Honors Contracts
At LPC our honors coursework can be completed through individual honors contracts between a student and his or her instructor, even if the course is not listed as HONORS on the schedule and even if the instructor does not offer an Embedded Honors Component in their course. This means that any transferable course at LPC may become an honors course by adding an honors contract to that course with the consent of your instructor 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.
How Does it Work
Suppose an Honors student is interested in taking a Introductory Psychology Course (PSYC 1) as an Honors PSYC 1. Even though there are no Honors PSYC 1 Course on the schedule, the student can enroll in a regular PSYC 1 section and go to the instructor during the early weeks of the semester to inquire if that instructor has en Embedded Honors Component in their class, and if not, if the instructor is willing to mentor the student through an honors project. If the instructor agrees, the student and the instructor together create and plan the project, and the student submits an Honors Contract Proposal to the Honors Program. If the student completes the project to the satisfaction of the instructor and the honors director by the designated date at the end of the term, that student's transcript will have an "Honors" notation on it next to that class. So the transcript will show HONORS PSYC 1 instead of just PSYC 1 on the transcript. There are no additional units/credits associated with that, only the title of the course is affected.
Four Steps for Turning your Course into Honors through a Contract
Make sure to click on each Step for more details.
You must be part of the Program to complete any Honors Courses.
Applying is easy: all you need to do is submit an application form. There are no due dates for the form, you can submit it anytime, but the earlier you submit - the more time you will get to benefit from the program.
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:
The Honors Contract Proposal Form is available only on the LPC Honors Program Canvas (in Modules). To have access to the Honors Program Canvas you have to be part of the program - you should get an invitation to the Canvas once your application to the program is approved and you are officially enrolled in the program (see STEP 1).
Once your instructor approves your project proposal summary you will need to submit the Contract to the Honors Program Director for additional approval using the Honors Contract Proposal Form available on the Honors Program Canvas (also in Modules). Here are some key points that must be included in the submission:
- The project proposed should require at least 25 hours of additional student work.
- The project should involve critical thinking, original work, creativity, rigorous scholarship, and independent study.
- The project should engage at least 10 valid sources outside of the required readings for the course, with primary sources used whenever possible (from peer reviewed journals or original publications).
- Clear outcomes for the project must be detailed in the project proposal. If the outcome is a paper then it should be 12 pages minimum, not counting the title page, the abstract or the sources/references.
- All projects should contain a written analysis in a format that is appropriate for the discipline scholarship works/publications, even when the project’s primary outcome is not a paper but a computer program, a performance, or a physical artifact. In such cases the written analysis can be less than 12 pages long.
- The contract proposal will include at least 3 incremental due dates in addition to the date that the completed project will be submitted.
- The Honors student should have contact with the student's mentor for guidance at least every 2-3 weeks (more often if it is a summer course), for a minimum of 4 meetings.
Once the student completes a project and the mentor approves it, the student should submit the completed work to the Program for additional approval before the due date (usually the last day of instructions for the term). There are two forms that you would need to submit: one form will ask for your completed honors work AFTER it was approved by your instructor, and another form will ask for your feedback. 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 contract to qualify. The grades will be verified after the Completion Form is submitted.
Honors Contract 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 contract 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 creating more than two contracts 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 contracts in the past may be allowed to complete up to 3 contracts in one term, but all students should realize that the more contracts are created the less likely it is that all contracts will be completed.
Common Proposal Problems
These are the most common reasons that honors contracts are not approved:
- Proposal summary timeline does not have at lest 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 has a product as an outcome (a computer program, a performance, an artifact) and does not mention any written analysis accompanying the product.