I find extra credit awarded as bonus points on exam grades to be beneficial; however, I do not feel extra credit should be additional points to the overall final grade of the course.
Mitchell,
Your rationale makes sense and appears fair.
Barry Westling
Extra credit should be used in an actual above and beyond situation. Students who have a true desire to learn more about a given topic can be given an opportunity to express and show that knowledge in exchange for extra credit. It should not be allowed in excess, and definitely not as replacement points for missed or shoddy work that is part of a classes core curiculum. Doing so dilutes the foundational knowledge of a class. Opportunity for a small amount of points is appropriate as a bonus quesion on a test but again, the final score should not equal to more than the original points alloted.
Jill,
Especially in a vocational setting many institutions understand that knowledge and skill development are key to success in the work force and therefore, in some cases, granting extra credit may interfere with accurately measuring student performance.
Barry Westling
Many of my students ask for extra credit tasks, however; my school does not permit extra credit.
Diane,
Personally, I prefer not to give extra credit that impacts a grade, but I'm all for extra assignments that help create a good learning experience. Sometimes this is offered by myself, but more often it comes about from the student asking for additional study
Barry Westling
Extra credit should be just that..extra learning! Must be consistent.
Diane Fischer
Liz,
I'm with you. Grades should reflect accuracy in learning. Giving away points doesn't do too much in that regard.
Barry Westling
I personally prefer not to give extra credit. This is something that I feel is unnecesary at the college level. College learners are adults and they should have the understanding and the intelligence to come to class and devote themselves to their studies. I realize that life happens and assignments can be missed, however, I feel that college is a different ball game than high school. I do not mean to sound harsh or condescending to those that do give out extra credit. I just feel that it should not be necessary. The grade earned should be the grade given.
Debbie,
I think any activity that is instructional and beneficial towards student learning, and is fair to all students seems appropriate. Extra credit to compensate for missed assignments or lousy grades is not good because it rarely contributes much to learning and is really only about points and grades, less so on student learning.
Barry Westling
Without playing semantics...I sometimes allow students to make up "lost credit" By that I mean on a low quiz grade that was multiple choice I may ask the student to write out why the correct answer is the correct answer. I give partial credit so not all the points are earned back, but gives the student an opportunity to show what she has learned. If I offer this in class, I make it available to all students.
Caleb,
If these ideas works for you, that's great. For me it's about learning, and if a learned topic needs to be assessed, there's little doubt the student either correctly answers it or doesn't. Like math problems, there can be no "abouts", but there must be "exactly". So my biggest issue is good solid A students who work hard to learn the material get offended when they see lesser performing students getting their grade boosted due to EC. That's really not fair to them. But I understand opinions differ and each instructor and institution has to decide on what works best for them, and that's cool, too.
I am not opposed at all to extra assignments, which I will occasionaly get requests for. This is where a student independently wants to push themselves futher than what is minimally required. So I'll give extra assignments, typically a bit more difficult, and reward and recognize student achivement. It's just that the reward does not impact their grade.
Barry Westling
As a student and teacher I feel that extra credit is a good thing. I do think that it should be un-anounced and worth not very many points. It is only meant to be a bonus to the student sthat are prepared for class and try hard.
I think that a few one question extra credit pop quizzes through out a course is an excellent way to reward students who have already read the days material. If a student did not, they will not get any points taken away as it was extra credit, and it will encourage them to read ahead in the future.
Other ideas are to give students a few extra points to present a large project relating to class at the end of the term. It won't be enough points as to replace any required work, but enough to make it worth it. I fail to see how that punishes the students that try hard as many have mentioned in this forum. From my experience, it is the B+ or A students that do the extra credit anyway. It provides an opportunity to learn something more as well as a few extra points.
I think that the key with extra credit is to step up the difficulty a few notches so that only if you truly understand the material are you able to do it.
Donna,
Many instructors and institutions actually have written policy fobidding the giving of extra credit (to improve a grade). I support student who want to do something more to learn, but I'm with you, I am unwilling to give credit for it.
Barry Westling
I don't give any extra credit in my classes. Students know at the start of the course that there will be no extra credit.
Dan,
I'm with you. Extra credit helps grades but rarely helps true learning (in lieu of regular course work).
Barry Westling
Extra credit should not have an affect on grades. If used for extra learning for go getters, that's fine but grading should be the same for all students. Keep it cosistent.
Nichole,
That's certainly your call. To be fair, it'd have to be offered to everyone in class, and my experience has been that some weaker students will use the EC assignment as a replacement for their poor scores or missing assignments.
Barry Westling
I have had students become interested in a particular aspect of something that they are not required to know about for the class. Maybe it would be a good idea to give them a small amount of points to research that topic to keep their interest.
Karen,
I think this is great. I try to give students extra assignments that help them learn too. I just don't give credit for it. When I have in the past, students relied on it to get barely passing grades, missed assignments because they knew extra points were available, and stronger students resented their hard work not being appreciated (by weaker students getting extra attention). To them, it was a fairness issue. I feel if it's important to grade, then it is required and all students will be expected to complete it.
Barry Westling
