UAGC has recently redesigned its Honors Program with the help of a interdisciplinary team of faculty and staff covering all university programs. One of the core features of the new UAGC Honors Program includes live co-curricular events to enhance learning and networking among honors students and faculty.
Recently, at the University of Arizona Global Campus, a group of faculty and staff came together over the course of six months to completely redesign our Honors Program experience for our high-achieving students. This effort included an advisory board of faculty representing programs across the university. One of the main features of the newly designed Honors Program is a live, co-curricular component. UAGC is an online and primarily an asynchronous institution but in the past year more synchronous components have been implimented to increase student engagement. Some live sessions are optional and in some cases they are required. The UAGC Honors Program has a requirement to participate in 15 active hours of synchronous live events that are either produced by the UAGC Honors Program, other UAGC events and activities that align with the UAGC Honors Program pillars of: leadership, innovation, global perspective, and civic responsibility. The UAGC Honors Leadership also curates other virtual, external events and encourages Honors Students to attend and then discuss with other honors students and faculty.
The goal of this session is to share the benefits, challenges, design considerations, and student feedback of the newly redesigned UAGC Honors Program and to facilitate a short discussion and sharing of others experiences working with high achieving students at their own institutions. This session will specifically focus on the co-curricular, synchronous activities and events and the unique benefits and challenges they pose.