Course Contracts

Contracts are a means for Honors students to make an agreement with a professor to earn Honors credit in a non-Honors course through completing additional work that allows them to explore the course materials in greater depth or in more sophisticated or complex ways. Whenever possible, faculty should consider utilizing innovative pedagogical approaches for Honors contracts, such as:

• in-depth experiential learning activities
• collaborative, project-based and/or problem-solving activities
• integration of course concepts with students’ outside coursework, major, and/or career paths
• innovation in the ways students apply and demonstrate learning
• and/or using other pedagogical approaches that engage students at a more sophisticated or complex level than might be expected of non-Honors students in the course

Students should approach faculty early in the semester/session about potential contracts. Depending on the faculty member’s preference, students may propose self-designed projects or the faculty member may provide a framework for Honors projects in their class.

Once faculty and student are in agreement about what work is expected for the contract, the student submits a contract form in MyRed detailing the agreement. The form is found at the top of the student’s “Enrollment” page in MyRed. Once submitted, the form is routed to Honors for review to ensure sufficient detail is included. If detail is insufficient, the form is sent back to the student to revise and resubmit. If it has appropriate detail, it is routed to the faculty member via email for final approval.

Students need to provide 5 pieces of information on the form about the agreed upon work:

1. What is the project/work?
2. What is the scope of the work? Ie: how long, how often, how frequently, etc.
3. What are the relevant deadlines? These should include the final deadline, but may also include a deadline for confirming a topic, submitting a draft, or otherwise completing a component part of the work.
4. What, if any uses of generative AI are allowed in completion of the contracted work?
5. How will the student interact with the faculty member and receive feedback along the way?

A primary goal of the contract process is that it should be an opportunity for ongoing interaction with faculty and that student should receive feedback and opportunity for revision of their work.

Contracts are due by the 1^st Friday of the summer session terms and the 5^th Friday in a regular fall/spring semester. Note: contracts may not be submitted until the first day of the semester/session in which the course is offered.

About one month before the end of the regular term, faculty will receive an email with a link to report on the status of that semester's contracts. If you missed the email, you may request the link be re-sent to you. Each faculty member will be able to report on all students contracting with them in all classes on the same form. Additionally, faculty may complete the form for some students and save it, then come back later to report on remaining students. Faculty should consider the Honors work an additional “complete/incomplete” element that earns the Honors designation for the course, not as part of the regular grade. In other words, if a student performs well in the class and earns an A, but does not complete the contracted work, the “Honors” designation is removed on their record, but they should still receive the “A” grade. The regular grade is reported in MyRed; feedback about the contract is sent to Honors. The Contract report form is due by the same time as degree grade rosters for graduating seniors (who will be noted on the form), and by the time final grades are due for all other students.

Yes, students may cancel a contract by returning to the contract from in MyRed and requesting cancellation—after the contract is posted to the student’s transcript. The posting of contracts to a student’s record is currently a manual process, so contracts are generally eligible for cancellation after the 10^th week of the regular semester and after the second week of a summer session. Faculty will receive an email when a contract is cancelled.

Yes. Please feel free to adapt the following as appropriate to your class. Please note that the deadlines and grading policy cannot be changed.

Students in the University Honors Program may request to contract this course for Honors credit. Students wishing to earn Honors credit will need to:

1. Talk to me about their interest in contracting;
2. After receiving my approval, submit the contract form in MyRed by the Honors Program deadline of the 5th Friday of the regular semester or the 1st Friday of a summer or short-term session; and
3. Complete the following work:
   1. Description of contract work here or invitation for students to propose individual projects

Contracts are graded on a pass/no pass basis in terms of whether or not the student earns Honors credit for the course. They do not otherwise impact the student’s grade in the course. As with all Honors courses, students must earn a B- or better for this class to count for Honors hours, even with a successfully completed contract.

No, the contract form is only accessible to students who are members of the University Honors Program. However, current students may apply to the Honors Program twice annually; deadlines are December 1 and May 1.

Please see the Honors Program website for further information. If you have questions, please contact the main Honors Office uhon-office@unl.edu