Liberal Studies Commons^™

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 …

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.

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.

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 …

Institutional Neighborhoods And The Stories They Tell, Joyce Olewski Inman

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

As part of the National Collegiate Honors Council's (NCHC’s) tribute to Dr. Ada Long (1945–2024), this response to “Honors as Neighborhood” (1995) encourages scholars and practitioners to (re)consider the problems with conceptualizing honors programs as neighborhoods given the systemic inequalities associated with both. Drawing from experience at an R1 regional institution in the South, the author outlines the institutional histories of programming in both basic writing and honors to elucidate the systemic racism leading to the creation of these programs and illuminate the stories these programs tell about the deep stratification evident on college campuses across the nation.

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

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

cohort of five students and one faculty member share ways in which their Bulgarian study abroad experience (2024) built upon an existing international partnership and, in so doing, aligned with the tenets of, and goals for, “neighborhoods” as described by Dr. Ada Long (1945–2024). The authors describe lessons learned through the unique pedagogy and practices of NCHC’s City as Text^®, suggesting that honors may be especially well suited for neighborly international exchange. The authors describe their study abroad experiences as being effective in developing a sense of global citizenship across cultural divides and cultivating an actual sense of …

Neighbors Outside, Inside, And Beyond The Classroom: A Pioneering Honors Program In The University Of Illinois System, Katie Carlson-Eastvold, Marc Klingshirn, Elise Lobue

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

The authors describe the shift from an upper-division university to a four-year school and the establishment of an honors program as a result. This essay chronicles the inaugural honors class, characterizing the pioneering aspect of its undergraduates. Reflecting on institutional history and the neighborliness of honors, authors consider the impact that living-learning community (LLC) experience and classroom spaces have on both the individual and the collective. Authors discuss the utility of student codes of conduct, agreed-upon guidelines for class discussions, and student input on course design and delivery. Across the spectrum of undergraduate experiences—from those during the first year to …

Expanding Our Honors Neighborhood: Teaching In And About Jails And Prisons, Victoria M. Bryan, Owen Cantrell

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

Dr. Ada Long (1945–2024) advocated for equal access to quality education. Authors suggest that her reflections on neighborhoods, community, and intentional inclusion were not one-off musings but rather indicative of how she saw her responsibility as an educator. Drawing on Long’s establishment of a lecture series that brought faculty into a local Alabama prison to share research with incarerated students, this essay presents firsthand experiences teaching honors courses in prison, particularly those offered at Walker State Prison as part of Georgia State University’s Prison Education Project (2016–2023). While honors colleges often build programs to be as community-centric as possible, authors …

Good Neighbors, James Ford

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

In response to Dr. Ada Long’s 1995 NCHC Presidential Address “Honors as Neighborhood,” the author argues that making honors an open neighborhood is a worthy goal that requires significant work. Programs emphasizing student and faculty reflection, diverse voices, purpose, and the wholeness of human beings increase a sense of belonging in honors. Long’s presence, words, and ideas continue to inspire the work of others.

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, …

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.

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 …