The Honors Contract

While much of the benefit of taking Honors courses comes from the experiences of dialoguing with instructors and your fellow 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 compete enriched Honors 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 course, 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.

Honors Contracts are usually only available to be completed during the two regular 16 week semesters (Fall and Spring Semesters). This is because faculty and students are recommended to meet 8 times to work toward the completion of an Honors project. Honors Contracts during a shorter session (e.g., a Summer session or a ‘late-start’ class) will need to be approved on a case-by-case basis by the Honors Coordinator/s, and only when there is a demonstrated student need (principally, when a student needs an Honors class to finish the requirements of the Honors Scholar Designation on time). The administrative approval process also regularly takes most of a 16 week semester, so during shorter sessions, there is a risk that the Honors Contract may not be approved before the end of the session.

How Do Students and Faculty Arrange an Honors Contract?

Each Honors Contract needs 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.

Note Well: Failure to complete all of the steps below by the end of the term in which the Honors Contract is being completed will result in the Honors class not being recorded on the student’s transcript and the faculty member not being paid for the work of completing the Honors Contract.

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 complete 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 will 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: Confirm Eligibility

  • Faculty: To confirm the eligibility of both student and instructor, we need to have the course listing information and some basic information about you and the student by September 15th (in Fall) or February 15th (in Spring). Instructors need to fill out the Honors Contract Interest Form to submit this required information. The administrative approval process for Honors 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.

Step Three: Submit Your Actual Honors Contract for Approval

Step Four: Drop the 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 list the course as “Honors: [course title]”, and that the faculty member will be compensated.

  • Faculty: Once the student appears in your newly created Honors D2L course shell, email your division office and CC honors@oakton.edu to confirm that this final step has been completed. This is the final confirmation that all of the above steps have been completed which will confirm to your division office that you should be paid for the Honors Contract. If you want to re-add the student to your primary D2L shell for the class, contact d2lassist@oakton.edu.

Step Five: Meet Outside of Class and Learn

  • Students and faculty members completing an Honors Contract are expected to meet outside of regular class times at least 6 times per semester (recommended 8 times) 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.