1975 DeTrobriand, Bldg 619 Fort Douglas | Salt Lake City, Utah 84113 | Phone: 801.581.7383 | Fax: 801.585.5034 | www.honors.utah.edu
Honors College Assessment
The Honors College completed a formal review in 2011 by the University of Utah
Undergraduate Council, including internal and external assessment. Since 2012, the College has
made strides in each of the 9 recommended areas.
1. Stabilize honors student population at no more than 10% of the total undergraduate
student population.
 In 2012, the Honors College implemented a new admissions process for
applicants which includes double-blind review, two short-response essays, and
feedback data on yield rates.
 The current incoming freshman class represents 15% of new students at the
University of Utah; total Honors population reflects 8-9% of total number of
undergraduates.
o 79.20% of incoming Honors students for Fall 2015 are in state; 20.8% are
out of state
o 50.43% are male; 49.57% are female
o 72.44% are white, and 27.56% students of color including Asian (13.3%),
Hispanic/Latino (11.09%), Black (1.56%), American Indian (1.21%) and
Pacific Islander (0.35%)
2. Additional staff to serve recent growth in student population and needs created by new
residential space.
 The Honors staff has grown from 7 to 13, including 3 new academic advisors, a
full-time recruitment, admissions and program director, a program coordinator
and a receptionist.
 Academic advisors saw over 1400 students during the 2014-2015 academic year,
nearly tripling the number of students served the previous year
3. Continue to build relationships between deans and departmental chairs.
 The dean and associate dean have created stronger ties to colleges and
departments with increased collaboration.
4. Review and streamlined departmental Honors tracks.
 Elimination of multiple tracks within departments that allowed students to either
avoid Honors College curriculum or Departmental requirements, but still earn an
Honors Degree. New system reflects a collaboration and integration between the
Honors College and departments/majors.
5. A focus on curricular innovation and development/fundraising.
 Development of H2 Professor courses with Dean of Humanities.
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Development of Honors Integrated Minor in Ecology and Legacy
o 10 students participants for Summer 2015
Strengthening of Praxis Labs.
o Offer three to four praxis labs each year that fall under three focus areas of
Health & Society, Energy & Environment, and Social Justice
Development successes include 75% increase in board giving, larger base, and
on-going funding for Praxis Labs.
6. Increase Diversity.
 Diversity of Honors students remains slightly below in comparison to the whole
university, and new efforts are centered around:
o Targeted recruitment at schools with high diversity,
o Increased scholarship support for first-generation students
o Development of “The Network,” a faculty/staff led group for first
generation and students of color.
o Established partnership with Diversity Scholars in 2015 to create a direct
pipeline into Honors College
7. Encouraging students to explore.
 Through curriculum innovation and one-on-one advising, e.g., Praxis Lab,
Scholars Groups, internships, learning abroad, thesis/research.
8. Increasing graduation rates with students with the Honors Degree.
 Number of graduates per year has grown from 72 in 2012 to 107 in 2015.
9. Continue to improve assessment.
 New staff position dedicated to spending 35% of time on assessment and
integration with tools
On-going assessment includes:
1) Individual Course Evaluation:
 Collect student course feedback at the end of every semester.
 Annual one-on-one meetings between every faculty member and the Dean.
2) Honors Curriculum:
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Implemented consistency of honors core requirements for all majors and science/math
requirement (Appendix 1)
In 2014-2015, determined learning outcomes for Intellectual Traditions Core (Appendix
2) and will begin formal evaluation (beyond single course evaluations already in place) in
2015-16.
Similar to Intellectual Traditions, Honors Writing learning outcomes will be evaluated
3) Praxis Lab Evaluation:
 Student course evaluation and feedback
 Faculty evaluation
 Praxis Lab product/outcome assessed by both quality of product and community impact
 Use of Praxis Lab to assess pedagogical models (e.g., research paper by Torti and
Bradley, 2015 in forthcoming edited volume on Honors education in the 21st century,
from Littlefield and Brown).
 Long-term study: In 2015, we will implement a study of the long-term impacts of Praxis
Labs. Each of the 300+ participants over the past 10 years will be surveyed to better
understand if and how the Praxis Lab influenced their post-graduate studies or job
performance.
4) Academic Advising:
 Yearly assessment will formally being in 2015-2016 to assess effectiveness of new
advising structure
 Students will be surveyed after meeting with an advisor beginning Fall 2015
5) Senior exit survey:
 Student assessment of various aspects of Honors College experience, including core,
Praxis, thesis experience, overall community of college is currently assessed.
o 94% of respondents strongly agree or agree with the statement “My honors
degree, courses and thesis, provided me with the skills to . . . - Formulate an
argument clearly and cogently both orally and in writing.”
o 92% of respondents strongly agree or agree with the statement “My honors
degree, courses and thesis, provided me with the skills to . . . - Prepare for
graduate study in an academic or professional, or for positions in the public,
private or nonprofit sectors.”
 Surveys designed to compare students who complete the degree to those who participate
but don’t complete the degree will be developed for Spring 2016 to better understand
student success.
 Post-graduate plans to assess practical worth of Honors Degree, including success rate for
medical school acceptance, top professional schools in law, nursing, PT, public health,
sciences, job placement and distinguished scholarships (e.g., Rhodes, Marshall, GatesCambridge, NSF Predoctoral, etc.)
o 33% of Honors College graduates pursue graduate programs; 6% law school; 11%
medical school; 44% employment
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Appendix 1: Honors Curriculum Revisions
In the past three years, the Honors College has implemented the following curriculum revisions:
1. Intellectual Traditions Requirement – Every honors student, regardless of major, is
now required to complete two honors Intellectual Traditions courses as part of their core
honors degree requirements. Previously some majors would waive this requirement as
part of their departmental honors track. This initiative set out to create consistent honors
requirements for all majors.
2. Science/Math Requirement – The Honors Policy Board approved a new honors science
requirement for the Fall 2014 entering class. Students can complete this requirement
through an honors Physical/Life Science (SF), Applied Science (AS) or Quantitative
Reasoning (QA or QB) course. This change reflects the need to have all honors students,
regardless of major, embedded in a liberal arts and science curriculum.
3. HONOR 3700 credit hours – Honors Praxis Labs (HONOR 3700) credit hours were
increased from 3 to 4.5 for Fall 2014. This change reflects the workload of this intense,
two semester experience. Students are expected to make significant contributions outside
of the classroom and in the community to gain practical skills to succeed in future
academic or professional careers. Students can now fulfill three of their honors electives
through one yearlong intensive course.
In addition to the above curriculum changes, the Honors College has also implemented strategic
scheduling to offer a variety of courses at different days and times to accommodate students
academic plan.
The Honors College will measure learning outcomes and implement changes using these
findings during meetings with faculty and the Honors Policy Board throughout the academic
year.
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Appendix 2. Intellectual Traditions Learning Outcomes
Questions posed by Dean to Faculty:
1) What is "Intellectual Traditions (IT)”?
2) Why is IT important for Honors student's education?
3) What is the basic workload (both amount of reading and writing assignments) for an
IT course?
4) What are the shared threads in IT that cross content (time periods), sections (multiple
sections of each time periods), and pedagogical styles (individual teachers)? In
other words, what is the "shared experience" that all Honors students will have
because of their participation in IT?
Faculty Response:
In Intellectual Traditions students guided by faculty look at important, deep questions
about human experience through reading of primary texts. The discussion of the texts and ideas
provides a broad foundation for study in a variety of disciplines, such as English, philosophy,
history of science, and psychology, and helps students understand where our ideas and values
come from. Do we accept these ideas or question them? Students look at the ways ideas are
expressed and maintained, how they evolve or counter earlier ideas. They are encouraged to see
how texts express the mentality and systems of their particular culture and time but also how
they continue to inform the development of thought throughout history.
Sample texts include the writings of Homer, Confucius, Augustine, Dante, Shakespeare, Galileo,
Rousseau, and Darwin as well as the Bible and the Qur’an, Honors 2101 covers the Ancient
World (beginnings to 100 CE); Honors 2102, the development of the Common Era (100 to 1600
CE); and Honors 2103, the Modern World (1600 to the present). Though the majority of texts
are Western, each class must cover some non-Western traditions, such as Indian, Chinese,
Japanese, African, or Arabic texts. There are also some unique IT classes, including Honors
2104 that covers ancient Greek and Chinese writings, Honors 2105-2107 or Reacting to the Past
(role-playing classes covering the same periods as the regular IT sequence), and Honors 2108
that covers twentieth century intellectual movements.
The texts for IT include those that educated persons are commonly expected to know, but the
class is not a “great books” class in the sense that individual books are studied on their own, nor
is it a thematic class. The focus is always on the larger questions: what does it mean to be
human? how free are humans to act? are there specific gender roles and characteristics? what
makes for the good life? what is the best kind of state? what characteristics do heroes have in
what cultures? how do we come to truth? what constitutes moral behavior? are there divine
forces? is war justifiable?
Students are encouraged to situate their college experience in a larger context and to make
informed, deliberate choices. IT provides a vision of culture and a coherent core experience, one
that stimulates students to be intellectually adventurous outside of mere careerism.
Students in Intellectual Traditions classes read primary texts carefully with attention to
recognizing arguments and their development and to appreciating literary style and techniques.
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They develop critical thinking and evaluative skills, including skepticism, independent
reasoning, and identification of the sources and ramifications of ideas. They recognize
foundational arguments and make connections among the texts of Intellectual Traditions and
those of other courses. They are also encouraged to think creatively and flexibly. They engage
effectively with other students in class discussion and small-group work. They work closely with
instructors on their writing, learn to speak and argue persuasively, and develop intellectual
energy through inquiry.
The amount of reading depends on the difficulty of the material but, in general, should take about
five to six hours per week. It may include reading two selections or essays or an entire play for a
50-minute class session or a longer text per week. Average required pages vary from 50 to 70
per class session.
Three to five formal writings individual writing assignments are required per semester with an
average page length of four or five pages. Writing assignments involve critical analysis and/or
creative thought but are not research papers. They examine texts in relation to each other and
trace the development of major ideas. There may also be midterm and final essay examinations
as well as reflective essays.
Smaller assignments include responses to IT lectures and Canvas questions or short weekly
writing assignments. Thoughtful reading and discussion participation are required.
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