Overview
This document serves as a comprehensive guide for faculty members exploring the incorporation of extra credit strategies within their Canvas courses. It details various methodologies tailored to either points-based or weighted grading schemes, ensuring educators can effectively apply extra credit in alignment with their grading practices.
Before proceeding, it's essential to determine whether your course utilizes a points-based or weighted grading scheme to select the appropriate method for your situation. Should you require further assistance after reviewing this guide, we encourage you to contact our support team via phone, live chat, or email. Additionally, you are welcome to book a consultation or visit us during walk-in teaching support hours at the Academic Innovation Center (MS 240), Monday through Friday, 8-5, for personalized guidance.
Can I give extra credit grades to my students?
There's a few different ways you can assign extra-credit in your course.
To explore a few options, read the Canvas guide: How do I give extra credit in a course?
Assigning Extra Credit on a Points-Based Grading Scheme
If you are using a point structure and do not have weighted assignment groups, follow these steps.
- Access Assignments: Navigate to the "Assignments" page in your Canvas course.
- Create Zero-Point Assignment: Click to add a new assignment, setting its point value at zero. This will serve as your extra credit assignment.
- Specify Submission Type: Choose "No Submission" from the submission type dropdown menu. This configuration acknowledges the assignment as extra credit.
- Extra Credit Assignment Appearance: Your newly created extra credit assignment will now appear on the "Assignments" page, marked as worth zero points.
- Awarding Extra Credit: In the Gradebook, manually add extra credit points directly to the column of the zero-point assignment. It will display as 'Out of 0' points, allowing you to add points without affecting the total possible points for the course.
- Testing Your Setup: Utilize the Test Student feature or enter Student View mode to test the extra credit setup, ensuring it reflects accurately in students' grade calculations.
Assigning Extra Credit on a Weighted-Averages Grading Scheme
Novice
Dropping the lowest grades in a given assignment category is a strategy that inherently boosts students' overall grade in a course, like offering extra credit. This approach acknowledges that students might have off days or face unforeseen circumstances that negatively impact their performance on certain assignments. By removing their lowest scores, you essentially give them a "second chance," which can motivate them to continue putting forth effort throughout the course. This method can be particularly beneficial in fostering a growth mindset, where students understand that mistakes or lower performances can be part of the learning process without permanently affecting their overall grade.
Like extra credit, dropping the lowest grade can act as a buffer for students, potentially leading to higher final grades. Both methods allow students some leeway in their learning journey, recognizing that learning is not always linear and that flexibility can lead to a more positive and engaging learning environment.
Implementing the Strategy in Canvas
To implement the strategy of dropping the lowest grades in an assignment category within Canvas, follow these concise and straightforward steps. While specific visuals from the PDF cannot be provided here, the steps will guide you through the process effectively.
- Access Your Course: Log in to Canvas and navigate to the course where you want to apply this strategy.
- Open Assignments: From your course navigation menu, select "Assignments."
- Create or Edit an Assignment Group: If you haven't already organized your assignments into groups (e.g., Quizzes, Homework, Projects), you'll need to do so. Click "+ Group" to create a new group or click the options icon next to an existing group to edit it.
- Set Up Group Rules: Within the assignment group settings, look for an option to set up "Rules" for the group. This is where you can specify to drop the lowest grades. You might see an option like "Drop the lowest" with a box to enter the number of grades you wish to drop.
- Enter the Number of Grades to Drop: In the provided field, enter the number of grades you want to drop from the total calculation in this category. For example, if you want to drop the lowest two scores for the "Homework" category, you would enter "2."
- Save Changes: After setting the rule, make sure to save your changes. Canvas will automatically adjust the grading calculations for students in this assignment group by excluding their lowest grades as specified.
- Communicate with Students: It’s important to let your students know about this grading policy. This transparency ensures they understand how their grades will be calculated and how the dropped grades may impact their overall performance.
Learner
To support diverse learning paths and encourage student engagement, creating an extra credit assignment group offers a strategic approach. This method requires ensuring all standard categories sum to 100%, with the extra credit serving as a bonus. It's vital for instructors to plan for adding these grades at the semester's end or to manage participation through manual adjustments in the gradebook. This proactive strategy fovcuses on student motivation, catering to learners' varied capabilities and efforts.
Implementing this Strategy in Canvas
- Create an Extra Credit Assignment Group: Navigate to "Assignments," click "+ Group," and label it "Extra Credit."
- Ensure 100% Total: Confirm that the total weight of all non-extra credit assignment groups equals 100%.
- Add Extra Credit Assignments: Within the "Extra Credit" group, add assignments that will be considered for extra credit.
- Grade Adjustments: Manually adjust grades at the semester's end to include the extra credit, ensuring it positively impacts the student's total grade without exceeding the maximum possible course grade.
Important: Faculty members who choose to use this strategy for extra credit should give both the extra credit assignment category AND each individual assignment a number of points. Then, it’s critical to mark any students who choose not to pursue the extra credit option as “excused” via the gradebook.
Expert
For instructors adept with Canvas's nuanced functionalities, tailoring extra credit to specific assignments presents a refined approach to academic encouragement. This method demands a thorough understanding of Canvas tools and a commitment to meticulous course planning. It stands as the most detailed strategy, ideal for those looking to directly augment particular learning outcomes. By leveraging these advanced techniques, educators can offer precise, targeted support, fostering an environment of excellence and detailed academic exploration.
In a Quiz
You have the option of accessing the SpeedGrader function in order to view individual quizzes that students completed. At the bottom of the quiz, Canvas has the option of adding fudge points. These fudge points will allow you to assign extra credit to each exam or quiz you have assigned for students to complete.
Implementing this Strategy in Canvas
- Navigate to Quizzes: In your Canvas course, go to "Quizzes" and select the quiz you want to add extra credit to.
- Grade the Quiz: Once students have completed the quiz, go to the "Grades" section, then find the quiz you're focusing on.
- Adjust Scores: Click on the quiz to view individual student attempts. Select a student's attempt to view their quiz submission.
- Add Fudge Points: In the quiz grading area, you'll see a box labeled "Fudge Points." Enter the number of extra credit points you want to give the student in this box. This can be done on an individual basis, allowing customization based on student performance or effort.
- Save: Make sure to save the changes. These fudge points will be added to the student's total score for the quiz, effectively serving as extra credit.
In an Assignment
Faculty members can add extra credit in a specific assignment by adding a row in a rubric that marks the extra credit opportunity in the assignment. Then, as each assignment is being graded, the extra credit earned can also be evaluated.
Implementing this Strategy in Canvas
To create an extra credit category in a rubric within Canvas and use it as an extra credit strategy, follow these steps:
- Access the Assignment: In your course, navigate to the "Assignments" section and select the assignment you want to add a rubric to.
- Create or Edit a Rubric: Scroll to the bottom of the assignment page and click on "+ Rubric" to create a new rubric or edit an existing one.
- Add Criteria for Extra Credit: In the rubric creation or editing mode, add a new criterion by clicking "+ Criterion". Label it appropriately to indicate it's for extra credit (e.g., "Extra Credit Opportunity").
- Set Points: Assign a point value to this criterion that reflects the extra credit available. Since this is extra credit, it should not negatively impact students who do not earn these points.
- Mark as Extra Credit: In some versions of Canvas, you may have the option to mark this criterion explicitly as extra credit. If this option is not available, simply adding it beyond the normal total will effectively make it extra credit.
- Save the Rubric: After adding the extra credit criterion, save the rubric.
This rubric can now be applied to student submissions, and the extra credit criterion can be used to allocate additional points beyond the assignment's original total.
Support
For support, email [email protected], call 210-458-4520, or book a consultation with our TLDT experts.