Thank you so much for your interest in teaching a course at the Pennoni Honors College. We invite you to explore the different avenues of teaching with PHC in the sections below.
Honors courses offer a distinctive learning environment which provides “measurably broader, deeper, and more complex learning-centered and learner-directed experiences for its students than are available elsewhere in the institution” (National Collegiate Honors Council, 2013). Common modes of Honors learning typically include elements of research and creative scholarship ("learning in depth"), breadth and enduring questions ("multi- or interdisciplinary learning"), service learning and leadership, or experiential learning.
Faculty members interested in teaching with Honors must first discuss this with their department chair to help determine the appropriate payment structure based on faculty workload and departmental needs. A faculty member’s ability to teach with Honors and the subsequent payment structure for their course(s) must be pre-approved by your home department prior to scheduling any Honors class(es).
Courses are scheduled one year in advance. Those who wish to be considered to teach in the Honors Program in the year ahead are encouraged to submit their Honors course proposal through the form below by April 1st. Explore our course offerings below and submit your proposal today!
For any faculty who are currently teaching or plan to teach with Honors, please be sure to join our PHC Faculty Resources Microsoft Teams group which serves as a repository for Honors teaching resources and a way to connect with fellow Honors faculty.
Please explore the types of courses we offer as well as our recommended teaching resources for planning your Honors learning environment.
These courses are small, discussion-based classes in any non-HNRS subject code at Drexel that provides an enriching experience to a student’s Drexel education. These sections are restricted to Honors Program students only and incorporate the principles of Honors pedagogy.
Are you interested in offering an Honors section in your home department? Reach out to LED96@drexel.edu.
HNRS courses are small, discussion-based classes designed to provide an enriching experience to any Honors Program student on a wide variety of topics and are open to students in every major. HNRS courses do not require prerequisite courses and are often cross-disciplinary in their approach to course content. Classes remain small to encourage peer-to-peer learning through conversation and collaboration. Examples include:
- HNRS 200 - Honors First-Year Seminar (1 credit; Fall Term only): The Honors First-year seminar courses are small, discussion-based classes that encourage new first-year students to engage in topics related to the yearly Symposium theme. This course is intended to be a stepping stone to Honors Colloquia.
- HNRS 201 - Honors Seminar (1 credit): This course provides a forum for students to engage with Drexel faculty and Visiting Scholars across a variety of topics and issues in a small, discussion-style setting. These courses often combine multiple disciplines.
- HNRS 280 - Great Works (1 credit): Great Works are one-credit courses designed for an in-depth exploration, reading, discussion, or analysis of a singular great work of literature, art, film, scientific discovery, cultural artifact, etc. over the course of a term in a small group setting.
- HNRS 300-308 - Honors Colloquia (3 credits): Honors Colloquia courses provide a forum for students to engage with Drexel faculty and Visiting Scholars across a variety of topics and issues. The content of these courses often combines multiple disciplines and perspectives.
- HNRS 302 - The Symposium (3 credits): The Symposium is an interdisciplinary course series organized by a yearly theme. It is intended to explore subjects of the broadest possible interest and greatest societal impact. This course series focuses on developing in students the active skills of interdisciplinary inquiry: critical thinking; methodological creativity; synthesis of information across fields; communication and collaboration among disciplines; and application of knowledge. Past themes include disaster, fashion, democracy, waste, and aging. The Symposium series is open to all students throughout Drexel.
To see examples the unique Honors sections we’ve offered, view the Web Term Master Schedule to see courses from the previous and current year. To navigate:
- Select a term
- Select "Pennoni Honors College" from the left-hand panel
- Select "Honors Program (HNRS)"
- Full course descriptions are available by clicking the CRN hyperlink next to the course title of interest
Teaching a blended Honors/non-Honors class presents challenges beyond those of teaching an all-Honors section. The goal is to engage Honors students in a deeper, more focused learning that reaches somewhat beyond the experience of their non-Honors peers in the same classroom.
View the Guidelines of Instructors of Blended Sections here.
A blended section combines two or more sections (either across disciplines or in the same discipline), wherein at least one section is taught at the Honors level. These are structured as a crosslisted group with the HONC attribute applied to the Honors-level section.
The enrollment distribution and the compensation structure for these courses is determined jointly between the Honors College and the non-Honors offering department. Please email LED96@drexel.edu with questions about offering a blended section.
Course attributes are system codes used to categorize sections of courses for purposes such as course scheduling and publishing. The assignment of course attributes is managed by the Office of the University Registrar in coordination with academic units across the University. Many course attributes can be used as search criteria in the Course Catalog and Class Search.
The attributes below align with the four pillars of our Honors with Distinction curriculum and help students identify courses that will fulfill each component of their curriculum.
Honors Civic Foundations
Honors Civic Foundations courses are designed to introduce theoretical frameworks that have shaped the American political system and examine these systems within the context of social change. Students will critically analyze historical texts and political cannon alongside modern perspectives and theories that have shaped the American democratic enterprise.
Honors Experiential Learning
Experiential learning fosters students’ ability to make connections among ideas/concepts and experiences outside of the formal classroom, so that they may “deepen their understanding of fields of knowledge and broaden their points of view.” Experiential learning enables students to engage with complex problems and issues by synthesizing and applying knowledge that is developed both inside and outside of the classroom (adapted from the AAC&U Integrative Learning VALUE Rubric).
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Community-Based/Community-Engaged Learning
Honors CB/EL courses “provide students with an opportunity to combine classroom learning with community engagement and reflection to think critically and deeply about pressing social issues and real-world applications of academic learning. The Lindy Center for Civic Engagement supports faculty in creating and advocating for Community-Based and Community-Engaged learning pedagogy. This pedagogy unites classroom learning, engagement opportunities, group dialogue, and guided introspection to make students more informed, more proximate, and more reflective about pressing issues that shape society. Community-engaged learning facilitates opportunities to further relationships between students, faculty and local/global community partners to pursue a public good and to—whether onsite or online—strengthen their collective capacity to address real problems that will generate a more just world in their careers and lives.” (The Lindy Center)
NOTE: Faculty who wish to offer an Honors CB/EL course must consult with The Lindy Center for Civic Engagement to be sure their syllabus is developed with the four elements of community-engaged pedagogy. Please email Cara Scharf at ces337@drexel.edu for additional information.
- Research, Independent Study, Alternative Spring Break
- External Partners (non-CBL) courses
Honors Global Perspective
Honors Global Perspective courses are intended to explore the structures, processes, cultures, and relationships that shape the global condition. Courses within this category may include Honors-level sections of Global Classrooms, Education Abroad, Foreign Language courses, Global Studies (GST) courses, or any traditional class with a primary focus on the critical analysis of global issues, systems or culture.
Honors Reflection
Honors Reflection coursework is intended to challenge students to make meaning of their experiences and form a deeper understanding of who they are and what they’ve learned. Through the process of reflection, students will explore the competencies and skills acquired throughout their time at Drexel, in their lived experiences, and through their Honors education and consider how this might shape their future professional paths or personal goals.
Honors Option Projects allow Honors students to earn Honors credit in any 300- and 400-level non-Honors courses at Drexel. For this project, a student works with their professor to design additional research, writing, or creative project worthy of Honors credit. Honors Options enrich and expand the student's depth of knowledge while encouraging collaboration and exploration beyond the standard coursework. Supervision of Honors Option projects is voluntary and up to instructor discretion.
To read more on the Honors Option process and timeline, click here.
If you have multiple Honors students in your section and you wish to design a project for all of your Honors student(s) to complete, you may submit a pre-determined Honors Option project for students to register. This is a great option for standardizing guidelines and expectations for multiple Honors students in a section. To submit an instructor-created project for your 300- or 400-level non-Honors course, please visit the Instructor Project Manager portal and submit your project details prior to week 1.
NOTE: If you have offered a built-in project through the portal in the past and wish to offer the same project again, please feel free to use the "duplicate" feature within the portal to easily copy the project details over to the current term.
If more than a few Honors students in your section wish to complete a class for Honors credit, a blended section or Honors section (depending on demand) may be the better choice. Please contact LED96@drexel.edu to discuss the right avenue for your unique situation.
How are course proposals selected?
- Course Design: Has the course been designed as a small-seminar style discussion class? Is it open to all majors at the university (i.e., are there pre-requisites or major restrictions)? Is the curriculum designed for all students operating at the Honors-level or is this a blended section?
- Budget Availability: Is the course funded entirely through the Honors budget? In-load for another department? 50/50? We have a limited budget each term and can only financially sponsor or co-sponsor so many courses within our budgetary constraints.
- Student Need/Accessibility: We are always looking for new and creative ways to help students earn Honors credits while also completing coursework required within their major. We leverage creative course offerings to meet the needs of our students in ways that best serve them financially, from a scheduling perspective, and in ways that satisfies their intellectual curiosity.
- Strategic Enrollment/Partnerships: Partnering with the Honors Program is a great way to maximize reach and enroll more students into a course that has vacancies. To maintain the quality and intentionality of our program, it is our goal for departments to consider opportunities to partner with Honors strategically and proactively, rather than as a last-minute crutch.
How is compensation structured for teaching with Honors?
Adjunct faculty members and University staff are compensated directly for their efforts since they do not have a teaching obligation as part an existing employment contract.
For full-time Drexel faculty, we will work with you to determine which financial model is right for your course, based on the needs of Honors, the needs of your home department, your own workload/departmental obligations, and, of course, budget availability. Faculty members interested in teaching with Honors must first discuss this with their primary department’s chair. A faculty member’s ability to teach with Honors and the subsequent payment structure for their course(s) must be pre-approved by your home department prior to scheduling any Honors class(es). Depending on the needs of Honors and your home department, we can consider:
- In load: Course counts towards faculty's teaching obligations in home department and are financed by the home department. Faculty teaching in load are not compensated beyond their original contract salary by the Honors College.
- Out of load: Course does not count as part of faculty teaching obligations in home department and the faculty member is compensated directly through the Honors College.
- Course buyout: Honors can pay your home department directly in order to buy your effort to teach an Honors course. In this scenario, the course counts towards a faculty's teaching obligations but is financed through the Honors College at the Honors adjunct rate of instruction. Rather than compensating faculty directly (out of load), funds are transferred from the Honors budget to the home department to cover faculty effort.
- Interdepartmental cost-share: In cases of crosslisted or blended sections, the Honors College and the home department can determine an enrollment distribution and funding split that is reasonable and appropriate for both departments.
What happens if my course proposal is not accepted for the term/year I proposed?
Adjunct faculty members and University staff are compensated directly for their efforts since they do not have a teaching obligation as part an existing employment contract.
Course offering decisions are made based on student need, budget availability, and strategic balance of discipline areas. Due to these factors, we are not able to run every course that is proposed. If your proposal is not selected for the term/year in which you proposed, we will contact you to let you know that we either could not accept your proposal at this time or, alternatively, we may ask to retain your proposal if an opening becomes available within the year. Otherwise, we encourage you to submit a proposal again the following year.
How long will Pennoni Honors College retain my proposal?
Course proposals are only retained for the academic year for which they are proposed. If you wish to be considered for a teaching opportunity in the following year, you must resubmit your proposal.
Do you compensate instructors who supervise of Honors Option projects?
No, supervision of Honors Option projects is voluntary and up to instructor discretion. We do not issue compensation for the supervision of this additional project.
I still have questions. Who can I contact?
Email us at HonorsProgram@drexel.edu HonorsProgram@drexel.edu! Either the Program Director, Dr. Kevin Egan, or the Assistant Director of Academic Operations, Lauren Davis, will respond to your inquiry in a timely manner.
Each year, faculty members from across the University are selected to work in interdisciplinary pairs to co-teach six courses designed to elaborate different dimensions of the broader, unifying Symposium theme. Its intent is to explore subjects of the broadest possible interest and greatest societal impact. While the yearly theme and individual course topics change, one mainstay of the Symposium is that it consistently fosters interdisciplinary learning through both curricular and co-curricular opportunities.
The Symposium theme for the 2025-26 Academic Year is "Monsters." View the full details about the Symposium and the theme’s full description on the program webpage. Faculty members may either identify their own interdisciplinary partner to propose a course for consideration or, alternatively, they may elect to participate in the Course Proposal Networking Session (held February 21, 2025).
If you are interested in taking part in this unique teaching opportunity, consider submitting a course proposal for review. Here’s how it works:
- Identify a potential interdisciplinary co-instructor
An interdisciplinary co-instructor simply means someone with a different academic background or expertise than you.
Don’t have an interdisciplinary co-instructor yet? No problem!
Faculty interested in teaching for the Symposium but in need of an interdisciplinary co-instructor attend the Course Proposal Networking Session to identify a potential partnership. If a co-instructor is successfully identified following the session, the faculty pair may then submit their official course proposal for consideration prior to the April 1st deadline. The networking session is required if you propose a course without a co-instructor!
- Register for the 2025 Course Proposal Networking Session now by submitting the Symposium Course Proposal Form and following prompts by February 1, 2025.
- Plan to attend the Friday, February 21, 2025 networking session!
Already have a co-instructor in mind? Great!
Faculty who have already identified an interdisciplinary co-instructor may submit their official course proposal for consideration any time prior to the April 1st deadline. Depending on the proposal, faculty may be asked to revise or potentially attend the Course Proposal Networking Session.
- Submit a 2025-2026 Symposium course proposal
Complete the AY 2025-2026 Symposium Course Proposal Form by April 1, 2025.
If your course proposal is selected…
- Attend the Symposium Faculty Kick-off Event in Summer 2025.
- Prepare for your upcoming course!
Course attributes are system codes used to categorize sections of courses for purposes such as course scheduling and publishing. The assignment of course attributes is managed by the Office of the University Registrar in coordination with academic units across the University. Many course attributes can be used as search criteria in the Course Catalog and Class Search.
The attributes below are used by the Honors Program to identify courses that will fulfill specific criteria of a student’s Honors academic requirements.
Honors Civic Foundations
Honors Civic Foundations courses are designed to introduce theoretical frameworks that have shaped the American political system and examine these systems within the context of social change. Students will critically analyze historical texts and political cannon alongside modern perspectives and theories that have shaped the American democratic enterprise.
Honors Experiential Learning
Experiential learning fosters students’ ability to make connections among ideas/concepts and experiences outside of the formal classroom, so that they may “deepen their understanding of fields of knowledge and broaden their points of view.” Experiential learning enables students to engage with complex problems and issues by synthesizing and applying knowledge that is developed both inside and outside of the classroom (adapted from the AAC&U Integrative Learning VALUE Rubric).
-
Community-Based/Community-Engaged Learning
Honors CB/EL courses “provide students with an opportunity to combine classroom learning with community engagement and reflection to think critically and deeply about pressing social issues and real-world applications of academic learning. The Lindy Center for Civic Engagement supports faculty in creating and advocating for Community-Based and Community-Engaged learning pedagogy. This pedagogy unites classroom learning, engagement opportunities, group dialogue, and guided introspection to make students more informed, more proximate, and more reflective about pressing issues that shape society. Community-engaged learning facilitates opportunities to further relationships between students, faculty and local/global community partners to pursue a public good and to—whether onsite or online—strengthen their collective capacity to address real problems that will generate a more just world in their careers and lives.” (The Lindy Center)
NOTE: Faculty who wish to offer an Honors CB/EL course must consult with The Lindy Center for Civic Engagement to be sure their syllabus is developed with the four elements of community-engaged pedagogy. Please email Cara Scharf at ces337@drexel.edu for additional information.
- Research, Independent Study, Alternative Spring Break
- External Partners (non-CBL) courses
Honors Global Perspective
Honors Global Perspective courses are intended to explore the structures, processes, cultures, and relationships that shape the global condition. Courses within this category may include Honors-level sections of Global Classrooms, Education Abroad, Foreign Language courses, Global Studies (GST) courses, or any traditional class with a primary focus on the critical analysis of global issues, systems or culture.
Honors Reflection
Honors Reflection coursework is intended to challenge students to make meaning of their experiences and form a deeper understanding of who they are and what they’ve learned. Through the process of reflection, students will explore the competencies and skills acquired throughout their time at Drexel, in their lived experiences, and through their Honors education and consider how this might shape their future professional paths or personal goals.
What is the Course Proposal Networking Session?
The Course Proposal Networking Session is an opportunity for faculty/adjuncts interested in teaching with the Symposium to meet peers from other discipline areas with the goal of locating an interdisciplinary co-instructor with whom to propose a course. The session offers an opportunity for structured introductions and discussion of course ideas within the year’s theme. Each faculty member will submit their preferred pairings to PHC staff who will complete the matching process. Once faculty have received their suggested interdisciplinary match from PHC staff, the pair may choose to submit a course proposal for consideration by the April 1st deadline.
What if my course proposal is not selected?
If your proposal is not selected for the term/year in which you proposed, we will contact you to let you know that we either could not accept your proposal at this time or, alternatively, we may ask to retain your proposal in the event that an opening becomes available within the year.
I still have questions. Who can I contact?
Please contact Dr. Katie Barak, Associate Director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Inquiry (CII), via email at ksb89@drexel.edu. Dr. Barak directs the Symposium and can answer any questions you may have.