Honors by Contract
Honors by Contract is another way to fulfill the Honors Program curriculum requirements. Most courses numbered 300 or above at JSU can confer the Honors Program designation. Effective Fall 2018, the Honors by Contract forms will be submitted online.
If a student completes the contracted course with a grade of "B" or better and satisfactorily completes the terms of the contract during the semester that credit is earned, the student will earn an Honors designation for the course. Students receiving an "Incomplete" in a course that they have contracted will not receive Honors designation upon completion. Likewise, students receiving an "A" or "B" in a contracted course who had not completed the terms of their contract will not receive Honors designation. If a student is unable to complete the contracted work, the student can still receive credit for the course but cannot receive an Honors designation.
Course contracts enable students to earn Honors credit by incorporating an Honors component within a regularly offered class. Honors contract courses ideally require something qualitatively different rather than something quantitatively more. Enhanced substitutions for the normal course requirements are preferable to more of the same. The component should be designed to incorporate a "consolidating experience," a written paper or report (possibly including a class presentation) that serves to bring the experience together.
Where longer papers, additional reports, etc., are called for, the added work should be designed to fulfill a larger learning objective. Teaching one or more classes and doing special research projects (especially in the STEM fields) have been especially beneficial. Wherever possible, Honors students should share the results of their work with the class in the form of an oral presentation, a poster session, or some other means. Other suggestions are detailed below.
All Honors by Contracts must be submitted online by the first day of classes in the semester the student is completing the contract.
Verification of completion of Honors by Contracts are due no later than the Monday of the last week of classes. This means your projects/papers/presentations will be due to your instructor prior to this date.