Honors Contract

When you enter into an Honors Contract with a faculty member, you are agreeing to engage in work clearly beyond what is required for a regular undergraduate course. Simply increasing the quantity of coursework does not constitute an Honors Contract project. Projects can include—but are not limited to—the following examples:

• Completing an independent project that employs research methods taught in the course
• Writing a research paper that expands upon a topic covered in the course
• Producing teaching materials, such as creating a test, new handouts, or PowerPoint presentation for a course
• Researching a topic and teaching a class session to share your findings
• Designing and completing a special project, performance, or product

Students who entered the Honors College during or after fall 2022 should plan to add their honors project and reflection to their ePortfolio. More information about the ePortfolio requirement will be shared in HON-H 200.

Please complete the following items prior to submitting the application form:

• See examples of Honors Contracts on the Honors College Canvas.
• Discuss this project with your professor to determine:
  • Project title, project description, and details (page or presentation length, for example), and weekly timeline to completion. You will need to submit these pieces of information on the contract proposal form.
  • How your project might fulfill the expectations of an engaging experience such as research, service learning, international study, or other opportunities to apply classroom learning.
  • How your project might contribute to the IU Indianapolis and Honors College learning goals such as developing your skills as a problem solver, communicator, innovator, or community contributor.
• Inform your professor they will need to approve your Honors Contract by the deadline.
  • After you click to submit your Honors contract proposal, your professor will receive a request to approve your project to indicate they agree to work with you. Both of these steps must be completed by the deadline.

Toward the end of the semester, you will submit your completed project to your instructor for evaluation. Projects are not submitted to the Honors College.

To receive Honors credit, you must receive a grade of B or better in the class. While the course may count toward your degree if you receive a grade lower than B, it will not count toward the Honors notation.

The Honors Contract is not a substitute for regular work. To receive Honors credit, the student must complete all regular coursework as well as the Honors contract and receive at least a B (not a B-) overall in the class.

Honors contracts must be completed via the online form, submitted, and approved by faculty members. You should receive an email directing you to approve the student's Honors Contract proposal.

Honors College staff will review all contracts and notify each student of approval or the need for revision. You are responsible for determining the criteria for evaluating the student's honors contract work.

You will assign one grade at the end of the semester which will serve as both the Honors project grade and the grade for the course. You will determine the weight of the Honors project in calculating the final grade.

No instructor or department is required to accept Honors Contracts. Departments may choose to set up specific guidelines for all students with Honors Contracts within the department. If such policies are established, please inform the Honors College Office.

For more information, please contact Lisa Ruch.

For my Honors contract in P105: Giving and Volunteering in America, I will conduct a philanthropic service-learning project. For this project, I will gather, inform, and lead a group of IU Indianapolis student volunteers in the upcoming Walk to Defeat ALS. This event is run by The ALS Association to help raise funds to allow local chapters to sustain care services and support research. In conjunction with organizing the volunteers, I will organize a walk team. Goals for this project include: acquiring at least 20 volunteers, a 10 person walk team, and raising at least $500 to be donated to the ALS Association. To ensure this is a successful event and service opportunity, I will have an open dialogue with the Indiana ALS chapter. This includes making several trips to their office for sit down meetings and phone calls to ensure I am following their guidelines as I am the face of their organization at IU Indianapolis. I will also be keeping a detailed journal of my daily activities as they relate to the process of setting up and running the philanthropic service-learning project and will write a final reflection of four pages drawing on concepts and material from the course.

September 2: Formalize honors contract
September 6: Communicate with ALS Association
September 9: Design marketing materials including flyers, email communication, social media, and a marketing plan
September 12: Hold an informational meeting
September 13-19: Conduct additional recruitment
September 13-26: Fundraise with the walk team
September 27: Day of event
September 29: Thank and recognize volunteers
October 20: Submit final reflection paper. The entire Honors Project will be worth 150 points of 18% of the final course grade.

More examples of Honors Contracts in all academic schools are located on the Honors College Resource Site on Canvas.

At the end of the semester, you will be required to submit a 500-800 word reflection paper about your Honors work in the course. We will send you a link to the form that you will use to submit this reflection toward the end of the semester. This reflection will include a brief description of your experience followed by your personal feelings, insights, opinions, and observations regarding its significance and its impact on you and your future.