Students may choose to enroll in a University Honors course through an In-Course Contract (ICC) when there is neither an available Honors course nor a particular Honors section of a course at any level for their sequence of study.  When this instance is satisfied, students may use an ICC to earn University Honors credit.

ICC work should be qualitatively different to standard coursework, or it should allow a student to explore a topic of special interest in-depth. The expectation is that ICC Honors projects should approximate professional academic work and include an engaged-learning component, extra meetings with the faculty member, and achieve an outcome that matches the level of expected work from a regular University Honors seminar or mini-section. Refer to the ICC Rubric for detailed criteria for ICC acceptance. 

https://www.niu.edu/honors/academic/courses.shtml