ARCHIVED: In Oncourse Gradebook, how do extra credit or grade penalties affect grade calculation in points gradebooks?

In the Gradebook tool, you can give extra credit or grade penalties with adjustment items and adjustment categories, either of which can take positive or negative values. See ARCHIVED: Giving extra credit or a grade penalty in Gradebook.

How the adjustments affect the grade calculation will depend on how you have set up your gradebook. To understand how the different ways of setting up your gradebook work without adjustment items, see ARCHIVED: How categories and weighting affect grade calculation in points gradebooks. For information about setting up your gradebook, see ARCHIVED: Using categories and weighted grades in Gradebook.

For percentage gradebooks, see ARCHIVED: How categories and weighting affect grade calculation in percentage gradebooks and ARCHIVED: How extra credit or grade penalties affect grade calculation in percentage gradebooks.

• Adjustment items with no categories
• Adjustment items with unweighted categories
• Adjustment items with weighted categories
• Adjustment categories with weighted categories

Adjustment items with no categories

If you set up a points gradebook with no categories, the scores of adjustment items are simply added to (or subtracted from) the student's total score, while the total possible points for the semester is not affected. See this example:

Calculation: Sum of scores divided by the sum of the values (with no value included for the adjustment item)

• Grade without adjustment: 95.5% (191/200)
• Grade with adjustment: 98% (196/200)

Adjustment items with unweighted categories

Grades in gradebooks with simple, unweighted categories are calculated the same way as in gradebooks with no categories:

Calculation: Sum of scores divided by the sum of the values (with no value included for the adjustment item)

• Grade without adjustment: 95.5% (191/200)
• Grade with adjustment: 98% (196/200)

The Gradebook tool displays the average for each category as a percentage, but these percentages do not affect the grade calculation. The category percentages are truncated (not rounded) for display purposes. Note that the score for the adjustment item increases the percentage for the category to which it is assigned, but affects the actual grade for the class equally no matter which category it is in.

Adjustment items with weighted categories

In gradebooks with weighted categories, the category average is used to calculate the final grade, and adjustment items affect the category average:

Weighted category score = (subtotal/sum of values for that category) * category weight

For example, with the adjustment item, the weighted category score for the essays is (102/100)*.3 = .306 = 30.6%; without the adjustment, the weighted category score would have been (97/100)*.3 = .291 = 29.1%

Grade calculation: Sum of weighted category scores

• Grade without adjustment: 94.7% (29.1% + 28.8% + 36.8%)
• Grade with adjustment: 96.2% (30.6% + 28.8% + 36.8%)

Note that if the adjustment item were in the test category rather than the essay category in this example, the final course grade would be different:

Adjustment categories with weighted categories

With weighted categories, you can also add adjustment categories. Note that the category weight for the regular categories totals 100% without the adjustment category.

Weighted category score = (subtotal/sum of values for that category) * category weight

For example, with the adjustment item, the weighted category score for the essays is (102/100)*.3 = .306 = 30.6%; without the adjustment, the weighted category score would have been (97/100)*.3 = .291 = 29.1%

Grade calculation: Sum of weighted category scores, including the adjustment category

• Grade with no adjustments: 94.7% (29.1% + 28.8% + 36.8%)
• Grade with adjustment item but no adjustment category: 96.2% (30.6% + 28.8% + 36.8%)
• Grade with adjustment item and adjustment category: 99.2% (30.6% + 28.8% + 36.8% +3%)