Extra credit is great if it is used to supplement lessons and assist students that have excellent attendance and work diligently but are struggling with the course material.
Patricia,
These are great activities. As I've mentioned in this forum, any course work that is done by students beyond what is required is always welcomed. This enhances learning and understanding, and is consistent with our role as instructors. Extra points given for incomplete, missing, or failed course work misses the point, in my opinion, and may raise poor grades but has little to do with learning.
Barry Westling
I agree with Dan , I don't use extra credit. I do however have supplemental worksheets available to give to the "go getters" and sometimes divide the class into teams to play against eachother by doing these sheets in competition with eachother.
As well, I create mock case studies which the team must create a discussion answer for and present their solution to the class.This really infuses energy into the class.
Tim,
Some instructors use extra credit to encourage student learning and participation. Some small amount is probably OK if it does not skew grades, and is fair and available to all.
Barry Westling
I think that extra credit activities are best used as an alternate method to check for understanding and to reinforce the student's knowledge and confidence. Often the student's who want to take on extra credit assignments are the over achievers and not the ones most likely to benefit from the assignment or exercise. If a student who is struggling has the opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge in a different format they will have the opportunity to potentially increase their scores and achieve a better grade.
Sara,
Many institutions and instructors would agree with you, as would I. But that's my personal opinion, and not that of the course facilitator. Each has to decide what works best for them.
Barry Westling
I am not a fan of extra credit. My institution has a set number of points for each mod, and offering extra credit really isn't a possibility.
Holly,
Each instructor needs to decide if points outweigh the learning the grade is supposed to represent. EC is controversial. I just try to do what's in the best interest of the student.
Barry Westling
If the student has an 88 and has earned 2 extra points, then his final grade would be 90.
As am English instructor, I find extra credit writing assignments can be used to bolster the final grades of students who may suffer from test anxiety and not score well on exams, as a result.
I am not inclined to offer extra credit work to students who are chronically late or do not turn in assignments. I do not permit extra credit work to replace the original, required work.
Nadine,
Many institutions and instructors do the same...that is, not offer extra credit at all.
Barry Westling
Our grading scale...does not allow for extra credit...at all
Stephanie,
Many institutions and instructors frown on any kind of extra credit for reasons of fairness, skewing grades aritifically, and lack of consistency. Sometimes students will accuse an instructor of favortitism. For these and other reasons, personally I just don't do extra credit, but understand that some do, and each has to decide what works best for them.
Barry Westling
I am very firm that students can only ear extra credit if they have actively participated in the course and have submitted all of their assignments. Extra credit supplements the class work and is "extra" learning-- it is not a replacement for lack of effort throughout the term.
Allison,
I think many if not most instructors would tend to agree with your sentiments. We're interested in learning more than points or grades, at least, that's my opinion.
Barry Westling
I actually don't believe in extra credit. All assignments of my lesson plan an supportive of the objectives and I would rather they redo assignments and understand them then to complete another extra credit assignment that is not directed at a specific objective and in a specific timeframe for the course.
Allison,
Your use of bonus points seems very reasonable. What is excessive is when students fail to do required assignments and their grade is lowered to an undesirable level, and they ask for a supplemental "extra credit" assignment to buffer their low performance. The same could be for low quiz scores, test scores, or other low or absent assignments. In this instance, it's not fair to the other students, and the final grade does not truly reflect their learning.
Barry Westling
I know that many people dislike using extra credit, but I think that adding a 3-5 points in a 1000-point scale can garner excitement and competition in the students without monumentally affecting overall grades.
I often have to teach grammar to career education students, which is no picnic. I give my students a list of 5 wordy sentences and ask them to make them more concise on their own. Then I break them up into groups and have them come up with the best concise sentences, write them on the board, and the group with the best sentence is awarded extra credit points.
Just because xc points are on the line (regardless of how much they are worth in the end), I hear some hilariously dedicated and heated arguments about the placement of a word or a comma. It's really beautiful to watch, and it just doesn't work with the same excitement level without the students' perception of something valuable on the line.
Barbara,
I reside in your camp, but appreciate that others have alternate views. I believe if it's important to know, then it should be taught and learning measured in some way. In my opinion, our role is about learning, understanding, and possession of useable knowledge. Extra credit is about points and grades. I suppose that may be acceptable in some cases. It is not a route I take and choose not to offer it.
Barry Westling
That's an easy answer for me-- extra credit does not have a role in the student's final grade. This is the school policy and I agree with it. I feel that having this policy eliminates the possibility of the perception of favoritism. In addition, I think it helps students to realize that each graded assignment is important and that their final grade is not "given" but is earned.
Dorothy,
My answer is simple (but is difficult to do at times). I want to measure learning. To give points that are unearned (unlearned), that doesn't seem fair. But if there are multiple grading components, and a few bonus points are given, I don't see that as excessive or unreasonable.
Barry Westling
