Awarding extra credit points
Extra credit points should be awarded to reward
students for going over and above the requirements of the class not to simply boost
grades.
J. E. wright
Mariam,
Sounds reasonable. In general, too much EC is a cruth some students will use to substitute required assignments (or poor performance) for EC assignment. In the end, EC really helps the giving of points and less to do with student learning. For me, I choose to not give EC at all. But bonus points on a test does allow expression of learned material and represents a very minute part of their overall grade.
Barry Westling
I never give students the option of an extra credit assignment because they do tend to abuse it. I do however include a few bonus points on the tests. The test are usually multiple choice so if I feel like the students could really use some extra points I give them an opportunity to gain some points on a written response type of question. I am impressed by the answers I get because it really shows how much they learned about the subject topic.
Carrie,
This is part of the problem with EC, expectations in subsequent in later classes. There isw no EC in the real world workforce, so I choose not to give artificial expectations as I prepare students for their career.
Barry Westling
I agree I feel students will take advantage and start to bank on getting extra credit
Timothy,
Early in my career I gave EC. I found students really didn't respect or appreciate it. Better students were offended that they did all the work assigned to earn their grade while others in the class who missed assignments or did poorly received (unerned) credit. Questions of fairness inevitably would come up. And grading something in the EC category could become quite subjective, adding to the fairness question, and also compromising the integrity of the grading system. For these, and other learned lessons over the years, for me, I choose not to award EC. I am interested in learning, not inflated grades. As I always add, this is my opinion and bias, and I understand others' opinion may vary.
Barry Westling
I think it is great for the student,not just for their grade,but for the knowledge that it gives the student.
J,
For me, the class requirements are set at the beginning of the class. There is no room for extra credit as it would be impossible to go over 100% of the expected assignments.
Barry Westling
