Canvas provides a few options for awarding extra credit to your students. To explore each option, click the tabs below.
Option One: Create an Extra-Credit Assignment
To create a standalone extra-credit assignment:
- Create a new assignment, and in its settings, add 0 in the Points field.
- Select your preferred option in the Submission Type drop-down menu.
Assignments set to the No Submission type work best if students will not be required to submit files in Canvas as part of the extra-credit assignment.
Option Two: Award Extra Points to an Existing Assignment or Discussion
You can award extra credit while you're grading an assignment or discussion in Canvas because it won't block you from entering a score that's more than the number of overall points possible.
For example, you've created an assignment that's worth 40 points. If one of your students earns a perfect score plus 5 extra credit points, you can enter 45 points as the student's grade. The extra points will increase the total points calculated as part of the student's final grade.
You can award extra credit points while grading in one of two ways:
- Manually enter or adjust a student's score in the Grades area.
- Enter a score that's more than the possible points value for an assignment or discussion while grading it in Speedgrader.
Option Three: Add Extra Credit Points to a Quiz
You can use the Fudge points option within SpeedGrader to add extra credit points to a student's quiz score. Fudge points allow you to manually adjust an overall quiz score.
Option Four: Award Extra Credit With a Rubric
You can award extra credit points for an assignment or discussion if you create a rubric and use it for grading within Speedgrader. You have two options for this:
- Add a separate criterion for extra credit when you're setting up your rubric in Canvas.
- Enter a score that's more than the value you've set for a criterion on your rubric.
Extra Credit Criterion
If you opt to add an extra credit criterion to a rubric, make sure your rubric is worth more points overall than the value you've set for the discussion or assignment. Then, you can award extra points without affecting its actual point value.
Score Entry
If you enter a point value that is greater than the points possible for one of your rubric's criteria, the rubric's Total Points calculation will reflect these extra points.
Please Note: For SpeedGrader to automatically update a rubric's point value for grading, be sure to select the Use this rubric for assignment grading checkbox when adding the rubric to an assignment.
Option Five: Award Extra Credit Within an Assignment Group
You can award extra credit within an assignment group; however, how you set up extra credit will depend on whether your assignments are weighted (based on percentages) or unweighted (based on points).
Unweighted Assignment Groups
If your assignment groups are unweighted, you can create a separate assignment group for your extra-credit assignments. This will help distinguish extra-credit assignments from regular assignments in your course.
Weighted Assignment Groups
If your assignment groups are weighted, be aware that Canvas will not calculate grades for an entire assignment group that has no points possible. Therefore, for extra credit assignments to calculate correctly in weighted groups, they must be housed within an existing assignment group that has at least one assignment worth more than zero points.
Example Weighted Groups
- In this example, the extra credit assignment is housed within the Extra Credit assignment group, which has multiple assignments worth more than zero points.
- The assignment groups' weights total 110%.
Any assignment placed within the Extra Credit assignment group will have either a positive or neutral effect on your students' overall grade; if a student does not submit the extra credit assignment, their grade will not be negatively impacted.
Tip: Extra Credit Grading Reminders
- Extra credit assignments within an assignment group should be graded at the end of the course, after all other course assignments are graded.
- Students' grades will only calculate correctly if all other assignment groups in the course have at least one graded assignment.