Honors Contract Experiences

When most people think of an honors course, they think of the honors-exclusive seminars.  Each year, we offer many of these types of honors courses.  But we also offer an additional type of honors course: the honors contract course which is a new substitute for the honors course extensions of the past.

An honors contract experience is a course or non-credit bearing learning experience that involves both honors and non-honors students.   Educators may propose honors contract experiences at the introductory (Tier 1) or advanced (Tier 2) level. 

To receive honors credit, the student must complete additional research or enrichment assignments or activities that significantly enhance the learning facilitated by the course or program.  The additional enrichment component must advance the goals of communication, inquiry, critical & integrative thinking and reflection. The added assignment or assignments generally take one or more of the following forms:

• Intensive and substantive writing assignment
• Directed readings and discussions with the educator (in the British tutorial style)
• Independent or collaborative research-oriented  project
• Literature review
• Extensive annotated bibliography
• Development of supplementary course materials for other students in the course or future iterations of the course
• Service learning project that is tied to the aims of the course
• Academic blog or journal on readings and assignments
• Multimedia project
• Assignment encouraging the use or understanding of research methods

The additional contract components should require at least 15 hours of concentrated effort beyond what is expected of non-honors students in the course.