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It’s fairly simple to add extra credit when using unweighted totals for your grading system.
To add extra credit, simply create a new column with a maximum possible point value of zero.
Make sure to include this in Grade Center calculations. Now, when a value other than
zero is input into that column, it will calculate the points as extra credit.
To give extra credit when using weighted grades,
there are three options for doing so, though it is a bit more complicated than doing so
for unweighted grades.
The first, and simplest option using the grade center is to simply give the extra credit
on an assignment. That way, when the extra credit points are added (say, for example,
giving 5 extra credit points on an assignment with a total point value of twenty points
would lead to 25 out of 20 points), the weighted column will calculate this as extra credit.
If you want to use a separate column for the extra credit, the second method might be better,
though it’s a little more complicated.
First, when you create the column, give it a maximum points possible of one, and change
the display to 'score'.
When you put this column into the weighted grade column, give this new column a weight
of one percent. Now, your total percentage should be 101%. To bring it back to 100% you
will need to reduce the value of one of the other categories or columns in the weighted
grade by 1%.
It’s important to remember to give every student one point in this new column, otherwise
the other grades will only add up to 99%. In order to give extra credit, you simply
give more points than one in the column for those students.
If you want to get even more complicated, there’s a third method to add extra credit
to an existing weighted grade. This third method gets rid of that extra one point for
everyone, but makes your grade center much more complex. It is also especially useful
if you have several different extra credit opportunities and want to put each in its
own column.
The first thing you want to do is create a column for each extra credit opportunity.
You’ll want to set the primary display to ‘score’. For points possible, you’ll
want to put in point-zero-zero-one, that is, one *thousandth* of a point.
In your existing weighted grade column, you’ll want to select each extra credit column, and
add it in to the selected columns area. Give each of these extra credit columns a weight
of point zero-zero-one percent, one-thousandth of a percent. Leave all of the existing categories
and columns as is.
When you hit submit, you’ll get an alert that the total does not add up to one-hundred
percent. Hit OK. With this method, the rest of the grades in the weighted grade will be
counted as slightly less, but since with this it will only be off by a few *thousandths*
of a percent, the effect should be negligible.