Faculty Resources

Interested in teaching with the Honors program? We are currently accepting course proposals for AY 25-26!! 

All new courses must be reviewed by the Honors Council before being approved.  Priority will be given to courses submitted before January 16th 2025. Please feel free to reach out to Honors Director Kate Tennis (katherine.tennis@du.edu) if you have any questions.

Course Proposal Form (for new Honors courses or those taught 3+ years ago)
Course Renewal Form (for existing Honors courses taught in the last 3 years)

Most of our courses meet Common Curriculum requirements. Honors AISCs and SISCs are capped at 25 seats; Honors ASEMs have the same seat cap as the rest of your department. All common curriculum courses must be taught on-load by appointed faculty. 

We also offer a number of Honors Seminars each quarter that are taught on overload. These courses are 2 credits and are capped at 15 students. They can be taught on any subject of particular scholarly interest to the faculty member, and ideally bring students in to the research, scholarly, or creative process. 

You can find more information on how Honors courses are different in the tab below.

Honors Program Mission Statement

The DU Honors Program cultivates student capacity for original academic inquiry and creative exploration. 

Our students emerge as self-directed learners, encouraged to ask new questions and pursue their curiosities – both within the classroom and beyond. 

Every year, the program recruits a diverse cohort of creative thinkers who want to go beyond the requirements – whether they were part of an Honors program in high school or not.   

The three pillars of the Honors Program are our curriculum, our community, and our contributions to original research, scholarship, and creative activities.

Honors courses

To achieve these goals, DU Honors courses help cultivate habits of mind that encourage self-directed learning and inquiry that students will need to eventually pursue a capstone distinction project in their majors.

Honors Course Learning Objectives

After taking an Honors course, students will be able to … 

• Ask their own questions and reflect on metacognitive questions such as “how do you know?” 
• Better tolerate ambiguity and complexity and learn to dig deep without a prescribed result
• Appreciate the methodological and/or creative approaches used in this discipline

Pedagogical Approaches

Honors courses are not designed to simply add more work. Achieving the mission and learning objectives above requires a learning-centered and learner-directed approach that puts students in the driver’s seat of their own education. Students should have opportunities to think, write, and produce on their own or in collaboration with classmates with guidance and ongoing feedback and encouragement from instructors. Classrooms should be open to many perspectives and points of view. Students should be encouraged to take intellectual risks and feel safe doing so.

Learning approaches that might help achieve these goals might include (but are certainly not limited to) the following:

• In-class research experiences 
• Engagement with primary sources
• Co-curricular experiences or service learning that directly support in-class learning
• Socratic or discussion-based learning
• Simulations
• Project-based learning

As described in NCHC’s Honors Course Design document, “The finest instructors are those who are ‘willing to share the responsibility for teaching and learning with their students.’”

If you teach with our program and want to add an Honors experience to your class that requires funding, we have a few course grants available every year. You may request up to $500.

More details are available on the grant application, which asks for a 200-600 word description of the proposed use of the funds and a budget outline. 

Check out additional details and apply

Please apply before the start of the quarter in which you are planning to use the grant.
Funding is limited and cannot be guaranteed.

Interested in getting more involved with the Honors program? Our Honors Council brings together faculty from across the University alongside Honors student representatives who meet regularly to provide guidance and structure to the program, including advising on course proposals, Honors contracts, program structure, and other key decisions. 

Different departments have different selection processes for Honors Council representatives. But please reach out to us at honors@du.edu if you are interested in joining.

Our program is a member of the National Collegiate Honors Council (NCHC) which is designed to support and enhance the community of educational institutions, professionals, and students who participate in collegiate honors education around the world.

Our membership opens up a number of opportunities for faculty and students including workshops, an annual conference, trainings, and other events. 

More information can be found here: https://nchc.site-ym.com/