Honors Program

See Example Projects of Past Honor's Students

Benefits of Participating in the CDS honors program

For information about the CDS honors program please contact: Dr. Throneburg at rmthroneburg@eiu.edu

Departmental Honors Program in Communication Disorders & Sciences

The Department of Communication Disorders and Sciences at Eastern Illinois University developed a departmental honor's program in 1996. The first members of the departmental honors program were recruited as sophomores in 1997 and graduated with bachelor degrees in 1999. The departmental honors program consists of two research methods courses and completion of a research project for an undergraduate honors thesis.

Eligibility

Admission to the Department Honors Program in Communication Disorders & Sciences requires a minimum 3.50 (4.0 scale) cumulative GPA and approval of the Department Honors Admission Committee. Students must maintain a cumulative GPA of 3.5 (4.0 scale) to continue in the Honors Program. Honors courses will replace required and elective courses in the CDS curriculum. Admission will be limited to availability of program resources.

Communication Disorders & Sciences Honor's Course Descriptions

CDS 4666 Honors Seminar (Arr-Arr-3) F. Honors Seminar. Reading and discussion of original research projects in speech, language, or hearing science. Attendance at presentations of original research. Prerequisite: Admission to the Department Honors Program in Communication Disorders & Sciences and permission of the Department Honors Coordinator and Department Chair.

CDS 4644 Honors Thesis (Arr-Arr-3) Honors Thesis. (Replaces 6 sh of electives) (May be repeated to a maximum of 6 semester hours). Original research in speech, language, or hearing science. A written report and oral presentation are required. Prerequisite: Admission to the Department Honors Program in Communication Disorders & Sciences and permission of the Department Honors Coordinator and Department Chair.

CDS 5000 Research Methods in Communication Disorders. (3-0-3) F. (For CDS honors students this course may be taken for undergraduate credit and replace 3 sh of electives or CDS 4760). Introduction to descriptive and experimental research designs in the field of communication disorders and sciences. Prerequisite: CDS 4666, Admission to the Department Honors Program in Communication Disorders & Sciences and permission of the Department Honors Coordinator, Department Chair, and Dean of the Graduate School.

Department Honors Requirements

CDS Honors students will complete all of the requirements for the major with the following substitutions:

**CDS 4760 and CDS 4800 are part of the regular undergraduate curriculum in CDS. Honors students may substitute honors courses for one of these courses in their undergraduate program. CDS 47600 or CDS 4800 may be taken for graduate credit during graduate school. Students need to fill out form from Graduate school to take graduate course (CDS 5000) for undergraduate credit.

The CDS Departmental Honor's Program involves taking two research courses as an undergraduate. The first is a small seminar class (CDS 4666) that is taught to just 4-6 CDS honor's students. Typically students enroll in this class during the spring of their sophomore year. Students take the second research methods course (CDS 5000) during the fall semester of their senior year. Students also sign up for 6 hours of thesis credit (CDS 4644). There is flexibility in when students sign up for thesis hours, however students typically enroll in 3 hours of thesis during the spring of their junior year and in the other 3 hours of thesis during the spring of their senior year. When students sign up for thesis hours, they are working closely with an individual faculty mentor to review literature on a topic, plan a small research project in an area of speech pathology that interests the student, collect data for the research project, and write up the research project in the form of a thesis that is typically 30-40 pages in length. Although some students find the thought of writing a thesis daunting, it is usually manageable for most students because 1) they are working closely with a faculty member in planning the research project, 2) students only write/revise small sections of the thesis at any point in time (often only 2-5 pages), and 3) students have two years to plan and complete the project/thesis.