Creating Extra Credit

Relevant to: faculty and staff

This article contains information considered accurate at the time of publishing. Technology updates, changes in University security practices, policies and procedures may effect the information in this article - updates to articles are scheduled on a periodic basis and will address any required changes.

Introduction

Brightspace allows you to make assignments, discussion topics, quizzes and individual quiz questions extra credit. In Brightspace extra credit items are called "bonus grade items" or "bonus marks."

About Bonus Grade Items

Bonus grade items are not included in the maximum points for a category or final grade. They are added on top of the calculated grade.

Bonus grade items cannot make users' grades exceed the maximum points specified, unless you have selected the Can Exceed option.

Note: Bonus grade items do not display to students with the grade scheme information like other grade items, no matter what display options you set. Because bonus grades are only added to final grades after all other calculations, students can only view the numeric points, and potentially the weight achieved, for a bonus grade, but no other grade scheme information, as the actual weight or points of the bonus grade item, may not be consistent with the rest of the grading scheme.

Set Up a Grade Item as a Bonus Item

  1. From the course homepage, select Course Menu in the navbar and then select Grades.
  2. Select the Manage Grades tab.
  3. If you want to make an existing grade item a bonus item, select it from the list and skip to step 5.
  4. If you want to make a new grade item a bonus item, create a new item as explained in the "Add and Organize Items and Categories in the Gradebook" article. Select Numeric as the grade item type.
  5. In the Properties tab under the Grading heading, check off Bonus and Can Exceed.
  6. Select Save and Close.
  7. In the gradebook list, bonus items have a yellow star to the right of their names.

Make an Assignment a Bonus Item

  1. Set up a bonus item for the assignment in the gradebook as explained above.
  2. From the course homepage, choose Course Menu in the navbar and then select Assignments.
  3. Click the chevron next to the assignment you want to make a bonus item and select Edit Assignment.
  4. Click the chevron next to In Grade Book and select Edit or Link to Existing.
  5. A dialog box will pop up. Select Link to an existing grade item and select the bonus grade item from the list.
  6. Select OK.
  7. Select Save and Close.

Make a Discussion Topic a Bonus Item

Note: You cannot associate bonus, or other, grade item types with a discussion forum.

  1. Set up a bonus item for the discussion topic in the gradebook as explained above.
  2. From the course homepage, choose Course Menu in the navbar and then select Discussions.
  3. Click the chevron next to the topic you want to make a bonus item and select Edit Topic.
  4. Click the chevron next to In Grade Book and select Edit or Link to Existing.
  5. A dialog box will pop up. Select Link to an existing grade item and select the bonus grade item from the list.
  6. Select OK.
  7. Select Save and Close.

Make a Quiz a Bonus Item

  1. Set up a bonus item for the quiz in the gradebook as explained above.
  2. From the course homepage, choose Course Menu in the navbar and then select Quizzes.
  3. Click the chevron next to the quiz you want to make a bonus item and select Edit.
  4. Click the chevron next to In Grade Book and select Edit or Link to Existing.
  5. A dialog box will pop up. Select Link to an existing grade item and select the bonus grade item from the list.
  6. Select OK.
  7. Select Save and Close.

Add Bonus Questions to a Quiz

  1. From the course homepage, choose Course Menu in the navbar and then select Quizzes.
  2. On the Manage Quizzes tab, select the quiz you want to add bonus questions to.
  3. Under the Questions section, add the question(s) as you normally would (these steps are provided in the Create a Quiz article).
  4. Select the checkbox next to each question you want to make a bonus question.
  5. Select the More Actions menu in the upper right of the Questions section and select the Toggle Bonus option.
  6. In the list of quiz questions, the question(s) that were just marked as the bonus question(s) will have the word Bonus just below the point value.
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