Published on Jan. 3, 2024
Honors Tutorials, small one-credit discussions available to University of Missouri Honors students, are designed to provide more meaningful relationships and in-depth learning experiences than the traditional classroom setting can offer.
Some Tutorials, such as last semester’s “Views of the News: Media Criticism” taught by Amy Simons, a professor in the MU School of Journalism, offer hands-on experience to students in areas that may or may not be related to their major. Simons, who produces and hosts a media criticism show, Views of the News, on KBIA with professors Earnest Perry and Kathy Kiely, views her Tutorial as an extension of the show itself.
“We talk about the topics within the show that were of a special interest to the students who are in the Tutorial … and I usually try to find a way to balance it between journalism students and non-journalism students,” said Simons. “This semester we had three journalism majors and three non-journalism majors. And it leads for really interesting conversations.”
From music to computer science, a wide variety of majors were given an insider look into how journalists think about their work. For the Tutorial’s journalism students, non-journalism majors help anchor their conversations in the real world, giving them insights into the minds of their future audiences.
Every student in Simons’ Tutorial was tasked with watching or listening to Views of the News on Wednesday in preparation for a lively discussion on Thursday. After spending most of the semester as avid consumers of the show, the cohort then worked together to produce their own episode.
After gathering the topics that have interested them over the course of the semester, the cohort worked with Simons to learn the ins-and-outs of the show’s pre-production process. They gathered articles and stories on their topics, produced supporting content for KBIA’s website and wrote out the entire show with KBIA staff.
At the end of the semester, the cohort hosted the episode they’ve spent the semester working on. Each student presented a unique topic live on air, which was then discussed during the show by the larger group.
The experience of filming a live episode of KBIA leaves a large impact on the students, that remains with them even after they graduate. For those like current Mizzou political science graduate student Lukas Parrish, Simons’ Tutorial was a chance to hit the ground running and start college on a high note.
“Even at my non-advanced age now, 22 years old, there’s a lot that you just don’t know due to lack of experience. But (Simons) is as good as it gets,” said Parrish, who was part of the Tutorial in 2020. “I always felt very respected … she believed in us the entire way. We were new to this whole journalism thing, and she just made it very easy on us.”
Although the fall 2023 cohort is the first to take the Tutorial since the end of the pandemic, the lessons learned and the experiences shared in the class still loom large in the minds of old cohorts.
“I honestly wish we got to spend more time together,” said current MU accounting graduate student Emily Maruszak, who participated in the course in 2019. “We met with a journalist from the Chicago Tribune … and I really liked all my assignments. Getting to do all that in a room of seven people as really cool.”
Although the content of any Honors Tutorial is important, their smaller discussion format gives students a new kind of course to enroll in from their first year, with unmatched access to MU professors. More often than not, Tutorials consistently stand out in the minds of MU students and faculty.
“Being able to have that interpersonal connection where if I were to pop in and say hello, she’d know who I was, was really cool. I enjoy being able to connect with teachers like that,” said Maruszak. “It was also something small to for me to break up my day instead of just being all business (courses). For a one-credit hour class, I felt like I got a lot out of it.”