General Sessions Saturday, November 9, 2013: 3:30 PM-4:20 PM
Sheraton New Orleans Hotel (Bayside B)
274-1 Perceptivity Online: Honors Students and Social Media
Daniel Villanueva, University of Nevada, Reno
The University of Nevada, Reno Honors Program surveyed use of selected social media among its students, requesting information on the sites' popularity, relevance to their studies and usefulness for receiving information on honors policies and events. The surprising results and their implications for recruitment, retention and curriculum are presented here.
274-2 The Connections and Disconnections of Social Media: How the Virtual World Impacts Relationship Development among Honors Students
Matty Kerr, South Dakota State University;
Barbara Kleinjan, South Dakota State University;
Hanna Larsen, South Dakota State University;
Kyla Larsen, South Dakota State University;
Jordan Nichols, South Dakota State University;
Ben Stout, South Dakota State University
The Honors Interpersonal Relationship 201 course at South Dakota State University examines Communication technology, researches digital footprints, scrutinizes the positive and negative consequences of honors students using social media, and utilizes electronic relationship building skills. These are principles that can and should be applied to honors courses in all disciplines.
Sheraton New Orleans Hotel (Bayside C)
286 Transformation in Higher Education: A Scalable New Model for Honors Education
Lisa Avery, Community Colleges of Spokane/American Honors;
David Finegold, American Honors
A new public-private partnership seeks to broaden access to honors education by creating 2+2 partnerships between leading community colleges and top 200 colleges and universities. Early results from American Honors' first pilot will be shared from an honors student, the honors college dean, a four-year president, and an AH VP.
Sheraton New Orleans Hotel (Borgne)
285 Mission Impossible III--"Show Me the Money": Indirect and Direct Assessment of Honors Enrollment Management Strategies
Vincent Brewton, University of North Alabama;
Michelle Hawley, California State University Los Angeles;
Becky Spritz, Roger Williams University
This panel explores recruitment and retention of honors first-year students. Faculty representing a small private, large public, and mid-sized regional university will discuss their efforts to align enrollment management strategies with their respective university. Challenges relating to the indirect and direct assessment of enrollment management initiatives will be emphasized.
Sheraton New Orleans Hotel (Grand Chenier)
282-1 Growth Through Experiential Learning in Leadership
Nathan Bodenschatz, University of Cincinnati;
Victoria Roser, University of Cincinnati
Explore what has driven two University of Cincinnati Honors Program (UHP) students to create impact within their communities and campus. Experiential learning in leadership has guided them on unique paths, eventually leading to the evolution of their knowledge and passions, and they encourage others to invest in these opportunities.
Sheraton New Orleans Hotel (Grand Couteau)
279-1 Redesigning an Honors Program with a Focus on Student Engagement and Self-Authorship
Gretchen Huwe, St Cloud State University;
Daniel Macari, St. Cloud State University
This session will discuss the transformation of an honors program from one based largely on academic requirements in the first two years to one that engages students throughout their time on campus in both academic and co-curricular experiences and ties the college experience to the university's stated learning objectives.
279-2 Turning Around an Honors College
Annal Frenz, Boise State University;
Christopher Hyer, Boise State University
Change within a university setting can be difficult to initiate. When the program has limited awareness on campus, positive change can be difficult to initiate. Find out how Boise State has begun those changes.
Sheraton New Orleans Hotel (Maurepas)
283-2 Restructuring Sapere Aude: How integrating Honors-style interdisciplinarity changed and elevated a student-run journal
Nicole Connolly, Chapman University;
Isabel Hsu, Chapman University;
Cristiana Wilcoxon, Chapman University
The foundation of a quality honors education is interdisciplinarity, but most journals still display submissions in a disciplinary manner. The editors of Chapman University Honors Program's online journal, Sapere Aude, have abandoned traditional disciplinary categories and transformed their journal into a thematic and interdisciplinary showcase of student work.
Sheraton New Orleans Hotel (Napoleon A2)
275-1 Building Engagement Through Service: Enhancing the Honors Curriculum at UMBC
Jessica Guzman-Rea, University of Maryland Baltimore County;
Jodi Kelber-Kaye, University of Maryland Baltimore County;
Simon Stacey, University of Maryland Baltimore County
To cultivate students' awareness of their capacity to make change, we integrate service-learning into our mandatory freshman honors class. We will review our experience to determine whether this initial emphasis on service is likely later to result in a greater commitment to service, or in students' self-understanding as change agents.
Sheraton New Orleans Hotel (Napoleon A3)
277-1 Making Honors HIP: Transforming diverse students through interdisciplinary and global learning experiences
Stacey Sinclair, San Diego State University
SDSU has successfully embedded and leveraged high impact practices (HIP) into its honors program while simultaneously making these opportunities accessible to a diverse student body. This session will explore the systematic pathway of transformational learning opportunities that have proven effective in helping create an intentional community of diverse, engaged scholars.
277-2 Assessment Beyond the Program
Michael Cundall, North Carolina A&T State University;
Kashian Scrivens, North Carolina A&T State University
This session will focus on assessment of activities beyond the typical program and course level assessments. This is an initial foray into tracking the effectiveness of a lecture series in the long term.
Sheraton New Orleans Hotel (Napoleon B2)
280-1 Why EKU Honors Loves Our Library: Research Based on Collaboration with the Noel Studio for Academic Creativity
Kevin Jones, Eastern Kentucky University;
Trenia Napier, Eastern Kentucky University;
Hannah Zimmerman, Eastern Kentucky University
This panel will present qualitative and quantitative research investigating the effectiveness of collaboration between the Eastern Kentucky University (EKU) honors thesis curriculum and services offered by partnering entities, EKU Libraries and The Noel Studio for Academic Creativity.
280-2 Academic Rigor in the Freshman Seminar: But Ouch! Student Antipathy to E-Books
Susan Bachman, Concordia University Irvine
Social media, phone and general e-skills do not predict ability and agility with e-books for college work. Freshman seminar honors students liked having choices and gave zero pushback to the critical review reading/writing assignment. Yet they ended up hating E-reading. A two-year experiment by Dr. Bachman and the student committee reveals best strategies for win-win.
Sheraton New Orleans Hotel (Napoleon C2)
284-2 Running Independent Honors Council
Sarah Luft, University of Connecticut;
Laura Santry, University of Connecticut;
S'ha Siddiqi, University of Connecticut
The UConn Honors Council is completely student run. Unlike many honors councils, it is not housed under the university honors program. Rather, it is an independent student organization that organizes and funds its own events. With seven committees, it provides exciting opportunities for honors students at the University of Connecticut.
Sheraton New Orleans Hotel (Napoleon D2)
276-1 Transforming the Study Abroad Experience through the Reflective Model of Intercultural Competence
Beata Jones, Texas Christian University;
Tracy Williams, Texas Christian University
Study abroad can be a rich learning experience, but students often need encouragement to push their boundaries and process their experiences. The Reflective Model of Intercultural Competence is a methodology to facilitate this learning. We will discuss our experiences applying it to short-term and semester-long study abroad experiences and provide suggestions for others to implement the model.
276-2 Enhancing International Opportunities for Honors Students through Curriculum Integration
Julie Lohr, GlobaLinks Learning Abroad
Providing appropriate international opportunities for honors students can present numerous unforeseen challenges. Through curriculum integration, honors students deepen their studies abroad through contextualizing their learning at their home institution. This session will first detail the process necessary for a successful curriculum integration program and then present various integrated models.
Sheraton New Orleans Hotel (Napoleon D3)
278-1 Research and creative scholarship for Honors students: Examining three types of undergraduate grant opportunities
Rebecca D'Angelo, University of Connecticut;
Jennifer Lease Butts, University of Connecticut
Research and creative scholarship are forms of engaged pedagogy which have been hallmarks of honors education. This session examines one university's approach to sustaining this pedagogy through grants to support undergraduates at three stages in the undergraduate career. The administration and funding sources for these grants will also be reviewed.
278-2 Freshmen Scholars
Rachel Belcher, Ferrum College;
Lana Whited, Ferrum College
This joint faculty-student presentation gives an overview of the new freshman research program at Ferrum College, called the Freshmen Scholars. This program works to introduce academically inclined freshmen to faculty, facilities, and research before officially entering college.
Sheraton New Orleans Hotel (Nottoway)
270-1 The Online Honors Experience
Jimmy Middlebrook, Walden University;
Barbra Nightingale, Broward College
This session will present two different perspectives on online honors learning. One from a grounds up development, and one from an established program that incorporates both traditional and online honors classes. A dialogue of the honors online experience is encouraged, as well as some nuts and bolts approaches.
270-2 Honors Student Voices on Building a Forum of Online Reflective Learners, Or "How Do I Know I've Really Learned?"
Roxy Rosario, Columbia College South Carolina;
Kate Shugar, Columbia College South Carolina;
Kristina Syrigos, Columbia College South Carolina;
Madeline Thiemann, Columbia College South Carolina;
Lydia Surrett, Columbia College South Carolina
A collaborative online forum is a powerful means of creating a safe, challenging environment that helps diverse students understand and document their own learning for improvement and self-assessment. We will explore the benefits and hurdles of embracing online forums in building a diverse community of reflective honors learners.
Sheraton New Orleans Hotel (Oak Alley)
281-1 From D-List to A-List: Using Student Learning Outcomes to Standardize Honors Option Contracts
Shirley Myers, Gallaudet University;
Geoffrey Whitebread, Gallaudet University
Broad, descriptive guidelines make the extraordinarily personalized learning of honors option contracts seem more of a burden than a benefit. Standardizing expectations and assessment through student learning outcomes reduces difficulties for faculty, increases student appreciation, and aids honors administrators in tracking, reporting and featuring contracts as A-list honors education.
281-2 Honors College Contracts: A Medium for Transformational Education
Annie Williams, West Virginia University
A relatively unlimited, peer-reviewed contracting program allows our honors students to transform their honors education. In this session, a short presentation on the West Virginia University Honors College contracting program will be given, followed by an open discussion and exchange of ideas for improving or initiating contracting procedures.
