Educational Methods Commons^™

Building, Dwelling, And Thinking With Ada Long, Lisa L. Coleman

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

In response to Dr. Ada Long’s (1945–2024) insistence that political conversation is key to teaching and service, both of which inform each other, the author contemplates the personal impact and evolving cultural import of Martin Heidegger. Using Heidegger’s “Building Dwelling Thinking” (1971) as touchstone, the author reflects on the conception of humans as “near dwellers,” or neighbors who “build” because they “dwell,” and considers the weight this idea carried as a graduate student and again as an instructor of Advanced Composition. The author describes a teaching methodology that used Heidegger’s essay as a lens through which students might view, read, …

Dispatch From Ada Long’S Honors Neighborhood, Michael E. Sloane

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

Dr. Ada Long (1945–2024) launched the honors program at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) in the fall of 1983 and directed it until her retirement in 2004. This essay examines how the defining characteristics of neighborhoods she discusses in her 1995 NCHC Presidential Address were embedded in her honors program. As a close colleague and teacher in Long’s interdisciplinary arts and sciences program, the author considers how the characteristics of diversity, sense of personal affiliation and belonging, and culture of caring were woven into the fabric of the program she founded and developed. As Ada’s successor, the author …

Actualizing The Et Al.: Twenty Years Of Editor’S Introductions, Emily Walshe

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

The complete process of writing, conceived as the production of a cogent piece, is rarely a solitary pursuit. This essay celebrates Dr. Ada Long’s contributions as editor-in-chief of NCHC journals for over two decades. Using content and bibliometric analyses, the author provides insights on Long’s use of language and rhetorical purpose; her fostering of collaborative, multidisciplinary scholarship; and unwavering commitment to developing and maintaining strong editorial boards. Term map and visualizations are included.

“The Direful Spectacle Of The Wrack”: Teaching Against Colonialism Through Shipwrecks And Shakespeare, Sara A. Rich

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

It has become increasingly apparent that anti-colonial and anti-racist pedagogies are necessary in higher education classrooms, and honors education as an experimental zone is an ideal place to test ideas that can be taken into the wider university community. Honors professors epitomize the teacher-scholar model, and this paper presents a six-year trajectory of anti-colonial pedagogy coupled with original interdisciplinary research in the social sciences, arts, and humanities. Bringing canonical Shakespeare into conversation with historical shipwrecks and their aftermath, students learn how The Tempest was written at a pivotal point in history, coincidentally situated in the same year as the earliest …

Marginalized First-Time Honors Students Explain The Impact Of Tracking Labels, Trina Sotirakopulos

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

Many of the variables that determine college admission are beyond a student’s control, including the academic track they were assigned as early as primary school, a practice often referred to as “ability grouping” or constructing “skills-homogeneous” classes. Even in higher education, students feel the effects of unequal sorting and sifting from tracking. The purpose of this study was to learn from marginalized community college students placed in low- and middle-track courses in high school how taking honors courses for the first time shaped their perceptions of their identities. Data were gathered from a single cohort at a midwestern community college …

Equity And Inclusion In Honors: A Case Study Of Admissions Changes, Trevor Zink, Andrew Dilts

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

Creative levers for change often emerge in times of institutional uncertainty. As higher education continues to confront institutional racism, honors programs can exercise their power to increase diversity and educational outcomes for excluded and marginalized students, as well as influence related university-level policy. This case study chronicles dramatic changes to admissions policies and programmatic offerings in honors between 2020–2023. Changes in admissions practices markedly diversified the student body, moving it from a 60% white population to 60% minority population in just three years. Conversations around race and racism were initiated, inculcating a culture of inclusion rather than elitist exceptionalism. As …

About The Authors [Jnchc (2024) 25(1)]

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

About the authors from the Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council (2024) volume 25, number 1, pages 185-189.

Dedication To Suketu P. Bhazar, Linda Frost

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

Dedication to Suketu P. Bhazar, a fellow of the National Collegiate Honors Council (NCHC), member of the NCHC Board of Directors (2013–2016), and NCHC President (2021).

Guest Editor's Introduction, Linda Frost

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

Guest Editor Linda Frost's introduction to the spring/summer 2024 issue of the Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council, volume 25, issue 1.

Building A Pipeline For Transfer And Scholarship Through (Virtual) Honors Research Partnerships, Lauri B. Cockfield

National Collegiate Honors Council Monographs: Chapters

Excerpt:

At the start of the 2020 academic year, I was approached by the president of the Barry Goldwater Foundation, who invited the Perimeter Honors College to participate in a new initiative they were undertaking with the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation to identify excellent candidates for the Goldwater scholarship from groups underrepresented in STEM. We were already establishing a framework in research that included appointment of a new Research and Scholarship Coordinator in the honors college, a campus-based research showcase, and a new research partnership with an interdisciplinary bachelor’s program. Because one of the goals of these structural changes …

Reaction To Intention: Developing Hybrid Honors Courses In The Wake Of The Pandemic, Megan Woller

National Collegiate Honors Council Monographs: Chapters

Applying lessons learned throughout the global COVID-19 pandemic, this chapter considers the shift from the necessary but reactionary adjustment to a virtual learning environment toward an intentional use of online learning in honors courses. Specifically, this chapter draws on my own experience teaching an honors course entitled “Issues in Music History: Music and Gender.” This course was developed in December of 2019 as a face-to-face class for non-major honors students with a focus on discussion, writing, and teamwork via a final project.

For Here Or To Go? (Re)Packaging The Takeaway, Randi Polk

National Collegiate Honors Council Monographs: Chapters

In this chapter, I intend to walk readers through my thought process for creating a virtual study abroad course and show how it was informed by lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic as well as current pedagogical trends. I will then discuss the implementation, including what worked and what did not go as planned. Finally, I will show how this course culminated in a student-led conference presentation and how this topic has shaped future thinking for Eastern Kentucky University (EKU) honors regarding global learning opportunities.

Re-Reading Local Spaces: City As Text Tm Goes Virtual, Sara E. Quay, Season Ellison, Leslie Heaphy, Amaris Ketcham, Toni Lefton, Andrew Martino

National Collegiate Honors Council Monographs: Chapters

This chapter provides honors program faculty and directors with detailed strategies for running a City as Text^TM (CAT) experience in a hybrid or virtual format. It documents specific ways the traditional CAT institute principles were adapted to a virtual space, including changes made to the institute format, destinations, collaborations, and assignments. A new emphasis on multimedia platforms, central to the virtual institute, are discussed. Finally, a summary of what the facilitators learned in the process of shifting a fundamentally in-person experience to online is shared.

Navigating Without Knowing, Elizabeth M. Hodge, Bhibha M. Das, Tim Christensen, Teal Darkenwald, Gerald Weckesser, Wayne Godwin

National Collegiate Honors Council Monographs: Chapters

This chapter examines the process and outcomes of how honors college faculty at a southeastern university shifted their introductory freshmen seminar from a traditional face-to-face format to an online one. These shifts included using technological resources, innovative pedagogy, and social media to foster a sense of community within the honors college. The chapter provides several examples grounded in Chickering and Gamson’s “seven principles of good practice,” which readers can utilize to improve teaching and learning. An overview of the course design using Canvas as the learning management system along with pedagogical examples grounded in the nationally recognized Quality Matters standards …

Journal Of The National Collegiate Honors Council (Spring/Summer 2024) 25(1): Whole Issue

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council (spring/summer 2024), volume 25, issue1.

Forum on Honors as Neighborhood

Contents

Dedication to Suketu P. Bhazar

Guest Editor’s Introduction, Linda Frost

Honors as Neighborhood, Ada Long

Honors as a Changing Neighborhood, Betsy Greenleaf Yarrison

Honors, Equity, and the Difference Principle, Patrick Fazioli

Institutional Neighborhoods and the Stories They Tell, Joyce Olewski Inman

From Individuals to Neighbors: Growth through Embracing Positionality, Joy L. Hart, Andrea Radasanu, Timothy Nichols, Rebecca C. Bott-Knutson, and Jonathan Kotinek

International Honors Neighbors, Mimi Killinger, Abigail Arnold, Abby Bouchard, Katharine Poulin, Gabriella Shetreet, and Kailee Soucia

Neighbors Outside, Inside, and …

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.

Lasting Lessons From Covid-19: A Story Of Successful Community Building, Christian Rubio

National Collegiate Honors Council Monographs: Chapters

To state that the landscape of higher education has changed is an understatement. Strategies and approaches have been altered radically since the spring of 2020. After all, college and universities understood that they needed, as Glen Llopsis observes, a “process of reinvention, whether we like it or not. [Because] post-COVID-19 will not look like pre-COVID-19.” Many of these new strategies will undoubtedly become permanent fixtures because their aim was to foster a sense of community in our honors program. It is precisely some of these activities that this article will detail.

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.

Connecting Honors Students In A Virtual Environment: Activities For Engagement, Sarah Sudar, Colin Sisk

National Collegiate Honors Council Monographs: Chapters

With a mix of students returning online and staying at home during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Community College of Beaver County (CCBC) Honors Program in Monaca, Pennsylvania, had to adapt our model of extracurricular activities to accommodate students who felt comfortable coming on campus as well as balancing virtual events for those who did not.

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 …

Creating Virtual Honors Spaces With Discord And Webex, Trista M. Merrill, Ce Rosenow

National Collegiate Honors Council Monographs: Chapters

Although Discord and WebEx are different platforms that lend themselves to different types of events, they are both useful for creating virtual honors spaces. They can easily be used in addition to other ways of reaching students, such as blogs and social media. Through these virtual spaces, students have an opportunity to gain information, hear guest speakers, and, most importantly, feel connected to their honors community.