Creating Extra Credit Grade Columns

Extra credit columns can be added into the Grade Center to track optional assignments. This provides a better alternative than adding additional points to previous assignments since it keeps a more accurate grade book.

Add a Column for Extra Credit

Note: If you are using Weighted Grades, skip to the next section.

1. Navigate to the Grade Center.
2. Create an extra credit grade center category.
3. Click Create Column.
4. On the Create Grade Column screen, enter Extra Credit for the column name. The Description box can also be used to provide additional details of the extra credit opportunities.
5. Set the Primary Display as Score and None as the secondary grade display.
6. For Points Possible, enter 0.  Making the column worth zero points assures that the total number of possible points for the class will not be affected.
   
7. Use the default settings so that the column is included in grade center calculations, the column is shown to students, and the class score statistics are not made available to the class.
8. Click Submit.

The new column will appear in the Grade Center. It is automatically placed in the last position. To adjust the position of this column (or any column), highlight Manage and click Column Organization.

After you add points in an extra credit column, a student's total points can equal more than 100 percent. If a student receives full credit for all gradable items (100 points) and also receives 6 extra credit points, the result is 106 out of 100 or 106%.

Extra Credit Column for Weighted Grades

1. Follow the instructions on how to create an extra credit grade column.
2. For extra credit to be included in weighted grades, the extra credit column needs to be made part of a weighted category, like assignments, for example.
3. Create a new total column for the category, which will also include the extra credit points, by selecting Create Calculate Column. Then click Total Column.

4. Enter a name for the column. For example, Assignments Total with Extra Credit
5. Navigate to the Select Columns section. Next to Include in Total, click Selected Columns and Categories.
6. Select the individual columns or categories to include in the category total. Be sure to also include the extra credit column(s) or categories.

7. For the weighted total column, check that the new total column, which in this example is "Assignments Total with Extra Credit," is the column that's being weighted and not the standard “Assignments” category.