Posts Tagged ‘extra credit assignments’
November 9 - Does Extra Credit Have a Place in the College Classroom?
By: Mary Bart in Teaching and Learning
Some instructors never offer it under any circumstances. Others embrace it as a way to help students learn the course material or improve a disappointing test score. And a small minority, if pushed, will admit they only offer it when students wear them down until they finally gave in to it.
August 12 - Extra Credit: An Undeserved Gift or a Second Chance to Learn?
By: Mary Bart in Online Seminars
You know it’s coming. It might come after the first test, after midterm grades or even during the last few weeks of the semester. A student walks up to you and asks for an extra credit assignment. How do you respond?
August 11 - So What Did We Learn about Extra Credit?
By: Maryellen Weimer, PhD in Teaching Professor Blog
The July 20 post on extra credit has generated a record number of responses; 42 at last count. I thought it might be useful to consider what we learned from our exploration of this topic.
Clearly it’s a topic of interest—one we care about deeply I wonder why that is.
July 20 - Revisiting Extra Credit Policies
By: Maryellen Weimer, PhD in Teaching Professor Blog
I remember being surprised when I read first read the results of a survey on extra credit published some years ago in Teaching of Psychology. Almost 20% of the 145 faculty (across disciplines) reported that they never offered extra credit and another 50% said they offered it only under exceptional circumstances. The two most common reasons for not giving extra credit were that it encouraged lax, irresponsible student attitudes and it was unfair to offer it to select students (say those doing poorly). I also think it is avoided because it means more work for faculty and most of us already have more of that than we can handle.
February 3 - Extra Credit Assignments: An Innovative Approach
By: Tena Long Golding, PhD. in Educational Assessment
My students are always asking for opportunities to earn bonus points. I offer a variety of assignments during the semester, but they still want bonus points, which they seem to think are easier to obtain than the required points. Generally, I’m opposed to bonus options because I feel that if students are struggling with the current assignments, they do not need an “extra” assignment for extra credit. In addition, the word “bonus” seems to suggest something for nothing. I want my students to realize that grades are earned, not given. However, I recently tried a bonus activity that benefited my students and also met my expectations for a substantive learning experience.
