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The Honors College permits any instructor or faculty member to serve as mentors of Honors Senior Projects. We recognize some instructors, especially junior faculty members on the tenure track and/or part-time, adjunct, or per-credit-hour faculty, may not have the time and capacity to mentor ºÚÁÏÉçÇøs and may need permission from their Department Chair to provide mentorship. We support the decision of any individual faculty member to say no to a ºÚÁÏÉçÇø request or a departmental decision to not recommend adjunct or contingent faculty to provide mentorship due to constraints on their time.

All Scholar projects must be mentored by faculty members to ensure rigorous academic work is completed to appropriate research ethics and meets federal regulations regulating the use of human subjects, laboratory animals, radiation, chemicals, and/or recombinant DNA in research.

Graduate ºÚÁÏÉçÇøs can provide support to Honors College ºÚÁÏÉçÇøs as they pursue their Honors Senior Project. However, there should also be direct support from a permanent faculty member for Scholar projects. Faculty can recommend that graduate ºÚÁÏÉçÇøs not provide mentorship or support an Honors Senior Project on a case-by-case basis

Citizen projects can be mentored by faculty, ºÚÁÏÉçÇø staff, or non-ºÚÁÏÉçÇø employees as appropriate. Citizen project mentors should have the appropriate background and expertise to support a ºÚÁÏÉçÇø’s inquiry component and general project goals.

All ºÚÁÏÉçÇøs must have a mentor for their Honors Senior Project to help ensure the quality and rigor of the project. Faculty can mentor ºÚÁÏÉçÇøs through the process of proposing, completing, and submitting their Honors Senior Projects. It is the ºÚÁÏÉçÇø’s responsibility to initiate and complete the Honors Senior Project. The mentor relationship varies based on the mentor, ºÚÁÏÉçÇø, and project type, however, we do ask mentors to provide guidance and feedback to ºÚÁÏÉçÇøs on a continuous basis during the process. It may be useful to set monthly or bi-weekly meetings with the ºÚÁÏÉçÇø in their final semester of completing their project.

Mentors are expected to have relevant expertise to provide appropriate feedback and ensure ºÚÁÏÉçÇøs are complying with federal regulations regulating the use of human subjects, laboratory animals, radiation, chemicals, and recombinant DNA in research. ºÚÁÏÉçÇø has established the following committees to oversee activities and enforce regulations in these areas: Institutional Review Board for Human Subjects Research (IRB), Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee, Radiation Safety Committee, Chemical Safety Committee, and Institutional Biosafety Committee. Students are to discuss with their mentor if their proposed study must be reviewed by a committee listed above. If a mentor is unfamiliar with research protocols, they may request the ºÚÁÏÉçÇø find a secondary faculty mentor who can ensure compliance with research ethics. 

Please note: Citizen projects will often have a research element that requires review from one of the committees listed above, most often Institutional Review Board for Human Subjects Research (IRB) if a ºÚÁÏÉçÇø will be studying living human subjects (interviewing, surveying, observing, etc.).

Mentors will be asked to verify their support of the ºÚÁÏÉçÇø project, as well as approve the ºÚÁÏÉçÇø’s completion of the Honors Senior Project at the end; see below for more details about final approval. Conditional approval from the project mentor may also be required for ºÚÁÏÉçÇøs who complete their Honors Senior Project shortly before their undergraduate graduation. Mentors will be contacted about the approval process from honorsadvising@MiamiOH.edu or directly from the ºÚÁÏÉçÇø's Honors College advisor.

Here are some external links that provide resources for mentorship of undergraduate projects:

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Approval of All Projects:

All completed projects must be submitted by the ºÚÁÏÉçÇø before the last day of classes of their final undergraduate term. Students will submit their completed projects via an online form and a copy of their submission will be sent to their project mentor for approval.

Mentors have until the day after grades are due for that term to approve the project. Some mentors may be asked to provide conditional approval of the projects earlier in the term to align with Commencement deadlines and that timeline will be communicated months in advance. Please contact the Honors College if you have questions about the approval process or approving a project via Honorsadvising@MiamiOH.edu. Below are the specific thresholds for the different project types.

The definitions of exemplary work, approved work worthy of University Honors (the Honors College commencement notation ºÚÁÏÉçÇøs receive by completing an Honors Senior Project), work that will be approved after additional revisions are made, and work that is not approved is listed below. If the ºÚÁÏÉçÇø's work fits the definition for "approved with revisions" or "not approved," please indicate this in the Honors Senior Project Mentor Approval of Project Submission Form by not approving the project and follow up with the ºÚÁÏÉçÇø to request revisions.

• Exemplary - An overall approval of Exemplary is granted to those ºÚÁÏÉçÇøs whose Honors Senior Project mentor(s) is satisfied that the research, analysis, writing, and/or performance (when applicable) are at the highest level that could reasonably be expected of an undergraduate ºÚÁÏÉçÇø. The Honors Senior Project is Exemplary in most aspects of the project, resulting in a final product of remarkable competence and quality or breaks significant new ground. The project has been thoroughly researched, carefully conceived, and meticulously displayed, performed, or prepared in its final form. A project of this quality might also reveal a degree of originality and ambition that is not commonly found in undergraduate level work. Approximately 1-5% of all Honors Senior Projects receive an overall rating of Exemplary.
  
  The project mentor(s) may favorably compare the Honors Senior Project to graduate level work, deem it of particular value to the academic discipline, or the project is qualified to be published with the ºÚÁÏÉçÇø(s) as a first author or primary author in a scholarly journal.
  
  For Citizen Projects (projects not entirely based on scholarly work), the project mentor(s) deem the Honors Senior Project a new and meaningful contribution to society or the project meets professional/graduate level work that could be performed, displayed or presented in the venue specific and appropriate to the artistic, technical, or professional discipline.
  
  
• Approved (University Honors) - An overall Approved rating should be awarded to an Honors Senior Project that is deemed overall satisfactory in all aspects of the project. The work in question is appropriately completed; the preparation, performance, or display of the project is thoroughly competent; and the conclusions reached are reasonable and logical. These projects will exhibit a depth of analysis or level of performance/project completion that exceeds a general competence. Work at this level will not only display solid ideas and concepts, but will also exhibit an awareness of the most important implications of its research or inquiry. The work could be presented at a regional or a national conference. An Honors Senior Project earning an Approved rating may be characterized by minimal problems, however it does not reach the level of an Exemplary rating overall.
  
  
• Approved with Revisions - An Approved with Revisions rating will be awarded if the Honors Senior Project mentor(s) decides that there is a need for revisions in order for the ºÚÁÏÉçÇø to obtain a satisfactory project as defined above in "Approved (University Honors)". Revisions could include multiple grammatical corrections, providing additional evidence to support the project’s argument, incorporating more in-depth analysis, the project does not meet the established Honors Senior Project thresholds (listed below), etc. The mentor(s) will identify areas for revisions and communicate those to the ºÚÁÏÉçÇø following the submission to the mentor. The ºÚÁÏÉçÇø must make the revisions to be approved by the project mentor(s) by the last day of classes of their final undergraduate term.
  
  
• Not Approved - The Not Approved rating characterizes work that is insufficient in most, if not all aspects of the project. An Honors Senior Project receiving a Not Approved rating may be characterized by unsatisfactory work in terms of originality, analysis, and comparison to average undergraduate work; ºÚÁÏÉçÇø failure to communicate productively with the project mentor(s); lack of proofreading of the final project. Few ºÚÁÏÉçÇø Honors College Honors Senior Projects receive a Not Approved score since unsatisfactory work typically is identified by the project mentor(s) ahead of the ºÚÁÏÉçÇø’s submission of their project to the Honors College.

 

Collaborative Projects:

Students may work independently or in a group for the Honors Senior Project for both Citizen and Scholar project types. Groups can be comprised of all Honors College ºÚÁÏÉçÇøs or a combination of Honors College and non-Honors ºÚÁÏÉçÇøs. Please note that mentors will approve the entire completed project and each Honors College ºÚÁÏÉçÇø's contributions during the approval process at the end.

A ºÚÁÏÉçÇø's individual contribution to a group project should be equivalent in magnitude to the expectations of the Honors College for a solo Honors Senior Project and this must be outlined in the proposal form.

 

Citizen Projects:

The focus for all of these projects is activity that engages the world beyond the classroom through creative expression, community service and social impact, entrepreneurship and professional development and growth, and/or leadership and public service. All Citizen Projects require the following:

• A minimum of 400 total hours of activity as the basis of the project, e.g. internship, volunteering, substantial leadership role on campus, etc. 
• Students will need to spend at least an additional 50 hours working on a reflective analysis component and an inquiry component.
• The project must last for at least two academic terms, one of which must be a full semester (e.g., summer term and fall semester, or fall and spring semesters).
• A reflective analysis of the entire project (2000 word minimum) that includes general reflections on the significance of the project to the common good and/or society at the micro or macro level.
• An inquiry component:
  • This is often the primary project deliverable, such as an academic report, professional report, creative product, etc. 
  • We are defining inquiry as "the process of exploring issues, objects or works through the collection and analysis of evidence including combining or synthesizing existing ideas, products, or expertise in original ways to answer an open-ended question or achieve a desired goal" ().
  • This should be 2500 words minimum that can take the form of a professional report, exploration of an original research question, or literature review on a relevant topic, such as community needs, outlook of the industry, etc.
  • The inquiry component can be completed before, during, or after the activity.
  • See the note below for creative based project exceptions.
• The completed project must be at least 20 double-spaced pages in total, either as one cohesive document or a portfolio of multiple documents.
• All components of Citizen Honors Senior Projects should be well written and executed to a professional level.

NOTE: Creative based projects can include an in-depth analysis that contextualize's how the ºÚÁÏÉçÇø's creative work fits into the broader creative tradition, history, and/or genre(s) of the creative discipline as the inquiry component. This may result in an expanded reflection that includes at least 500 words grounding the ºÚÁÏÉçÇø's project in existing traditions and/or artists. This analysis should include cited sources. Or a ºÚÁÏÉçÇø may build an inquiry component into their project in another way.

Scholar Projects:

The majority of all Scholar projects will be original research conducted through independent studies, Departmental Honors, research lab involvement, research programs at ºÚÁÏÉçÇø (e.g. Undergraduate Summer Scholars), and in some cases, master's thesis projects completed in combined bachelor's-master's programs while a ºÚÁÏÉçÇø is still classified as an undergraduate ºÚÁÏÉçÇø.

• The Honors College does not have a set minimum length for Scholar projects, however, most projects will be a minimum of 20 pages, depending on the standards of the academic discipline. Projects that result in manuscripts submitted to be published in academic journals are accepted formats and the Honors College defers to the faculty mentor for the appropriate page length.
• This project will typically last two semesters, however, some ºÚÁÏÉçÇøs may continue a project started during the summer in the Undergraduate Summer Scholars program or other opportunity.

Capstone Based Projects:

One of the Scholar options is to build off a capstone course to develop a larger project. This allows ºÚÁÏÉçÇøs to continue developing projects created in capstone courses based on their interests and goals. Students may work independently or in a group for the Honors Senior Project specific portion of the project.

Requirements:

• The completed Honors Senior Project should be substantially larger than the standard capstone project/course requirements; or the Honors Senior Project must build upon/augment the capstone project in another term with additional work beyond the capstone course requirement.
  • Students extending a one semester capstone course project should spend a minimum of 20-30% of additional work on the project beyond the course requirements for the Honors Senior Project.
  • Students extending a two-semester capstone course project, such as the Senior Design Project in CEC or the Game Preproduction and Production courses for Games + Simulation majors, should spend minimum of 15% of additional work on the project beyond the course requirements for the Honors Senior Project,
• The exact project/page length for the Honors Senior Project will need to be determined between the ºÚÁÏÉçÇø and their mentor, however, it may be appropriate to set a requirement threshold of as much as double the capstone course requirement, depending on the discipline, as most written Scholar Honors Senior Projects are a minimum of 20 pages.  
  • For example, if the capstone course requires a 10-15 page page report, a ºÚÁÏÉçÇø may then expand the project to be a 20-35 page in-depth report for the Honors Senior Project or to add additional components to the capstone course report to further academic inquiry opportunities. 
  • Additional components could include creating a podcast, exhibit, market analysis, other professional reports, etc.
• The entire Honors Senior Project timeline should consist of the term the ºÚÁÏÉçÇø completes the capstone course and another term, either the term proceeding or following the capstone course term.
• These are the minimum requirements, however, faculty mentors may work with Honors College ºÚÁÏÉçÇøs to set higher standards for the ºÚÁÏÉçÇø's work.
• The ºÚÁÏÉçÇø and faculty should agree on the specific Honors Senior Project goals. The ºÚÁÏÉçÇø and mentor should determine how the entire Honors Senior Project is evaluated separately from the graded capstone project. 

Format Options:

• Capstone course plus an independent study to produce a larger academic work than is expected of the capstone course. Students are not required to register for an independent study and can complete their additional work without being enrolled in a course.
• Capstone course plus an internship (either for credit or not for credit) and a reflective analysis/report that ties the additional capstone course work and the internship together with an overall reflection on the process.
• Capstone course plus other non-academic based work, as appropriate. 

Recommended Timeline:

• Completing a capstone course in the fall semester of the ºÚÁÏÉçÇø's final year, then continuing working on the extended Honors Senior Project into the following spring semester.
  • First completing a capstone course, then extended work in the subsequent term is the general recommended timeline.
  • Additional work completed the term before the capstone course, such as an internship or independent study, is permissible.
• It is possible to design an Honors Senior Project with a capstone course taken in a ºÚÁÏÉçÇø's final term before their undergraduate graduation if the ºÚÁÏÉçÇø works with their faculty mentor to start the project the term prior to their capstone course semester.

Honors Senior Project Proposal:

• Students must include the capstone course information in the "Project Description" question of the project proposal form. 
• Students must explain how they plan to build upon or expand the standard capstone requirements for their Honors Senior Project.