Faculty

Teaching in Honors

We offer a variety of courses in the Honors program, including Honors Sections of regular courses, professional development and leadership courses, and interdisciplinary courses.  Interdisciplinary courses are frequently team-taught and are often sponsored through campus sources like the Graham Center or Center for Humanities in the Public Sphere.

We also offer a large number of one-credit seminar courses centered on a great book or art exhibit/performance.

If you are interested in teaching an Honors course, please contact Dr. Johnson, Interim Director of Honors at mjohnson@honors.ufl.edu for deadlines and processes.

UF Honors courses are small and encourage close interaction with faculty.  They push students more deeply into analysis, synthesis, and evaluation than regular courses. They encourage students to develop these characteristics:

• Academic Diversity
• Creativity and Curiosity
• Critical Thinking and Lifelong Learning
• Intellectual Confidence

You can read more about teaching in honors, best practices, and sample activities here.

Teaching Honors Sections

Honors sections are honors versions of regular offerings.  At this time, there is no approval process for them.  Faculty and departments can offer honors versions of any class that will draw sufficient enrollment.  Contact Dr. Johnson for help on identifying courses that might be appropriate.  An Honors section should push students toward one or more of the student development areas, using best practices for honors courses.  Our sample activities list has some good activities for students to help support the course objectives.

Honors sections typically have one of two approaches.  One option is they are built as a separate course with different lectures that include more advanced material.  The second option is to add a weekly discussion to the main course where students are given extra reading that goes beyond the basic material. 

Honors courses are smaller (typical cap at 25 for these) and allow a greater amount of interaction between the instructor and the student. The small class size should facilitate class discussion and allow for more frequent written assignments. More faculty feedback to the student should also be possible. 

Please keep in mind that the students in the Honors Program are undergraduates and are to be evaluated as such.  You should not expect them to have the same sort of sophistication as graduate students, nor should you expect them to perform at that level.  Students should not feel “punished” for enrolling in honors courses; that is, the workload should not be excessive or significantly heavier than an ordinary course (although some extra work is appropriate).  Please remember this as you design and grade your assignments. 

Teaching Uncommon Arts and Reads

Uncommon reads are centered on a book.  Uncommon arts are centered on a performance or an exhibit, Supplemental readings or a book to support the course is typical.  Both course types are one-credit and discussion-based. A final project is typical for both types and the sample activities list has some good possibilities.  The typical enrollment cap is 15 and courses usually meet once per week for one hour. Deadlines are in mid-September for Spring Semester classes and early February for Fall classes. You can apply to teach using this form.  You must use your UF google cloud account to access the form.

Teaching Uncommon Classrooms

Uncommon Classrooms are 1-credit courses designed around unusual topics with cities, places, and natural landscapes serving as experimental classrooms. Trips typically last a few days to a week and occur during academic breaks or long weekends.

This classification of Honors course was introduced in 2020 with a 4-day spring break trip to New York to explore how cities preserve (or not) their history - from revolutionary times to the tenements on the lower east side. The instructor guided students through monuments, museums, and historical places, and the city served as a sort of text for critical inquiry and integrative learning. Honors scheduled the course and helped organize travel logistics. The instructor developed the course and was compensated for designing and leading the trip.

Faculty members interested in Uncommon Classroom courses or adding a one-credit experiential learning opportunity to an existing Honors course should contact Dr. Kristy Spear kspear@honors.ufl.edu for more information.

Signature Seminars

Signature seminars are an opportunity for a professor to share their research work with undergraduate students in a weekly seminar format.