Empowerment to success: the class structure in an honors engineering course

Abstract

Structuring a quality honors course is a challenge in most disciplines. The authors have offered an honors section in their introductory computer science class for several years. During this time, they have restructured their honors section several times, including shifting both the focus and format. They started with a concentration in Web design, shifted to robotics, and then advanced onto student presentations. The layout began as a traditionally structured course, evolved with the introduction of student mentors, and most recently has advanced to student-directed learning. It is evidenced from both their evaluation of the student work and the student evaluations of the course that self-directed learning (i.e., empowerment) has resulted in a satisfactory and successful honors class.