Featured courses

Owned by Jaclyn Chancey
Last updated: Jul 20, 2021
3 min read

Each semester, create a page for the featured Honors courses, conversions, and graduate courses. The courses themselves are blog posts, so the page is self-maintaining after initial setup.

Before you begin

Make sure that you are signed in to edit the Honors Program website.

Step 1: Create the semester tags

  1. From the website Dashboard, go to Posts → Tags

    Tip

    Search for the tags first to make sure they haven't already been created!
     

  2. Create a tag for featured courses:
    • Name: Semester Year Featured Courses (ex: Spring 2020 Featured Courses)
    • Slug: year-semester-featured (ex: 2020-spring-featured)
  3.  Create a tag for graduate courses:
    • Name: Semester Year Graduate Courses (ex: Spring 2020 Graduate Courses)
    • Slug: year-semester-grad (ex: 2020-spring-grad)
  4. Click the Edit link below the Featured Courses tag
  5. Look in the page URL for the tag_id. Save this number for the next step.

Step 2: Create the Featured Courses page

Tip

You can create the page from scratch, but it is much easier to copy an existing page.

  1. Navigate to the most recent featured courses page. You can find it linked from the Current Honors Courses page.
  2. Use the Aurora header to Copy to a new draft.
  3. Change the page title to reflect the new Semester and/or Year.
  4. Edit the permalink to keep the URL in the format featured-semester-year
  5. Edit the Post Loop widget.
  6. Under "Additional," enter the tag_id saved at the end of Step 1.
  7. Publish the page.

Step 3: Add featured course posts

  • If a course already has a post (use site search) and the instructor does not want to make any changes, simply add the appropriate tags.
  • If a course already has a post and the instructor wants to make changes:
    • Fix typographical errors on the existing post and add the appropriate tags.
    • For changes to the course or course description, copy the post to a new draft and make necessary changes, including switching to the appropriate tags. (Remove the tags that are carried over from the original post.)
  • For a new post, follow this basic template:

Title: SUBJ ####: Course Title
Permalink: subj-####

Categories: (tick) Featured Courses
Tags: Featured course tag created in Step 1.

Post content:

[UConn CampusName]

 Graduate course?

Add the graduate course tag that you created in Step 1. Include the following text:

Graduate courses act as Honors credit, as long as you earn a grade of B- or higher

Instructor: Instructor name ← link to email address if students should direct questions or permission number requests to them.

 Prerequisites or preparation?

Prerequisite: Any official prerequisites or requirements for getting a permission number. If the prerequisites may be waived, say that here.

Recommended preparation: Usually only included if instructor is waiving prerequisites or inviting students from other majors into an advanced course.

 Conversion?

Add (Conversion Opportunity) to the end of the title, and add this line immediately before the course description:

While this is not an Honors course, Prof. InstructorName welcomes Honors students of all majors and would be happy to offer Honors conversions for interested students.

Course description.

May be one or more paragraphs.

 Gen ed?

Content, areas, and, competencies.

 Variable or Special Topics?

Add the section number to the title and permalink.

If this section will be set up as an exception to its normal categorization, include this line:

University Honors Laureate: This (Variable or Special) Topics course will count toward the ..... category (optional: and will meet the Diversity & Multiculturalism requirement.)