Honors Independent Study
Use the independent study to design an educational experience that goes beyond what is typically offered in the classroom. This is your chance to innovate in the creation and execution of a specially designed honors class.
Guidelines
Contracts connect to an existing university course—Honors Independent Study lets you create an entire course from scratch! Student research projects or those shared with faculty members, certain internship opportunities*, or some types of work or volunteer experiences could all serve as the basis for a strong independent study. You are responsible for lining up the study site and supervisor, but can request help from the Honors Director where necessary. This is intended to be separate from other projects, so you aren't able to design an independent study while receiving credit for the same work in other areas such as teaching practica, co-op experiences or research assistantships for credit.
*Students who would like to receive independent study credit for an internship must create an academic component to go along with their experience. This option allows students to use their internship as the basis for an honors project.
Procedures
- Determine responsibilities and workload in consultation with faculty or placement supervisor
- Create a proposal outlining the project and your supervisor's expectations
- Enroll in UNIV 4198 - Honors Independent Study
- Keep a bi-weekly journal of your experiences and progress
- Apply up to 6 hours of honors independent study toward an honors designation
Evaluation
A written evaluative summary of the experience is required, with a general guideline of 3-4 pages of summary for every registered credit hour. If you produce a research paper or other similar work product, that should be submitted in place of an evaluative summary. Supervisors will be asked to give a general evaluation of the student's work at midterm and at finals, as well as a recommendation for the final grade. The work product/evaluative summary, supervisor evaluations, and recommended grade will be combined for the final independent study grade.
Credit Hours
Hours of work/week Credits
3-5 1
6-8 2
9 or more 3