AED 403h Class Project 1 Enhancing the Honors Experience: Is the Answer More Courses?
Authors: Shannon Cochran, Nicole Friedrichs, Deanna Hapken, Arin Haverland, Carol Manhart, Janie Mercer, Jennie Oxley, & Alex Perwin Preceptors: Chelsea Powell & Caily Roth Instructor: Nancy Huber, Ph. D. Date Submitted: May 4, 2004
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Abstract
The purpose of this project is to survey students, faculty, and department heads to determine if there are currently enough honors courses. After this was done, it was discovered that 73.5% of responding students are not satisfied with the number of honors courses currently being offered. 53.33% of responding faculty agreed. Of the three responding department heads, two believed that a satisfactory number of honors courses are currently offered and one department head had no opinion. Furthermore, a majority of responding students (64.26%) felt that more honors courses within their majors would enhance their experience in the honors college. AED 403h Class Project 2 ______
Introduction
Honors Collaborative Leadership (AED 403h) is a class that is being offered experimentally this semester here at the University of Arizona. Its purpose is to offer students the opportunity to learn and apply leadership concepts and skills within the context of the campus community. As a part of this learning process, our class designed a project that will engage and enhance the campus community.
Since all of us in this class are honors students we have the unique opportunity of focusing our class project on the honors college. The beginnings of this project focused on examining what is working well in the Honors College and what can be improved, as well as examining the honors programs at peer institutions. After discussing our respective honors experiences, we concluded that what would most enhance our honors experience would be an increase in the number of honors courses available. We also considered whether the lack of honors courses in particular fields was the most detrimental. We predicted that the honors experience would be most enhanced if more honors courses were offered in majors, but it would also be beneficial to offer more general education honors classes and honors classes as electives, as opposed to offering a few specialized courses. It was subsequently determined that the input of other honors students, faculty/teaching staff, and department heads was necessary, before any conclusions could be drawn or plans of action could be proposed.
We decided that the best way to acquire this input would be to conduct a series of surveys: one set designed to obtain the input of current honors students; one set designed to acquire the input of department heads; and another set for faculty. The surveys were distributed via a link contained in both an e-mail to the honors listserv and a 3D memo. After the results of AED 403h Class Project 3 the surveys were obtained, the information was sorted and compared to the results of surveys that have been given to students when they update their honors status at the beginning of every semester.
In order to give this project direction, a mission statement was composed: the purpose of our project is to survey students, faculty, and department heads to determine if there are currently enough honors courses. AED 403h Class Project 4 ______
Surveys
The following are the three surveys that were distributed over the internet to students, faculty/teaching staff, and department heads for the purpose of gathering information concerning the honors college.
Students
Honors College Course Survey
In your opinion, are there enough Honors courses offered at the University of Arizona? o Yes o No o No Opinion
Please list Honors courses you are taking this semester:
What is your major?
Have you been able to register for an adequate number of Honors courses? o Yes o No
If your answer was No, is the problem due to: (Select Only ONE) o The number of courses available o The registration process o Both
Is it important to have additional Honors courses in the following areas? (Check All That Apply) Gen Ed Requirements In Your Major As Electives
Where is the greatest need for Honors courses? (Select Only ONE) o Gen Ed Requirements o In Your Major o As Electives
Please list examples of honors courses you would like to have available:
If you would like to be notified when the results are posted online, please enter your e-mail address: AED 403h Class Project 5 Thank you for taking the time to participate in our survey.
Faculty/Teaching Staff
Honors College Course Survey
In your opinion, are there enough Honors courses offered at the University of Arizona? o Yes o No o No Opinion
What type of Honors courses should be added, if any?
What department are you in?
Have you taught or are you currently teaching any Honors classes? o Yes o No
If you could teach any Honors course, what would it be?
What incentives would help you to decide to teach an Honors course?
If you would like to be notified when the results are posted online, please enter your e-mail address:
Thank you for taking the time to participate in our survey.
Department Heads
Honors College Course Survey
In your opinion, are there enough Honors courses offered at the University of Arizona? o Yes o No o No Opinion
What type of Honors courses should be added, if any?
What is your department?
How many of your faculty are involved in teaching Honors courses?
How many Honors courses in total, are offered through your department?
From your perspective, what are the incentives to add Honors courses to your teaching schedule?
If you would like to be notified when the results are posted online, please enter your e-mail address: AED 403h Class Project 6 Thank you for taking the time to participate in our survey. AED 403h Class Project 7 ______
Results of Student Surveys
Number of Are There Enough Honors Courses? Response Percentage Students Yes 66 26.5% No 183 73.5%
yes no
Number of Where is the Greatest Need for Honors Response Percentage Courses? Students Major 160 64.26% General 62 24.90% Major Education No Response Electives 25 10.04% General Education Electives No Response 2 0.80%
The following is the breakdown by majors (for majors with a sufficient response) to the preceding question: Where is the greatest need for honors course?
Biochemistry Political Science
Major Major Electives Electives General Education General Education AED 403h Class Project 8
Psychology Molecular & Cellular Biology
Major Major Electives Electives General Education General Education
Pre-Business Undeclared
Major Major Electives Electives General Education General Education
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Results of Faculty/Teaching Staff Surveys
Are There Enough Honors Courses? Number of Response Faculty/Teaching Percentage Staff
Yes Yes 2 13.33% No No Opinion No 8 53.33% No 5 33.33% Response
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How many How many What are faculty Are there honors some What type members are enough courses are incentives to Department should be involved in honors offered by add more added? teaching courses? this honors honors department? courses? courses? intrinsic reward of Agriculture Yes (No Answer) Less than 25 Less than 25 working with honors students sharing Geography & interests, Co-taught, Regional No Opinion 2 1 attract better local research Development undergraduate majors
Veterinary work in labs, Science & Yes Any 3-4 3-4 extra Microbiology discussions AED 403h Class Project 10 ______
Results of the Honors College Survey
This data set was taken from the Honors Updating Responses, tables 13, 14, and 15.
Fall 1999 Spring 2000 Fall 2000 Spring 2001 Fall 2001* Spring 2002 Fall 2002 Spring 2003
Percentage of students satisfied with the quantity All 49 49 57 58 58 59 60 58 of honors courses in the Colleges area of general education
Agriculture 54 24 36 38 ------35 34 29 Architecture 3 9 30 38 ------53 14 71 Business 26 29 28 27 ------25 27 28 Education 32 44 44 39 ------48 41 52 Percentage of students Engineering 38 43 37 44 ------53 45 46 satisfied with the quantity Fine Arts 29 22 26 28 ------24 22 21 of honors courses in their Humanities 28 30 28 32 ------34 28 32 college Science 50 49 57 56 ------57 53 49 SBS 26 30 36 34 ------37 30 31 University 31 34 36 36 ------40 50 48 Average 35 36 36 36 ------41 37 38 Agriculture 25 21 32 27 18 28 21 21 Architecture 5 14 18 32 21 40 14 59 Business 16 17 17 13 12 12 17 16 Education 19 28 40 30 31 38 33 36 Percentage of students Engineering 22 33 26 36 34 41 39 37 satisfied with the quantity Fine Arts 16 20 21 21 23 15 14 16 of honors courses in their major Humanities 20 17 20 19 21 27 18 28 Science 43 42 48 51 49 51 49 44 SBS 17 21 27 27 25 21 24 22 University 20 20 23 19 23 23 38 25 Average 25 27 30 31 29 31 30 29 * There was no data available for the percentage of students satisfied with the quantity of honors courses in their college for the fall of 2001 AED 403h Class Project 11 ______
Conclusion
The results of our surveys show a significant gap in opinion between students/faculty/teaching staff and department heads. Overall, students are not satisfied with the number of honors courses offered by the University. The results from the faculty/teaching staff are similar. Department heads seem to disagree, however. The results of the department head survey show that the department heads believe that the number of honors courses is adequate.
Not a sufficient number of responses were collected to draw any definite conclusions, though.
There was a surprising lack of response from the faculty/teaching staff and the department heads.
Many more people were given the opportunity to answer the survey than did. Since there were such a small number of responses from these two groups, it is difficult to determine if the collected responses accurately represent the opinions of the faulty/teaching staff and department heads.
Of the student responses, there were several inconsistent characteristics in the data set.
For example, one student answered that it is only important to have additional honors courses in general education requirements, but then answered that the greatest need for honors courses is in majors. There were several responses with similar results. Furthermore, 26.5% of students who responded to the survey agreed that there are enough honors courses. But, these students went on to respond to subsequent questions asking where the greatest need for more honors courses is, even though they had previously indicated that there is no need for more honors courses.
With regard to the question asking where is the greatest need for more honors courses, the six majors with the most responses were sorted. Of these majors, only students in pre- business and students who have yet to declare a major thought that more general elective honors AED 403h Class Project 12 courses should be offered. Biochemistry, political science, psychology, and molecular and cellular biology majors all thought that more honors courses should be offered within their majors.
When analyzed, the data from the survey conducted by the Honors College showed that slightly more than half of returning students to the honors college are satisfied with the quantity of honors general education classes. When it comes to honors classes in specific colleges and majors, on average, significantly less than half of students are satisfied with the number of honors classes. These responses are similar to those found in this survey.
Overall, the data of both this survey and the survey directed by the Honors College suggest that honors students believe that their experiences would be enhanced if more honors courses were offered. Furthermore, it is also implied that the best way to achieve this is to augment the current number of honors courses within colleges and majors.
In order to further this project, we propose that an additional semester is needed to hold a forum in which students, teachers, and department heads will be welcome to come, ask questions and get feedback.