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
