How do I add an Extra Cedit / Bonus Category?

How do I add an Extra Cedit / Bonus Category?

by Peter Ruthven-Stuart -
Number of replies: 2
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Hello,

I have set up my Gradebook with 4 categories, one of which I want to be 'extra credit'. So, I want the grades for the 4 categories to be distributed as follows:

Category
Grade
Category A
5%
Category B
45%
Category C
50%
Bonus Tasks
+ 5%

I would like the tasks in the category 'Bonus Tasks' to be treated as just that; tasks that students can do to boost their grade. This means that the total grade students can get should be calculated as 100% (5 + 45 + 50), but with the possibility that students could increase their grade. Because of the way I grade certain tasks, it will never be possible for students to get 105% mixed.

I realise that in the Gradebook their are things called 'Bonus Points' in the 'Set Weights' section, but as the help file indicates this is not the solution:
  • Bonus Points: Is used to give extra points that do not change the point total for a category. This can be used to adjust for unfair questions or similiar. These will be applied equally to all students. If you wish to selectively provide extra credit; add a new graded item and set it to extra credit in "Set Categories".
There is also an 'Extra Credit' feature in the 'Set Categories' section. However, again this is not the solution:
  • Extra Credit: Check this box if you would like a particular category to be calculated as extra credit. Please note that setting all items to extra credit for a particular category will have unexpected results, and will most likely not count the category or extra credit at all.
So, is there a device, feature or workaround within the present grading system that will allow me to set up a category, which contains a number of tasks, as an extra credit category. In other words, none of the tasks in the category need to be done by students, but if done, will increase their final scores.

Any suggestions or advice will be much appeciated.
In reply to Peter Ruthven-Stuart

Re: How do I add an Extra Cedit / Bonus Category?

by Michael Penney -
You found a bad help file. It should read

Extra Credit: Check this box if you would like a particular activity to be calculated as extra credit. Please note that setting all items to extra credit for a particular category will have unexpected results, and will most likely not count the category or extra credit at all.

We'll fix that.

Extra credit activities in a category will add to the student's points in the category but not to the total for the category.

I think what you are trying to do would be done by adding the extra credit category and having your total weight for all categories add up to more than 100 %. Set the 'A' range top end to 100%.
In reply to Michael Penney

Re: How do I add an Extra Cedit / Bonus Category?

by Peter Ruthven-Stuart -
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Michael

Thanks for your reply.

The thing is that I want to make all the activities in a category 'Extras Credit'. However, the help file explicitly says that, "Please note that setting all items to extra credit for a particular category will have unexpected results, and will most likely not count the category or extra credit at all."

I tried your suggestion, but it didn't get the result I was looking for. Despite the above warning, I changed all the activities in a category that I have called 'Bonus Tasks' to Extra Credit in the 'Set Categories' section, and then in the Set Weights Section' I set 'Bonus Tasks' category to be worth 5%. However, this had the effect of making the total out of 105% and therefore lowered students' grades. What I really want is for students grades to be out of 100%, but by including the 'Bonus Tasks' category they have the possibility of increasing their grade by an extra 5%.

On possible solution I have found at the moment is to make the 'bonus tasks' part of another category which contains tasks that are not for extra credit. I have tried this, and it seems to boost students' scores that have done the bonus tasks. However, from the students' point of view it will be confusing  since it indicates that they got 0% in tasks that they did well in, but their scores for these bonus tasks have in fact been taken into account in their final scores.

I'll have to experiment some more with the various configurations in the gradebook, and let you know what I find.

Thanks again for the advice.