An honors on-ramp for online learners: Rethinking access, readiness, and belonging

Honors programs are usually selective, small, and built specifically for an in-person community. Online programs usually are designed with access and flexibility top of mind, to serve students who may be working full time, caring for family, or returning to school after time away. Bringing honors learning into the online space can feel tricky for institutions that don't want to just copy residential models. 

At the same time, colleges and universities struggle with a familiar challenge: how to help online students feel a sense of belonging and academic identity in asynchronous programs. Research consistently links belonging to persistence and success but creating that sense of connection online remains difficult.

This tension prompted a simple but important question at Ohio University: What if an honors experience wasn’t something online students had to qualify for in advance, but something they could opt into and earn through participation?

In spring semester 2026 Ohio University is piloting a new, one-credit online honors course designed specifically for fully online undergraduate students. Rather than requiring a traditional application process tied to institutional admission, the course functions as an on-ramp to the University’s honors experience. Students opt in, participate alongside their regular course load, and demonstrate honors readiness by meeting academic benchmarks during the course itself.

For the pilot, students were invited to participate, and the University covered the cost of the course. This lowered the barrier to entry and allowed the new experience to test demand and design without asking students to take on additional financial risk.

“We wanted to make honors experiences available to students regardless of modality,” said Kristina Bross, dean of the Honors Tutorial College. “We know that our online students are terrific, ambitious, and intellectually curious. We’re excited to be working with them to create the OHIO Online honors experience together.”

The course reached capacity in its first offering, signaling strong interest from online students who may not have pursued college-level honors experiences through more traditional pathways.

The pilot draws on a growing body of research showing that online learners are more likely to be older, enrolled part time, working full time, or managing caregiving responsibilities. These students often value challenge and recognition but require learning experiences that respect their time and constraints.

Both honors education and online learning emphasize self-directed work, reflection, and deeper engagement with ideas. The challenge has been translating those strengths into a model that fits the asynchronous environment.

Instead of adapting a residential honors seminar for online delivery, this course was built exclusively for online learners. It focuses on reflection, goal-setting, and academic identity, while allowing students to engage on a flexible schedule. Participation serves as the measure of readiness, rather than an extensive application process.

While it is early to draw conclusions about long-term outcomes, the initial response is promising, said Thomas Raimondi, senior director, strategy and operations for OHIO Online. Demand exceeded expectations, and students enrolled represented a range of academic backgrounds and life circumstances.

“That the course filled immediately told us something important,” Raimondi said. “Online students are invested in their education and on the lookout for systems that were built for them.”

For leaders in online learning and honors education, this pilot suggests at least three important takeaways:

First, honors programs or experiences do not have to serve only as rewards for past performance. They can also serve as opportunities that help students build confidence, connection, and academic identity.

Second, readiness can be determined by where students are now, versus solely by prior credentials. Allowing students to demonstrate readiness through participation can help widen access without lowering standards.

And third, small, credit-bearing pilots offer a practical way for colleges and universities to test new models. Institutions can explore demand, gather evidence, and refine design before making larger commitments.

“Ohio University is committed to offering comparable experiences and opportunities to our online students and changing the narrative that online students are less academically prepared than their campus-based peers,” Raimondi said. “The OHIO Online honors experience is a great example of how when you design from the perspective of meeting the needs for an online learner, that they will show up and thrive in that environment. Modality should not be a barrier to displaying academic excellence.”

Evaluation associated with this pilot is ongoing, Raimondi noted. Findings related to belonging, persistence, and student success will help the University determine whether and how the model should scale. 

“This isn’t about determining success after one semester,” Raimondi said. “We want to know whether an honors on-ramp like this can meaningfully support online students and then build from there.”

As online enrollments continue to grow, institutions will need new ways to offer challenge, recognition, and community to students who may never set foot on campus. OHIO's opt-in honors on-ramp is one possible answer, and it invites leaders to rethink who honors education is for, and how students find their place within it.