1945–2024), the authors reflect on the personal and professional impact she has made in the honors experience. See https://youtube.com/live/EwdleBW1Rf8?feature=share to view the entire Celebration of Life that was held June 8, 2024.

A Matter Of Definition, Criteria, And Standards In Honors: A History, From The Basic Characteristics To The “Nchc Shared Principles And Practices Of Honors Education”, Richard Badenhausen, James Buss

Honors in Practice Online Archive

For more than half a century, the honors community has debated the role of standards. This comprehensive overview of those discussions—the first ever—traces the evolution of how honors education has defined itself from its early years right up until the 2022 adoption of the National Collegiate Honors Council’s new “NCHC Shared Principles and Practices of Honors Education.” While the latest document may seem to represent a stark change, the genealogy unfolded here demonstrates the “Shared Principles” as a return to the collegial and inclusive spirit of the earliest discussions about standards while reflecting more recent issues in contemporary higher education. …

Mindfulness In Honors: An Experiment In Collaborative Learning And Team Teaching, Pascale F. Engelmajer, Massimo A. Rondolino

Honors in Practice Online Archive

What do students hear when we talk of mindfulness? To reframe unexamined assumptions among students who conceptualize both mindfulness and honors education as “doing more” (more exercises to gain psychological benefits and more work to gain higher GPAs), the authors of this paper piloted a new course in philosophy and religious studies. In this essay, they discuss their collaborative experience designing, co-teaching, and assessing an honors course on mindfulness: its roots in Buddhist thought and practices, its contemporary secular developments, and its potential impact on students’ learning and lived experience. Integral to this experiment is also an approach to teaching …

Forming Civic Virtue Through An Honors Seminar Focused On Local Civil Rights History, Lynn Stallings, Aaron D. Cobb

Honors in Practice Online Archive

Citizenship and related values are common elements in the missions of honors programs. Our goal was to design a junior honors seminar with an intentional focus on developing citizenship, civic identity, and civic virtues through engagement with the challenging history of our city, Montgomery, Alabama. The course employed four evidence-based strategies for character formation in higher education: reflection on personal experience, engagement with virtuous exemplars, dialogue that increases virtue literacy, and awareness of situational variables. This paper describes our focus on learning about Civil Rights history to develop citizenship and civic virtues, the course’s impact on students, our reflections on …

The Involvement Journal: A Signature First-Year Seminar Assignment, Matt Baran

Honors in Practice Online Archive

An involvement journal assignment encourages first-year students to attend a variety of events and engage in meaningful reflection and development.

An Involvement Journal Assignment Encourages First-Year Students To Attend A Variety Of Events And Engage In Meaningful Reflection And Development., Jean-Paul Benowitz

Honors in Practice Online Archive

After 24 years of trial and error, an honors leadership course evolves to become relevant to the needs of the students while reflecting the learning objectives of the curriculum and giving students something tangible for learning in the real world.

Third-Year Medical College Rotations For Premedical Honors Program Undergraduates, Harvey G. Stenger Jr., William L. Ziegler

Honors in Practice Online Archive

Honors programs typically enroll many students interested in the healthcare field, and honors administrators and faculty do their best to ensure that those students’ dreams are fulfilled. With Medical Doctor (MD) program acceptance rates averaging just 6.1%, students need a standout application. Experience has shown that getting accepted into a medical school is more than earning a great GPA and excelling on the MCAT exam; it also requires convincing a committee of professionals that an applicant has the right personal qualities and work ethic to succeed in the field of medicine, and applicants need to highlight their clinical experience as …

Honors As Neighborhood: 1995 National Collegiate Honors Council Presidential Address, Ada Long

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

1995 National Collegiate Honors Council Presidential Address, published in the National Honors Report, Vol. XVI, No. 4 (winter 1996), 21–24; rpt. in NHR Vol. XX, No. 4 (winter 1999), 9–12. The typographical errors have been silently corrected.

In this address to members of the National Collegiate Honors Council, outgoing president Dr. Ada Long (1945–2024) reflects on the sensibility and characteristics of neighborhood and considers what this means to honors education and its community of learners. Identifying three values of neighborhood—conversation, personal affiliation and belonging, and caring—Long expounds on their relevance to educators and society at large on the cusp …

Honors As A Changing Neighborhood, Betsy Greenleaf Yarrison

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

Honors programs were conceived for traditional-age suburban middle-class majority-culture students who live on campus or nearby and do not hold full-time jobs or have family responsibilities. While the college population of this century is much more diverse and just as academically capable, first-generation students from traditionally marginalized populations see honors communities as unfamiliar, scary, and unwelcoming neighborhoods. Honors programs seek diversity but practice assimilation with exclusionary admissions policies, curricular inflexibility, and an emphasis on place-dependent community building that invites students to come into honors space rather than taking their offerings out to meet them where they are. Lack of funds …

Honors, Equity, And The Difference Principle, K. Patrick Fazioli

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

While honors programs have made notable advancements in diversity and inclusion, the issue of educational equity remains unresolved. Tensions between providing special opportunities for high-achieving students and adhering to principles of social justice continue to shape the “neighborhood of honors.” This essay seeks to address educational unfairness through Rawls’s “difference principle,” which asserts that inequalities are morally permissible only if they benefit the least advantaged in society. The author suggests that honors programs can adhere to this principle by focusing on service and support for marginalized groups within and beyond the campus community, providing opportunities for talented students from underserved …

From Individuals To Neighbors: Growth Through Embracing Positionality, Joy L. Hart, Andrea Radasanu, Rebecca C. Bott-Kutson, Jonathan D. Kotinek

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

Drawing inspiration from Dr. Ada Long’s (1995) presidential address, the authors describe an experience that facilitates neighborhood-building among honors educators and students across the nation as well as a neighborhood approach to understanding social problems. Focusing on food justice in the first year of the Justice Challenge, honors students learn about community needs, develop leadership and partnership skills, and collaborate with community members through an array of opportunities. Throughout the academic year, individual positionality shifts through deeper engagement with multiple viewpoints and facilitates new approaches for collaboration toward effectively addressing thorny problems. Cultivation of such connections is central in revitalizing …