from Building Honors Contracts— b building honors u i l d “The overarching goal of the collection is to engage the i contracts n reader’s imagination with a range of flexible, experiential, g h and practical blueprints for building honors contracts. o When students put honors into practice, whether within n Insights and Oversights o or without the bounds of established coursework, r s they choose their own adventures and map their own c o undergraduate paths. More broadly, the outward-looking, n engaged approach to contract learning described in t r a each of this volume’s chapters transforms students into c t lifelong learners equipped to shape their own personal s and professional futures. By challenging students, faculty, staff, and administrators to follow their curiosity and to lead others toward collaborative discovery, the best honors contracts take up and deliver on Horace’s dictum: Sapere aude—or dare to know. That challenge is central to honors education, regardless of how honors educators decide to structure their curricula.” —Kristine A. Miller n c h c m o n o g r a p h s e r NATIONAL COLLEGIATE i Kristine A. Miller, HONORS COUNCIL e editor ISBN: 978-1-945001-09-3 s building honors contracts Insights and Oversights building honors contracts Insights and Oversights Kristine A. Miller Edited by Series Editor | Jeffrey A. Portnoy Perimeter College, Georgia State University National Collegiate Honors Council Monograph Series Copyright © 2020 by National Collegiate Honors Council. Manufactured in the United States National Collegiate Honors Council Knoll Suite 250 University of Nebraska-Lincoln 440 N 17th Street Lincoln, NE 68588 <http://www.nchchonors.org> Production Editors | Cliff Jefferson and Mitch Pruitt Wake Up Graphics LLC Cover and Text Design | 47 Journals LLC The front cover image, Home by Caitlin McCuskey, is ink and watercolor on paper. It was commissioned in 2020 for this monograph. International Standard Book Number 978-1-945001-09-3 table of contents Acknowledgments.........................................vii INTRODUCTION Building Honors Contracts: Insights and Oversights........................................xi Kristine A. Miller CHAPTER ONE Curriculum Gone Bad: The Case against Honors Contracts..............................3 Richard Badenhausen CHAPTER TWO The Timeliness of Honors Contracts.............................21 Shirley Shultz Myers and Geoffrey Whitebread CHAPTER THREE Honors Contracts: Empowering Students and Fostering Autonomy in Honors Education...........................................55 Anne Dotter CHAPTER FOUR An Undeserved Reputation: How Contract Courses Can Work for a Small Honors Program.......81 Jon Hageman CHAPTER FIVE One Hand Washes the Other: Designing Mutually Beneficial Honors Contracts..................103 Antonina Bambina CHAPTER SIX Honors Contracts: A Scaffolding to Independent Inquiry...........................127 Cindy S. Ticknor and Shamim Khan v Table of Contents CHAPTER SEVEN Enhancing the Structure and Impact of Honors by Contract Projects with Templates and Research Hubs.....................149 James G. Snyder and Melinda Weisberg CHAPTER EIGHT Ensuring a Quality Honors Experience through Learning Contracts: Success beyond Our Wildest Dreams..........................173 Julia A. Haseleu and Laurie A. Taylor CHAPTER NINE A High-Impact Strategy for Honors Contract Courses..............193 Gary Wyatt CHAPTER TEN Facilitating Feedback: The Benefits of Automation in Monitoring Completion of Honors Contracts...........................................221 Erin E. Edgington CHAPTER ELEVEN Moving Honors Contracts into the Digital Age: Processes, Impacts, and Opinions..............................241 Ken D. Thomas and Suzanne P. Hunter CHAPTER TWELVE Honors in Practice: Beyond the Classroom.......................................263 Kristine A. Miller About the Authors........................................295 About the NCHC Monograph Series.........................299 vi acknowledgments I would like to thank each of the contributors to this volume. Their imaginative approaches to honors contracts have inspired me, as I hope they will others. Special thanks to Richard Badenhausen, whose thought- ful case against contracts lays the foundation for building them, and Caitlin McCuskey, whose artwork captures the joy of such creative con- struction. I am grateful to the many friends and colleagues whose work for the National Collegiate Honors Council—on the Board of Directors or staff, in committees or roundtables, through research or professional develop- ment, at conferences or online—has changed my professional life in all the best ways. You know who you are. I also acknowledge the careful editorial attention of Jeffrey Portnoy, along with the support of NCHC’s Publications Board and the design and layout expertise of Mitch Pruitt and Russell Helms. This volume is both readable and beautiful because of their help. I could not have done this work without the ongoing support of hon- ors education at Utah State University and the passionate innovation of the University Honors Program staff, faculty, and students. I would also like to express my appreciation to the President’s and Provost’s offices, the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, and the Department of Eng- lish for giving me the opportunity to follow this rewarding career path. Finally, I cannot thank my family enough. To Brian, Caitlin, and Dylan, thank you for everything, every day. Kristine A. Miller vii building honors contracts Insights and Oversights Digressions, incontestably, are the sunshine. . . . —Laurence Sterne, Tristram Shandy