The Honors Contract

While much of the benefit of Honors courses comes from the classroom experiences of dialogue among instructors and Honors students, Honors credit may not always be available in courses students need. Therefore, students may choose to earn Honors credit by contracting with instructors in regular classes to do enriched work for those classes.

We expect the Honors Contract to allow students to pursue a subject in greater depth. It is not simply more work, but work of a different kind. For example, a Literature student might read several works by a single author as well as literary criticism about that writer, in order to write an extended critical analysis. A Physics student might pursue experimental work not normally covered in an introductory course. A Music student might perform or record an especially challenging piece and write a technical analysis of the music. You might consider an agreed on Service Learning project as a culminating Honors assignment, to earn both Honors and Service Learning distinction on your transcript.

Honors Contract work is done in addition to the regular work of the course, normally constituting 10-15% of additional work in the class. Whatever is planned must be agreed to by the student and the instructor (hence, the ‘contract’) and reviewed by the Honors Program. The addition of the Honors Contract turns the ‘regular’ course into an Honors section, and this is reflected on a student’s transcript (for example, an Honors Contract turns Introduction to Philosophy into Honors: Introduction to Philosophy on a student’s transcript).

Students may complete as many Honors contracts as they wish, but only two classes (usually 6 credits) of Honors contract work can count towards graduating with the Honors Scholar Designation.

Faculty are compensated for this work based on the LHEs for the course. For example, a 4 LHE course would be .4 LHEs per contract (up to 1 LHE total per semester and not beyond the maximum load for the semester/year). Doing the Honors contract with your student is, of course, completely up to the Faculty member.

How Do Students and Faculty Arrange an Honors Contract?

The Honors Contract is similar to an independent study; each one has to be created individually, agreed to by the instructor and the student, and gain approval through the steps below. Please review each step carefully; most are simple, but missing any of them will derail your work.

Step One: Ask!

  • Faculty: Know that you are willing to complete Honors Contracts with your students? Announce this to your entire class, approach individual students, or wait for students to approach you.

  • Students: Know that you want to do an Honors Contract? Approach or email the professor in the first weeks of class and ask if they would be willing to complete an Honors Contract with you. Some students even contact faculty members prior to registering for classes to make sure that an Honors Contract would be possible. If a faculty member says no, do not take it personally. It is likely they just have too many commitments already for the semester.

Step Two: Confirming Eligibility

  • Faculty: To confirm the eligibility of both parties, we need to have the course listing information as well as the names of all parties by October 1st (Fall) or March 1st (Spring). Instructors need to fill out the Honors Contract Interest Form to submit the required information. The administrative approval process for these contracts may take several weeks, which is why we have these (firm) deadlines each semester. Honors Contracts are offered on a selective basis and only when it has been determined that there is no other Honors course being offered which would satisfy the requirements of the Honors student.

  • Students: If you are not already enrolled in the Honors Program, you need to apply to and be accepted into the Honors Program at this stage. A full proposal is NOT necessary at this stage.

Step Three: Submitting Your Honors Contract Plan for Approval.

  • If both the student and faculty member are eligible, a blank Honors Contract form will be sent to the instructor. The instructor and student must fill out the form together and both must sign the form (electronic signatures are fine). The details are fleshed out in this step. Here is a sample of an actual completed Honors Contract.

  • The faculty member should then send the completed form to the Honors Coordinator A.S.A.P.

Step Four: Drop your original course and add the new Honors section.

  • Students: If approved, the Honors Program will arrange to add an Honors section of the class to Oakton’s course schedule. The student will then need to drop the regular section and add the Honors section, which will have the same meeting times and days as the regular section. This administrative change assures that the student’s transcript will show the Honors designation for this course, and that the faculty member will be compensated.

  • Faculty: Contact d2lassist@oakton.edu to re-add the student to your primary D2L page.

Step Five: Meet outside of class and learn!

  • Students and faculty members completing an Honors Contract will be expected to meet outside of regular class times at least 6 times per semester in order to provide ongoing assistance and supervision. This can happen virtually. The work completed will be graded like any other assignment and meet the requirements set out in your shared ‘contract’.

Step Six: Submit your finished Honors Contract project to the Honors Program at honors@oakton.edu.