Lane Honors Program

Information for Faculty and Staff

Curriculum Criteria and Framework

The mission of the Lane Community College Honors Program is to provide challenging and transformative student learning experiences by offering honors courses and options in a variety of academic disciplines. The Honors Program is committed to advancing academic rigor, scholarly inquiry, creativivity, independent thinking and civic growth throughout the campus community.

The following outline serves as a framework for submitting an honors course or honors option proposal. In order for your course or option to be eligible for Honors Program consideration, please complete the application questions with as much detail as you can using the following criteria. The bullet points provide ideas to consider and are not meant to be an exhaustive or required list of characteristics.

1. Rigorous Content: How will the content distinguish this course or option as honors curriculum?
   
   • Focus on deeper  (not necessarily broader) content
   • Emphasize primary texts or recent publications within the discipline rather than textbooks
   • Develop advanced reading, writing and information literacy skills
   • Develop skills to evaluate claims, evidence and conclusions
   • Explore relevant interdisciplinary connections
   • Focus on methodologies within the discipline
   • Demonstrate how professionals conduct discussions within the discipline
   • Incorporate Lane’s core abilities in explicit ways
     
     
2. Instruction: How will instructional methods distinguish this course or option as honors curriculum?
   
   • Incorporate innovative pedagogical approaches
   • Provide support for integrative learning
   • Offer opportunities outside of the classroom for enrichment related to course material  
   • Foster active participatory experiences
   • Challenge students to think in new ways
   • Encourage students to collaborate in solving problems and producing intellectual work
     
     
3. Assignments and Activities: How will the assignments and activities distinguish this course or option as honors curriculum?
    
   • Place responsibility for learning upon the student  
   • Integrate cumulative learning
   • Incorporate connections to real-world problems, settings, communities and outcomes
   • Require students to be active learners
   • Provide opportunities for students to use drafts, peer feedback and other iterative strategies to improve end products
   • Cultivate leadership qualities
     
     
4. Student Learning Outcomes and Assessment: How will learning outcomes and assessment measures distinguish this course or option as honors curriculum?
   
   • Incorporate higher cognitive and metacognitive skills
   • Integrate knowledge and skills
   • Provide a range of assessments of learning, including projects, performances, presentations, and/or service learning activities
   • Provide measurable objectives that students will be expected to accomplish
   • Incorporate Lane’s core abilities
   • Produce student work that can be recorded in the students’ Personal Learning Environment (PLE, e-portfolio)

Honors Course/Option Proposal