How does extra credit work in Gradebook?
The extra credit (EC) feature in Gradebook can be enabled (1) at the item level or (2) at the Category level.
When you designate an item or a category as EC, those items are not added to the total "out of" value for points possible in the course. When students earn points for extra credit items, those points are added their total course grade. However, points for EC content will not be deducted for students who do not receive a score for them. EC indicates "bonus" items, or optional credit.
Caution: do not set individual items as extra credit within an extra credit Category. Those items will be considered optional within the category and therefore would have no effect on the overall grade outside of the category.
Go to Gradebook.
Select Gradebook from the Tool Menu of your site.
Creating extra credit items
Click the arrow icon and then select Edit Item Details.
- Click the arrow icon (Open menu).
- Select Edit Item Details.
Check Extra credit and click Save Changes.
- Check Extra credit.
- Click Save Changes.
Tip: The extra credit option can set while adding a new Gradebook item or editing an existing one.
Grading with extra credit items
Add individual extra credit items to any Category, or to a Gradebook that contains no categories.
Example: extra credit item in Gradebook with no Categories
Note: An extra credit item displays a plus + icon (This is an Extra Credit Gradebook Item) in the column header to indicate that it is an extra credit item.
Example scenario: In a Gradebook that contains three quizzes worth 10 points each, where two of the quizzes are for credit and one quiz is for extra credit, the total points possible for all quizzes is 20 (i.e., two quizzes worth 10 points each).
- A student who scores 10/10 points on all three quizzes will earn a course grade of 30/20 points, or 150%: 10 points for the extra credit quiz are added on top of the total points of the other items.
- A student who scores 10/10 points on only two of the quizzes (i.e., skipping any one of the quiz items) will earn an overall grade of 20/20, or 100%.
- An extra credit quiz can make up for a missed quiz when the extra credit item is worth the same point value.
Example: extra credit items within weighted Categories
In a weighted Category, extra credit items are averaged together with the other items before the Category average is weighted.
Example scenario: In a Category worth 40% of the course grade, there are three regular assignments and one extra credit assignment, each worth 10 points.
- The points for all four items are added together (e.g., 40 points), then divided by the total points possible (30).
- If a student receives perfect scores on every assignment, their category average would be 133.33%.
Creating extra credit Categories
Create an extra credit Category rather than an extra credit item. This can be useful if your Gradebook includes weighting, or if you have several extra credit items that you want to group together into a Category.
Click Settings
Activate Extra Credit for a Category and click Save Changes.
- Open Categories & Weighting.
- Select Categories only.
- Check the Extra Credit box associated with a Category.
- Click Save Changes.
Grading with extra credit Categories
Example: extra credit Category only
Example scenario: The Gradebook is configured with Categories only (no weighting). One Category is designated as extra credit. Three items worth 10 points each are assigned to the Category.
In this scenario, a student who earns a perfect score for all Gradebook items, including 10/10 points for all three items in the extra credit category, will receive 130/100 points possible, or 130%.
Example: extra credit with Weighted Categories
Example scenario: When you set Categories & Weighting in a Gradebook, the total relative weight of all categories must be 100%. However, if one Category is designated as extra credit, you can have a combined category sum greater than 100%.
In this example, three regular categories are used and weighted as follows: Assignments (40%) + Discussions (10%) + Quizzes (50%) = 100% of the course grade. An extra credit category is worth 5% of the course grade. A student who completes all work in the extra credit category could potentially earn 105% for his or her course grade.