Prior Learning Credit

The OTC Honors Program is excited to offer OTC student members of Phi Theta Kappa (PTK) the opportunity to complete online PTK training courses and earn 3 hours of OTC Honors Program credit as HON-101 for doing so. You do not have to be a member of the OTC Honors Program to take advantage of this opportunity. Through the ptk.org website, Phi Theta Kappa offers its members several excellent free self-paced online training courses.

These include:

  • 5 Edge training courses (Employment Edge, Transfer Edge, Competitive Edge, Research Edge, and HealthCare Edge).
  • A Leadership Development Studies training course.

Any OTC student member of Phi Theta Kappa who completes 4 of the 5 PTK Edge training courses listed above (must include Competitive Edge) and the PTK Leadership Development studies training course, can earn 3 hours of OTC Honors Program Credit for doing so, shown as HON-101 on their OTC transcript. Once again, you do not have to be a part of the OTC Honors Program to take advantage of this opportunity; it is open to all OTC members of Phi Theta Kappa.

This is an excellent opportunity for both OTC Honors Program and OTC Phi Theta Kappa students. It allows OTC-PTK students to utilize PTK’s exceptional free online self-paced training courses to earn 3 hours of OTC Honors Program credit – regardless of whether you’re in the OTC Honors Program or not.

Instructions

Below, please find the steps to earn 3 hours of OTC HON-101 credit through the online PTK Edge and Leadership Development Studies training courses.

  • Use your PTK membership credentials to log into the Ptk.org website.
  • Under the “Benefits” link, click on “PTK Edge”.
    • Complete any 4 of the 5 available free, online, self-paced PTK Edge courses (must include Competitive Edge).
  • Under the “Benefits” link, click on “Learn Leadership”.
    • Click on “Start the Course” and complete the Leadership Development Studies course.
  • Once you have completed 4 of the 5 PTK Edge training courses and the Leadership Development Studies training course, complete this form including the dates each course was completed.
  • The completed form is automatically sent to your chapter advisor, who will verify your PTK Edge and Leadership Development Studies course completion through ptk.org.
  • Once your training course completions are verified, your advisor will send it to OTC Academic Affairs and the OTC Registrar, who will add 3 hours of HON-101 to your transcript as “Prior Learning Credit” (PLC).
  • The 3 hours of HON-101 will count as an elective toward your degree, will not have a traditional grade – but will rather show as PLC, and will count as 3 hours of honors credit toward completion of the OTC Honors Program.

Honors Contract

An Honors Contract is a unique individualized learner-centered educational experience where, based on need, a student may enroll in a regular OTC course/section and with the assistance of the course/section instructor complete additional readings/writings/presentations/etc. in the course to earn honors credit for that non-honors course/section. These additional “honors assignments” must be designed and agreed upon by the student and instructor in that non-honors course and submitted to the Honors Office in the form of the Honors Contract Application by the student no later than the deadline of the end of business at the end of the third week of the semester in which the course occurs.

These agreed upon/submitted/approved additional “honors assignments” in the course are the “Honors Contract” and the awarding of honors credit in the course is dependent upon a positive end of semester evaluation of the student and their work by the course/section instructor, in addition to the requirement to earn a grade of “A” or “B” in the course. A faculty member may decline to participate in an Honors Contract.

Honors Contract Application approval is at the sole discretion of the Director of Honors.

The Honors Contract option is designed and available for students, as needed, who could not otherwise complete the required number of traditional honors courses to fulfill the requirements of the OTC Honors Program.

For more information on applying for an Honors Contract, please contact us at Honors@otc.edu.

CONTRACT APPLICATION

OTC Service-Learning Component

The OTC Service-Learning program gives students an opportunity to put the skills they acquire in class into practice in the real world. If a student chooses to add a Service-Learning component to a course, OTC will work to pair them with a non-profit organization or governmental agency and they will work for them for 15 hours over the course of a semester.

There are three different ways to complete the service hours,

  • Direct Service-Learning – students have direct contact with service recipients.
  • Indirect Service-Learning – students perform a service without having direct contact with service recipients.
  • Advocacy-based Service-Learning – students educate others about a problem the service recipients face with the goal of eliminating that problem.
  • Research-based Service-Learning – students research a problem the service recipients face with the goal of eliminating that problem.

If you would like to add a Service-Learning component to a class, you must let the instructor of that course know within the first week of classes.

For more information about Service-Learning at OTC, please email turnerr@otc.edu.