In Oncourse CL Gradebook, how do I give extra credit or a grade penalty?

Note: To complete the procedures in this document, you must be assigned a role having the necessary permissions. To determine your role, follow the directions in Participant roles. To view a list of permissions associated with a given role, see Permissions, roles, and tools. For a basic understanding of roles and permissions, see Permissions and roles: Overview.

In the Gradebook tool, you can add or subtract points from a student's grade (to give extra credit or assess a penalty) in several different ways:

• Add points on an existing gradebook item
• Use an adjustment item
• Use an adjustment category (extra credit only)
• Apply an adjustment directly to the student's course grade

Adding points to an existing gradebook item

The Gradebook allows an instructor to enter a score for a student that is more than the maximum value of the item (e.g., 26 out of 25 points in a points gradebook, or 101% in a percentage gradebook). If you wish to attach extra credit points or a grade penalty to a specific gradebook item, simply enter the modified grade value while grading and click Save Changes. (You cannot enter a score for the gradebook item that is less than zero.)

Using an adjustment item

If you want to give an extra credit assignment or grade penalty that stands alone, you can add an adjustment item:

1. In your site's menubar, click Gradebook.
   
   
2. Near the top, click Add Gradebook Item(s).
   
   
3. Next to "Grade Entry Type", from the drop-down menu, select Adjustment.
   
   
4. Fill in the following information:
   
   
   • Title: A title is required for all gradebook items. The title can be up to 255 characters long. If you add a number to the title of a gradebook item (e.g., 01_Quiz 1, 02_Homework 1), you can force gradebook items to appear in the order you choose.
   • Adjustment Item Point Value: For points gradebooks, you may optionally enter a total point value for the adjustment item for your own reference; this figure is not used in Gradebook calculations. Decimal values are permitted to two decimal places. This field is not available for percentage or non-calculating gradebooks.
   • Due Date: You can optionally designate a due date, either by manually entering the date (e.g., 09/28/07), or clicking the calendar icon to select a date from a pop-up calendar.
   • Category: If you have created a category, you can optionally assign an item to a category using the drop-down list; for more, see Using categories and weighted grades in Gradebook.

     Note: In a gradebook with weighted categories, adjustment items that are not assigned to a category are not included in course grade calculations.

5. When you are finished, click Add Items.

When grading, you may enter either positive or negative values for adjustment items. This value is applied to the student's cumulative points in a points gradebook, or to the calculated average in a percentage gradebook. See How extra credit or grade penalties affect grade calculation in points gradebooks or How extra credit or grade penalties affect grade calculation in percentage gradebooks.

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Using an adjustment category

You can create one or more adjustment categories, designating a certain percentage that can be added to each student's calculated course grade. For example, if a student has a course grade of 97%, an adjustment category weighted at 5% has the potential of yielding an adjusted score of 102%, depending on the student's performance on the items in the adjustment category.

Note: An adjustment category cannot have a negative value.

To create an adjustment category:

1. In your site's menubar, click Gradebook.
   
   
2. Near the top, click Gradebook Setup.
   
   
3. Under "Categories & Weighting", click Categories & Weighting.
   
   
4. Create your categories; your regular categories must add up to 100%.
   
   
5. Create an extra category, and check the box in the "Adjustment Category" column.
   
   
6. Assign your adjustment category the desired weight.
   
   
7. Click Save Changes.

You can now create items within the adjustment category, as you would with any other category. See Using categories and weighted grades in Gradebook.

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Applying an adjustment directly to the student's course grade

To apply extra credit or grade penalties directly to a student's calculated course grade:

1. In your site's menubar, click Gradebook.
   
   
2. Near the top, click Course Grades.
   
   
3. Depending on how your gradebook is set up, you will see one of the following columns:
   
   
   • Points Adjustment: For points gradebooks with no categories or with unweighted categories, type in the number of points (either positive or negative) by which you want to modify the student's total number of points for the semester. The modified number of points will then be divided by the total points possible for the semester.
     
     
   • % Adjustment: For percentage gradebooks and points gradebooks with weighted categories, type in the percentage value (either positive or negative) by which you want to modify the student's final grade. For example, if you enter 2, a student with a previous course grade of 85% would then have a course grade of 87%.
   
   
4. Click Save Changes.

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