Taking Honors Courses
To start any Honors Courses you must be an approved member of the LPC Honors Transfer Program and enroll in the Honors Program Canvas. There is no need to reapply if you are already a member. However, if you are new to the LPC Honors Program - visit the "Apply for the Program Page" first:
GO TO "APPLY FOR THE PROGRAM" PAGE
Once you are an approved member of the LPC Honors Transfer Program you can start taking Honors Courses. See below how to start/take an Honors Course.
Three Options to Take an Honors Course
At LPC the approved members of the Honors Program are able to take an Honors course in three different ways. Honors coursework can be completed by:
- Enrolling in an Honors Section from the course schedule
- Enrolling in a regular/non-honors section of a course that has an approved Embedded Honors Component with a Certified Honors Instructor
- Creating an individual Honors Contracts with any instructor of any regular section/course at LPC. This option means that even if the class you are taking is not an official Honors course, and does not have an Embedded Honors Component, you can still turn it into Honors for you individually. Any transferable course can become an honors course by adding an honors contract to that course at the very beginning of the term (see due dates on the right sidebar).
Important: we cannot arrange for an honors contract for any Chabot courses.
For more details click on each of the Options below.
Some courses have full Honors Sections specifically for members of the Honors Transfer Program.
Step 1: Check the course schedule for the available Honors courses. They should be listed as "HC" and have a separate CRN to the regular course. These courses are specifically designed for Honors requirements, so all you will need to do is complete the course. Only approved members of the LPC Honors Program will be able to register for these courses.
Step 2: Once registered, you won't have to fill out any forms for this class for it to be recognized as an Honors class on your transcript!
Courses taught by Honors Certified Instructors do not require the student to create their own contract, but they must still follow the assignments given in the Honors Canvas course for their class.
Step 1: Early in the semester, the student should ask the instructor if the class has an "Embedded Honors Component." The student can also go to the Honors Program Canvas to find the current list of Honors Certified instructors.
Step 2: If the instructor has an Embedded Honors Component - they can add you to another special Canvas of their own with the Embedded Honors Component for their specific course. All you would need to do is follow the instructor’s established Honors coursework in that Canvas to earn the Honors designation for their course.
Step 3: Keep in mind that the Embedded Honors Course will have forms and assignments inside the Instructor’s Canvas that need to be completed, but these are different from the Contract Proposal Form, and the approval of the Honors director is NOT required to get started, because the Embedded Component is already preapproved by the Program, no contracts are necessary.
A student must receive an "A" or "B" in the course for the honors designation to be added for this option.
Some classes will not have an official Honors section or be taught by an Honors instructor. In this case, the student must communicate with their instructor in order for them to work together on creating an Honors contract/proposal.
Step 1: Early in the semester, the student should ask the instructor if he or she is willing to mentor them through an Honors project.
Step 2: If the instructor agrees, you can write a project proposal for the course you want to take as an Honors Course. Details for how to create a proposal are provided below.
Step 3: Fill out the Honors Contract Proposal Form (located in the Honors Program Canvas) by the start of the term (see due dates on the right sidebar), attach your project proposal and submit for the Honors Director's approval.
Step 4: Once you complete the project at the end of the semester and your mentor approves it, you should submit the completed work to the Program for the Honors Director's approval before the due date (usually the last day of instructions for the term). There is a form to submit your completed honors work AFTER it was approved by your instructor, and another form that will ask for your feedback on your experience. The forms are only available on the LPC Honors Program Canvas.
If a student fails to complete the project, there is no penalty. The student just doesn't submit any completion forms.
A student must receive an "A" or "B" in the course for the honors designation to be added for this option.
Instructions for creating a project proposal:
Please first check with the instructor if the course does not already have an Honors Component Embedded. If not, carefully study the course's syllabus and decide what topic of the class you would like to study in depth and how. Next write a one-page summary of your proposed project and have it approved by your instructor.
An honors contract should represent a minimum of 25 hours of additional high-level work beyond what is already required in the course.
Your one-page honors proposal summary should address each of the following:
- What will you create for your honors contract?
- What methods will you use for your research?
- How frequently will you meet with your mentor instructor?
- How will your mentor evaluate your progress on this project throughout the semester?
- What is the timeline for the stages of your project?
Honors contracts consist of in-depth research, demonstration of critical thinking, and scholarship of greater breadth or depth than the normal coursework. The specific content and shape of the projects vary widely and should be designed to help prepare the student for work at a four-year institution. Topics are individual and very flexible, but here are some examples:
- a traditional research paper
- a case study or series of case studies
- a specialized lab experiment
- an art project
- a musical composition
- a literary composition
- an original software or hardware creation
- an empirical research study or fieldwork
- an extensive gathering and analysis of statistical data
Below are some sample Proposal Summaries to give you an idea of what an honors contract can look like:
- Original/Primary Research Proposal Sample
- Review of Literature Essay Proposal Sample
- Computer Science Project Proposal Sample
- Math Project Proposal Sample
Common Proposal Problems
These are the most common reasons that honors contracts are not approved:
- Proposal summary timeline does not have at least 4 steps with separate due dates
- Proposal summary does not indicate that the student will meet with the instructor at least 4 times (every 2-3 weeks or more often in the summer term)
- Proposal has a research paper as the only outcome and that paper is proposed to be less that 12 pages in length
- Proposal doesn't mention how many valid sources the project will be based on, in addition to the required sources/readings of the regular course (10 sources is a minimum).
- The writing format for a final paper is not specified or is not appropriate for the discipline (APA versus MLA versus Chicago style etc.).
- Proposal has a product as an outcome (a computer program, a performance, an artifact) and does not mention any written analysis accompanying the product.
How Does it Work
Suppose a student is a member of the Honors Transfer Program and wants to take an Introductory Psychology Course (PSYC 1) as one of their Honors classes. In this case, the student explore three options:
- Official Honors Course: Check the class schedule to see if the course you want to take has a separate Honors
section that you can enroll in. If it does, you can simply enroll in it. If you are
already an approved members of the Honors Transfer Program it will allow you to register
with no problem. However, if it gives you an ERROR message that means you are not
an approved member and need to apply to the program first.
- Embedded Honors Course: If there is no official Honors course, check to see if the class you are enrolled
in is being taught by an Honors Certified Instructor. You can find the list of Honors
Certified Instructors on the Honors Canvas. If your instructor is on that list, you
can ask them if they offer the Honors Embedded Component for their course this term
and if you can take their course as Honors. If they do - they will add you to a separate
Honors Canvas course of their own - with all Honors coursework that must be completed
in addition to the regular coursework and an Honors Component.
- Honors Contract: If you want to take an Honors course taught by an instructor who is not Honors Certified, you must ask your instructor if he or she is willing to mentor you through an Honors contract. You must then write a one-page project proposal which provides details for your own project which you will be working on throughout the term. The proposal has to be submitted and approved by both your instructor and the Honors director. The form to submit your proposal can be found in the Honors Program Canvas.
If the student completes their coursework to the satisfaction of the instructor and the honors director by the designated date at the end of the term, the student’s transcript will reflect that the class was taken as an Honors course. For example, the transcript will show “HONORS PSYC 1” instead of just “PSYC 1.” No extra units/credits are earned by taking an Honors class, only the course title is affected to show the Honors designation.
Honors Course Limits
If you are starting the honors program with below a 3.5 with the recommendation of a teacher or counselor, you should not take on more than one honors course in your first term. You will want to make sure that your GPA doesn't suffer as you pursue your honors coursework. Even students with very high GPAs are discouraged from taking more than two Honors courses in their first term because most students who have done so in the past have ended the term with incomplete projects and/or seen their GPAs suffer from taking on too many responsibilities. Students who have successfully completed all their coursework in the past may be allowed to complete up to 3 Honors courses in one term, but all students should realize that the more Honors classes they take, the less likely it is that all the coursework will be completed.