Student resources

One of the most impactful experiences an LAS Honors student can pursue is a one-on-one project with an instructor. If you would like to earn an Honors grade in a standard/non-Honors course, you can opt to pursue an Honors project through completing an Electronic Honors Credit Learning Agreement (EHCLA). The Electronic Honors Credit Learning Agreement (EHCLA) is an email that is automatically sent when you enter the course, add the description of your project into your portfolio, and hit submit. Make sure you talk to your instructor beforehand and make sure they agree to the project before you put it into your portfolio, in order to avoid any surprised instructors. Your instructor or faculty member may submit their portion after the deadline, but you must submit your portion by the 6-week-portfolio deadline.

We typically describe Honors projects as something that students will commit an additional 10-12 hours to over the course of a semester, and it should be a project that asks you to go deeper into the subject matter and develop unique skills. So, ideally it’s not just turning a 6-page paper into a 16-page paper. Instead, a student might do an oral presentation, a unique research project, an annotated bibliography, a study of current events that relate to the subject matter, or a multimedia project.  

Examples

  • Photo essays
  • Presentations
  • Research experiences
  • Curricular development
  • Experiments
  • Surveys
  • Community outreach
  • Internet, film, or photographic projects
  • Multimedia essays
  • Social media explorations
  • Interdisciplinary projects

Project description example: For my honors project for my memory & amnesia psychology class, PSYC 403, I will be writing a 10-12 page paper in APA format where I will invent a fake patient for a case study. I will create a backstory and describe the patient, answering questions such as: Where did they grow up? What was their occupation? Do they have any family? What happened to them resulting in a memory impairment? I will also describe their symptomology, as well as: What can they do? What can't they do? Do they have any brain damage? What laboratory tests can they complete like a normal control subject? On which tests are they impaired? How are they similar to other patients in the literature? How are they different? This case study will include both my research on memory and amnesia as well as my creativity. 

Instructions

For students

These are the steps you should take if you’d like to earn Honors credit in a standard course.

  1. Go to class the first week and take a close look at the syllabus. Sometimes instructors will already have a suggested project in the syllabus. If they don’t, examine the topics and issues being covered in the class. What is most interesting to you? What issue or area of research would you love to explore? Is there a skillset you want to develop? This is your opportunity to learn more.
  2. Approach the instructor either in person or via email and ask them if they’d be willing to work on a project with you. Explain what your interests are and why you want to explore this topic or develop this set of skills. The project should be about 10-12 hours of additional work throughout the semester.
  3. After you and your instructor agree on a project, you need to go into your portfolio and enter in the course information. You’ll enter in the course and section number, and a "describe your project" box will appear. You'll enter your project description, and then when you hit "submit," an email will be automatically sent to your course instructor asking them to approve the project. That's the EHCLA—it's not a separate form. So, as long as you put the course and the project description in your portfolio and submit it before the Friday of the six-week of the fall or spring term, you're done! There is no honors course option available for the summer or winter terms.
  4. Complete your project throughout the semester with the guidance of your instructor.

For instructors

Honors projects vary widely because there are over 70 majors in LAS, so we’re not restrictive in any way about what the project can look like. We trust the professors who have the subject knowledge to guide the expectations for the project, and we also encourage students to suggest possible interests or ideas, too. Students should approach instructors early in the semester (within the first six weeks) to discuss and agree upon a topic. Then, the student will enter the information into their portfolio and submit it. 

Instructors will receive an email requesting that they approve the description of the project that they submitted. Instructors must approve the project in order for us to enable you to award an H-grade at the end of the semester.

  • First eight-week projects must be approved by the end of the sixth week of the fall or spring term to allow adequate time for changes made by LAS Honors.
  • Full sixteen week projects and second eight-week projects must be approved by the end of the twelfth week of the fall and spring terms to allow adequate time for changes made by LAS Honors.
  • Honors projects are not allowed by LAS Honors during summer or winter terms.

If the project is approved, it needs to be completed within the semester, but the specific timeline of the project is between the instructor and the student. We know the student gets the credit for completing it because you’ll be able to enter an H-grade when you submit final grades for the semester. So, for example, if you think they earned an A- in the course and completed the Honors project to your satisfaction, you’d select A-H when awarding letter grades. 

If you have any questions about Honors projects or EHCLAs, please reach out to LAS Honors at lashonors@illinois.edu