Court Reporting Technology (AAS)

Program Description

This degree is offered only at the Quad-Cities Campus.

Do you think court reporting would be an exciting and rewarding career? It is! Court reporters play a vital and valued role in courtrooms, depositions and other legal proceedings. It’s an exciting, demanding and rewarding career.

The Court Reporting Technology program at Black Hawk College prepares individuals for successful careers as professional judicial reporters, broadcast captioners and computer-aided real-time transcriptionists (CART). Broadcast captioning displays the audio portion of a television program as text on the television screen, providing a critical link to news, entertainment and information for individuals who are deaf or hard-of-hearing. Computer-Aided Real-time Transcription (CART) is a method to provide access to spoken communication for people who are deaf, hard of hearing, or who have certain cognitive or learning impairments. Graduates of our Associate in Applied Science in Court Reporting Technology degree will be prepared to transcribe and create complete and accurate legal records while taking advantage of exciting internship opportunities.

Court reporting degree-seeking students obtain experience with real-time reporting techniques and technology during their core courses. Every court reporting degree student at Black Hawk College completes a supervised internship which provides an exciting opportunity for students to try potential career options before graduation. At the completion of the program, students are prepared to pass the Illinois Certified Shorthand Reporter (CSR) and the national Registered Professional Reporter (RPR) exams. Interested students are encouraged to contact an advisor or faculty member for more information.

Listen to this episode from WVIK’s podcast A Real Piece of Work, which features a career in court reporting.

Discover careers and salaries for this program.

Suggested Courses

Course (Credit Hours):

First Semester (Fall)

CRT 105  Realtime Theory I – 8 weeks (3)
CRT 110  Realtime Theory II – 8 weeks (3)
Gen Ed elective recommended from list below (3)
CS 100    Introduction to Computers (3)

Second Semester (Spring)

CRT 115 Intro to Speed/Theory Review – 8 weeks (3)
CRT 120 Speedbuilding I – 8 weeks (3)
CRT 125 Court Reporting Tech/CAT (3)
ENG 101 Composition I (3)
BL 150 Legal Terminology (3)

Third Semester (Summer)

CRT 140 Speedbuilding II (3)
CRT 230 CRT Proofreading Skills (3)

Fourth Semester (Fall)

CRT 160 Speedbuilding III – 8 weeks (3)
CRT 180 Speedbuilding IV – 8 weeks (3)
CRT 240 Courtroom Procedures (3)
CRT 150 CRT Medical Terminology (3)
SOC 102 Contemporary Social Problems (3)

Fifth Semester (Spring)

CRT 200 Speedbuilding V (3)
CRT 225 Speedbuilding VI (3)
CRT 265 Court Reporting Internship (3)
BE 180 Business Communications (3)

Gen Ed electives recommended: BUSN 110, SPEC 114, SPEC 175, PHIL 100, 101, 103

Minimum total hours required for degree: 60