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How to assign extra credit in canvas, extra credit overview, create a new assignment, add extra points to an existing assignment, fudge points, adding extra credit to the rubric.

Assigning extra credit may take some getting use to because there is no place within the assignments settings that you check to make the assignment worth extra credit. Yet, because of this, Canvas gives a lot of flexibility in how extra credit can be given to students.

Ways to Add Extra Credit

  • Create A New Assignment Using Assignment with No Submission
  • Using a Rubric

For specific information on how to add extra credit using the above methods, see the following Canvas Instructor Guide: How do I give my students extra credit?

*Note – You can add extra credit manually by downloading/exporting your Gradebook to Excel. This will be down in the Grade Override Column and to be completed at the end of the course, when entering final grades.

Keeping that in mind, the biggest determinant of how you set up your extra credit in Canvas is whether you are using a points-based gradebook or a weighted gradebook. A Points-Based Gradebook allows for the most flexibility in offering extra credit. The tabs above include ways to add extra credit for Point-Based Gradebooks.

Note: Adding extra credit to a Percentage-Based Gradebook does not work that well in Canvas. In general the best way to add extra credit to a percentage based gradebook is to NOT ADD EXTRA CREDIT UNTIL AFTER ALL OTHER COURSE GRADES ARE ENTERED INTO THE GRADEBOOK (including the final exam). Extra credit WILL NOT calculate correctly until ALL OTHER COURSE GRADES ARE ENTERED. This is because by adding the extra credit the gradebook is going over the normal 100%. You can add extra credit by adding an Assignment Group (category) for “extra credit” and make it worth the percent you would like the overall course grade to be raised if students get the full amount of extra credit.

Navigate to your course Assignments Page, and add a new assignment worth zero points. Make sure that the submission type is either “no submission” or “paper submission,” and click Save & Publish to create a column for this extra credit “assignment” in your Gradebook. If you are using a point structure and do not have weighted assignment groups, follow these steps.

  • Click Assignments in the course navigation
  • Click +Assignment
  • Type the Assignment Name (for example, Extra Credit)
  • Type 0 for Points
  • Choose No Submission for the Submission Type
  • Click Update Assignment
  • Click Publish

After students complete the work, manually add points in the Gradebook.

  • Click Grades in the course navigation
  • Navigate to the new assignment (Extra Credit)
  • Type the points for those students receiving extra credit

Adding extra points to an Assignment you’ve already created you will need to manually enter the extra points in the Gradebook.

In this example, the assignment is worth 40 points. Adding 5 extra points will bring the assignment total for this student to 45 points. The added points will increase total points calculated in the Gradebook’s final grade.

Screenshot showing example of how to assign extra credit in Canvas.

You can use Fudge Points to add extra points to a quiz. Fudge points allow you to manually add or remove points from a student’s overall quiz score.

  • Click Quizzes in Course Navigation
  • Click on the quiz you want to add extra points to
  • Click SpeedGrader
  • In the Student drop-down menu, select the name of the student that you want to give extra points to
  • Enter the number of points you want to add to the overall quiz score in the Fudge Points field at the bottom. The Final Score shows the final score this student will receive.
  • Click Update Scores to save the change to the student’s quiz score.

*Note – Fudge Points can only be added to Quizzes.

If you use a rubric to grade an assignment, you could make an additional criterion to the rubric for extra credit. Make sure the rubric is worth more points than the assignment so when you give students extra points it doesn’t affect the actual assignment points. For additional information on creating a rubric, please check out the Canvas Guides

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Assigning Extra Credit in Canvas

There may be times when you’d like to offer extra credit to your students. While there is no explicit “extra credit” option available in Canvas, this How-To outlines a few options for giving extra credit points.

The three options here will serve a majority of need cases. If you have a more complex extra credit need (for example in classes with both undergraduate and graduate students or on quizzes) please contact Canvas Support as outlined below.

Option 1: Adding Points to an Existing Assignment

When giving points to students on graded assignments in the Gradebook, you can add the extra credit points directly to their score.

Locate the assignment in the Gradebook, click on the score area for the student you want to give extra credit to and update the score points.

In the example at right, the student has been awarded 2 extra credit points for a final score of 7 out of 5.

NOTE: this option will not work for assigning extra credit on Quizzes. Please contact Canvas Support for assistance with extra credit on quizzes.

Canvas gradebook assigning extra credit points

Option 2: Create an Extra Credit Assignment

This option works well if you are using a point structure and not using  weighted grades.

  • Create an assignment called “Extra Credit” [1]
  • Assign a point value of Zero [2]
  • Make the submission type No submission [3]
  • You do not need to set a Due or Until date

At the end of the term, manually assign points to students for this "assignment" in the Gradebook.

Adding points manually to the Canvas gradebook for an extra credit assignment

Option 3: Weighted Assignment Group

This option works best in courses that are using a weighted Gradebook. Create an Assignment Group named "Extra Credit."

Adding an assignment group in Canvas

Assign the weight for this group making sure that the overall grade percentage goes over 100%.

Assignment Groups Weight showing 105% total

For further assistance, UO Online & Canvas Support are available.

  • In-Person: Room 68 PLC
  • By phone: (541) 346-1942
  • By email:  [email protected]
  • Submit a  Service Portal Ticket  ( opens in a new tab) . This form can also be accessed in Canvas from the  Help  button at the bottom of the  Global Navigation Menu . 

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Setting Up Extra Credit in Canvas

how to set up an extra credit assignment in canvas

One of the most common questions we get each semester is about how to set up extra credit in Canvas. There are multiple ways to do so, but we’ll go over the two most common methods in this blog post.

Create an extra credit assignment using weighted assignment groups

The first method for setting up an extra credit assignment is to add an extra credit weighted assignment group containing only the extra credit assignment. For example, let’s say you add an Extra Credit assignment group worth 3%. Your grading breakdown may look something like the following:

Since all the assignment groups total to 100% before the extra credit group is added, the addition of the extra credit group means that each student now has an opportunity to earn up to an additional 3% on top of their final grade. It also means that no student will be penalized for not completing the extra credit assignment, since everyone still has an opportunity to earn a full 100% over the course of the semester by completing all the other assignments.

You can only use this method if you already use weighted assignment groups.

Create an extra credit assignment with zero point value

The other method is to add an extra credit assignment worth 0 points, but then grade it out of a predetermined, non-zero point value (and let students know ahead of time how you’ll be grading the assignment). You can use this method regardless of if your assignment groups are weighted or unweighted. 

Screenshot of an extra credit assignment worth 0 points in a "reading responses" assignment group

The weight of the extra credit assignment depends on whether you use weighted assignment groups or not, and how many points your other assignments are worth. We’ll go over a couple examples that show how you can calculate the weight of the extra credit assignment.

Example 1: weighted assignment groups

For this example, let’s say that you want to add an extra credit discussion, and your Discussions assignment group is weighted at 20%. You have 10 discussions in the group already, worth 10 points each. Remember, the extra credit assignment you add as the 11th discussion to the group will be worth 0 points, but graded out of a non-zero point value. In this example we’ll say that the discussion will be worth 0 points but graded out of 10 points.

The discussion group still is worth a total of 100 points, but students can now earn a maximum of 110 points. This means that the total maximum credit a student can earn for the discussions group weighted at 20% is (110/100)*20% = 22% contributed towards their final grade. Since the pre-extra credit maximum percentage possible for discussions was 20%, and now students can earn up to 22%, in effect the extra credit assignment is worth 2% of final grades (in other words, each student now has an opportunity to earn up to an additional 2% on top of their final grade by completing the extra credit discussion).

Example 2: unweighted assignment groups

This example involves a grading set up that uses a lump sum of point values to calculate final grades, rather than using weighted assignment groups. Let’s say the point value for all assignments in the course is 200 points, which means student’s final grades are calculated by taking the total points earned for all assignments divided by 200 points possible. You add an extra credit assignment worth 0 points, but it will be graded out of 10 points, meaning a student can now earn a maximum of 210 points out of 200. A student earning the maximum number of points would have a final grade of 210/200 = 105%, which means that by completing the extra credit assignment, a student can earn up to an additional 5% on top of their final grade.

Grading students who do not complete the extra credit

Regardless of which of the two methods you may use, when grading the  extra credit assignment it’s best to excuse students who do not complete the assignment rather than give a zero. 

Screenshot of the gradebook showing "Excused" for students who did not complete the extra credit

Giving those students a zero will not penalize them since the opportunity for each student to earn a full 100% for the course is still there, but note that if a zero for the extra credit is applied before all other assignments are graded, the zero will artificially deflate grades (giving the appearance that students are being penalized for not completing the extra credit). This happens because any yet-to-be-graded assignments are ignored by Canvas in final grade calculation. Therefore, the best way to avoid this is to mark students as “Excused” rather than giving a zero. Any student who is marked as “Excused” for an assignment will have that assignment excluded from their final grade calculation.

Need more help with setting up extra credit?

Don’t hesitate to reach out to us at [email protected] or 617-824-8090 for further assistance.

Featured image by Memed_Nurrohmad  from  Pixabay

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Weighting Grades, Giving Extra Credit, and Other Tips on Managing Assignments and Grades in Canvas

by Cecilia Lo | Aug 20, 2018 | Canvas , Canvas Features/Functions , How-tos

Canvas Gradebook

Canvas provides a fully functional gradebook that can help both instructors and students to keep track of their progress in a course. Once you figure out its few quirks, you will be able to manage grades with ease.

I. Some Terminology: Assignment Groups vs. Assignments, & How They Relate to Gradebook Columns II. Weighting Grades III. Muting Grade Notifications IV. Grade History – Who Changed The Grade When? V. Using Grading Schemes VI. Curving Grades VII. Giving Extra Credit VIII. Tools and Course Setup for Multiple TAs IX. Excluding an Assignment from the Course’s Final Grades X. Filtering by Modules, Automatic Late Policies, & Other New, Helpful Functions in the New Gradebook XI. Resources

I. Some Terminology: Assignment Groups vs. Assignments, & How They Relate to Gradebook Columns

There are two common sources of confusion in understanding and using Canvas assignments and gradebooks. One is the distinction between Assignment Groups and Assignments. Assignment Groups are categories of assignments, such as problem sets, papers, quizzes, exams, presentations, and participation. They are important for organizational purposes and particularly important if you want to weight grades. Assignments are individual assessment items that receive grades, as, for example, first paper, second paper, or final paper. Assignment Groups and assignments are created separately. You can move assignments into different Assignment Groups by dragging them on the Assignment Index page or editing the Assignment.

Assignment groups vs Assignments

Assignment groups vs Assignments

A second common source of confusion is how to create gradebook columns. In Canvas, assignments are tightly integrated with the Gradebook and the only way to create a gradebook column is to create and publish an assignment . This may seem unintuitive at first glance, as not all assignments require online submissions (e.g. attendance and participation or assignments done on paper). However, instructors can choose different submission types when they create an assignment— No Submission, Online, or On Paper . The one-to-one correspondence between the number of assignment items and the number of gradebook columns ensures that grading policy is transparent to the students and that both instructors and students always see the same number of assessment items.

II. Weighting Grades

You can have Canvas automatically calculate weighted grades in just a few clicks: on the Assignment Index page, click Options , select Assignment Group Weight , then enter the percentages for each Assignment Group. For example, in a course where the grades are determined as follows:

The process for weighting grades is:

To weight grades, go the the Assignments page, click on the Options button, select Assignment Groups Weight , select the Weight final grades based on assignment groups check box, enter the weights, and click Save .

How Canvas Calculates Weighted Grades for an Assignment Group

Canvas determines weighted grades by calculating:

  • the grade (in percentage) of individual Assignment Groups (sum of points scored divided by total possible points);
  • the total grade (sum of Assignment Group grades multiplied by their respective weights).

In the example for “Paper Assignments” Group above, there are 4 assignments, each worth 20 points; together they add up to 80 points. The Assignment group counts 30% towards the total grade. If a student scores 18, 16, 10, and 15 respectively, then

The subtotal grade for “Paper Assignment” is: (18 + 16 + 10 + 15)/80*100% = 73.75% The contribution of “Paper Assignment” to the Total grade is: 73.75% * 0.3 = 22.13%

Weighted Grades within an Assignment Group

In the above example, because each assignment has the same maximum points (20 points), each assignment contributes equally within the Assignment Group. If you wish a particular assignment to weigh more, just make sure it has a higher number of total points, or assign it to a separate Assignment Group.

Tips : If you have many assignments (about 10 or more) in one Assignment Group, and the total points for each assignment vary by one or two points, then by arithmetic the assignments contribute essentially equally to the Assignment Group grades, as the difference between each assignment after multiplying by the weighted percentage would be relatively small. (e.g. 1 point in an Assignment Group with a total of 100 points and which counts as 30% of the total grade is 0.3 points of the total grade.)

How Weighted Grades Appear in the Gradebook

In the Canvas Gradebook, each gradebook column (with linked heading) shows the raw points for an assignment (unless you have applied grade curving to it); the Assignment Group column (with black heading) shows the percentage a student scored for that Assignment Group; and the Total column shows the final, weighted grade.

In the example above, the Assignment Group column for “Paper Assignment (30.00% of grade)” is 73.75%.

NB : If a student didn’t submit a particular assignment, be sure to give it zero points. If you leave the score blank ( – ), Canvas will treat it as excused and ignore it in its calculation of the Assignment Group subtotal and Total scores.

For more about weighting grades, see: https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-10059-415267002

III. Muting Grade Notifications

When instructors enter grades into Canvas’ gradebook, a notification is sent to the student automatically . Some students are prone to panic if they find that their peers have received their grades but they have not. You can release grades to all students simultaneously if you select Mute Assignment and stop notifications from going out until you “unmute” the assignment. Muting assignments allows you time to review and make grade adjustments without sending students multiple notifications.

To mute an assignment, go to Grades, click on the options dropdown for the assignment, and select Mute Assignment:

Mute Assignment link in Canvas Gradebook

Mute Assignment link in Canvas Gradebook

NB : Canvas does not include muted assignments in the Assignment Group and Total grade calculations—if it did, students would be able to calculate backwards and figure out what their grades are. Be sure to unmute assignments when you have finished grading them so that the gradebook calculations are correct.

For more about muting assignments, see: https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-12961-4152724339

IV. Grade History – Who Changed The Grade When?

From time to time you may wish to track how a student’s grade for a particular assignment changes over time, especially when there are multiple instructors or TAs giving grades in a course. Canvas’ Grade History tool can be helpful in such cases.

To access Grade History, click on the Options (gear) icon in Grades and select View Gradebook History . (In the New Gradebook, select the Gradebook dropdown, then “Gradebook History…”.)

To view grade history in the old Gradebook, select View Gradebook History from the gear icon on the Grades page, enter filter parameters and click the Filter button.

How to read Gradebook History

  • The Before column shows the grade before the change at a particular date and time (row).
  • The After column shows the grade after the change at a particular date and time (row).
  • The Current column always shows the latest grade; it is the grade a student has now.

Example of Grade History

Example of Grade History

In the example above, on Jun 27, 2018 at 4:25pm, the Before column is empty because it is the first time a grade (0/20) is entered. On Aug 16, 2018, this grade is changed from 0/20 to 20/20. The Current grade for all rows is 16/20 because on Aug 17, 2018, the last time this grade was edited, the grade has been changed from 20/20 to 16/20.

NB : The dropdown selection can take a few seconds to display, especially if there are many students in a course. Be sure to click the maroon Filter button at the end to filter the results. You can filter for more than one category; for example, you can filter for student name and assignment name simultaneously.

V. Using Grading Schemes

You can apply a specific grading scheme to your assignment and/or overall course grade so that each letter or performance grade corresponds to a specific numeric grade range (e.g. A/Excellent = 91% to 100%; A-/Good = 88%-90%; etc). Once you have created a grading scheme, it can be reused in other courses you teach with just a few clicks.

Select Grading Scheme for an Assignment

To display letter grade for an assignment, edit the assignment, choose Letter Grade under the Display Grade as dropdown menu.

To display letter grade for an assignment, edit the assignment, choose Letter Grade under the Display Grade as dropdown menu.

  • Choose the appropriate grading scheme (see “Choose/Create New Grading Schemes” below).

Choose/Create New Grading Schemes

Click on the View Grading Scheme link under Display Grade as to choose the appropriate grading scheme.

Click on the View Grading Scheme link under Display Grade as to choose the appropriate grading scheme.

Click on the Select Another Scheme link at the top right to select another grading scheme.

Click on the Select Another Scheme link at the top right to select another grading scheme.

  • To create a new grading scheme, click manage grading schemes link at the bottom right, then click the Add grading scheme button on the right.

Use Grading Scheme for the Total Grade in Your Course

You can display the Total grade of your course as a letter/performance grade by going to Settings > Course Details > Select the check box for Enable course grading scheme > Choose the appropriate grading scheme > Click the Update Course Details button at the bottom of the page.

To enable grading scheme for the course total grade, go to course Settings , check the Enable course grading scheme box, click the Select grading scheme link, then select the appropriate grading scheme, click Done , then click the maroon Update Course Details button.

For more information, see:

  • [Overview] How do I use grading schemes in a course? https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-13067-4152206341
  • How do I add a grading scheme to an assignment? https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-10216-415282270
  • How do I enable a grading scheme for a course? https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-12906-415257089
  • How do I add a grading scheme in a course? https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-10313-415257090

VI. Curving Grades

You can use the Canvas Gradebook to curve grades for individual assignments. When you enter a desired average grade, Canvas will automatically adjust the scores as a bell curve 66% around the average curve.

Grade curving is available for assignments only ; if you wish to curve the total grade of a course, you will need to do so manually. Grade curving cannot be undone (although you can use Gradebook History to view pre-curved grades) and is advisable in courses where only a certain number of students can pass, or when you require a fixed distribution of grades distributed throughout the class.

Step-by-step instructions on curving grades are available at: https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-12832-415255003

VII. Giving Extra Credit

Do you want to give extra credit to students but are unsure how get Canvas Gradebook to recognize it? There are a few ways to do this:

Method 1: Add Extra Points to an Existing Assignment/Quiz

You can give extra credit to a particular assignment by adding the extra points to the total points a student scored, even if the student received a perfect score. Canvas allows you to give points greater than the highest possible points.

For example, If an assignment is worth a total of 100 points, a student earned a perfect score of 100, and you want to reward them with 5 extra credit points, you can enter 105 as the grade for the assignment.

If you use Canvas’ SpeedGrader for grading, you can enter the extra points in SpeedGrader. If you use rubrics in conjunction with SpeedGrader, you can add the extra points either to an existing rubric criterion or to an “Extra Credit” criterion. If you decide to add an “Extra Credit” criterion, make sure that the assignment point total excludes the total maximum extra credit points (i.e. the rubric is worth more points than the assignment) so that the actual assignment points are not affected by whether a student receives extra credit or not.

For example, if your rubric has four criteria with 4 maximum points each, and an “extra credit” criterion with 2 points each, then the maximum point total for your rubric is 4×4 + 2 = 18 points. But your assignment point total should be 16 points.

You can give extra credit in Quizzes as well. To adjust the point value for an entire quiz, use fudge points .

Method 2: Grant Extra Points in a Stand-alone “Extra Credit” Assignment and Gradebook Column

If you want to keep track of extra credit for the course as a whole, you can create a stand-alone extra credit assignment and gradebook column and adjust a student’s points as needed.

If you don’t weight your grades , you can create a separate assignment with 0 points. Any extra points given in this gradebook column will be added to the total points for the course.

If you weight your grades with assignment groups, you will need to create an extra credit assignment group with a weight greater than 0% and an assignment with greater than 0 points in order for Canvas Gradebook to calculate the total score correctly. All the assignment groups in your course plus the extra credit assignment group should weigh more than 100% in total.

One example of a correct setup for assignment groups with a maximum of 10% (or 10 points) extra credit for the course is:

Notice that the first 4 assignment groups, containing assignments that all students are assessed on, total to 100%. This ensures that any assignment placed within the Extra Credit assignment group will have either a positive or neutral effect on your students’ overall grade.

  • If you are weighting your assignment groups, please pay attention to how weighted groups can affect the Gradebook if assignments are worth zero points.
  • If you have drop rules set in an assignment group, adding extra points may affect your students’ scores.

For a detailed, step-by-step guide on how to give extra credit within Canvas, see: https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-9940-415278195

VIII. Tools and Course Setup for Multiple TAs

If you have multiple TAs working from the same Canvas course site and they are each assigned to a specific group of students, Academic Technology Solutions can help you set up your course site so that they only see the grades of the students they are responsible for. To get started, email the URL of your course site and a brief description of your needs to [email protected] .

IX. Excluding an Assignment from the Course’s Final Grades

If you wish to provide feedback for assignments without the assignment counting toward Gradebook calculations, you can exclude the assignment in the final grade calculation. (Note: this excludes the grade for all students. If you want to assign an assignment to a specific group of students, you should specifically assign course sections , assign individual students , or assign course groups to the assignment.)

For step-by-step instructions, see: https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-10120-4152618765

Alternatively, you can have Canvas automatically drop the lowest (or highest) grade in an assignment group. See https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-9880-4152232976 for step-by-step instructions.

X. Filtering by Modules, Automatic Late Policies, & Other New, Helpful Functions in the New Gradebook

In January 2018, Canvas released the New Gradebook, which offers a number of enhanced features, such as filtering by modules, automatic late policies, and customizable coloring. The current gradebook is expected to be deprecated and replaced by the New Gradebook sometime in the second half of 2018. For more information on how to opt-in and use the new features, see ATS’ “ Introducing the New Gradebook ” blog post.

XI. Resources

You can see the complete Instructor Guides for the topics discussed above at:

  • Assignments
  • Discussion Forums
  • Online Quizzes
  • Speedgrader

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Create an extra credit assignment in Canvas

For instructions for creating an extra credit assignment in Canvas , see How do I give extra credit in a course? For more, see How do I calculate extra credit or optional assignments in my Gradebook?

This is document bgpj in the Knowledge Base. Last modified on 2021-08-20 16:49:04 .

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Extra Credit Assignments

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Canvas Teaching Tips are distributed by the Dodge Family College of Arts and Sciences Online and Academic Technology Services office and offer SHORT helpful tips about Canvas, online learning, and academic technology.

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Can I add an Extra Credit Assignment in Canvas?

The answer is YES! There are several methods for adding extra credit in Canvas.

To learn more about extra credit in Canvas and the best ways to add it to your course, see the guide below.

Click here for a guide to Extra Credit Assignments in Canvas

Folder with extra credit title

Click here to view an example of an extra credit assignment in Canvas

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Canvas help is easy to find and always available. Click the Help button in the Canvas global navigation for 24 hour support and great help guides.

Click here to view a guide on using Canvas Help

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If you'd like to learn more about this Canvas tip, or Canvas in general, please contact our office at 405.325.5854 or [email protected] .

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Award Extra Credit in Canvas

Created by Laura Schmidli and Antonella Caloro. Published May 2022.

One huge advantage of using Canvas is its ability to calculate final grades. However, extra credit can be difficult to integrate into your existing Canvas grading structure and calculations.

Three methods we recommend are listed below, from easiest to more difficult. Please note the best choice for your course depends on your grading practices. We encourage you to get in touch with us when you have questions about awarding extra credit. 

Add extra points to an existing Assignment

In Canvas, an instructor can add points beyond the total points for an Assignment, Graded Discussion, or Graded Survey for any student. This can be done from the Gradebook, or from Speedgrader. This works well if you want your extra credit points to apply to a specific Assignment, like an exam or paper, and you’ve already collected student work to earn these points.

This is an accordion element with a series of buttons that open and close related content panels.

Students can earn up to 17/15 on a Final Paper Assignment for attending an event on campus. The instructor has already noted who attended. The instructor then awards these points via Speedgrader as they enter scores and comments for the Final Paper, or use the Gradebook to add extra credit after the paper has been graded.

Special Consideration: Graded Quizzes

A Graded Quiz will adopt the point value of the questions it includes – e.g. a Quiz with 5 questions each worth 1 point is a 5-point quiz. This means an instructor can’t add points to a graded quiz. Instead, in Speedgrader an instructor can add “fudge points” to adjust student grades. This feature can be helpful when correcting a mis-graded or mis-worded question, but can also be used to provide extra credit to students.

Create a new Assignment worth 0 points

In Canvas, an instructor can create an Assignment, Graded Discussion, or Graded Survey worth 0 points. The instructor can later award points to students who complete this 0 point assignment, resulting in extra credit.

For completing a mid-semester evaluation graded survey, students can earn up to 3 points of extra credit. The instructor manually adjusts student grades via the Gradebook for only those students who have completed the survey. Then the instructor assigns a default grade of 0 for the remaining students who did not complete the extra credit work. 

Special Consideration: Assignment Groups

  • If an instructor is not using Weighted Assignment Groups, the Extra Credit Assignment can be part of any Assignment Group without impacting how the final grade is calculated. One way to decide how much extra credit students can earn is to decide the maximum grade a “perfect” student can earn. For example, in a course with 1000 points total, students may earn up to 10 points of extra credit, with a maximum score of 101% possible in the course.
  • If an instructor is using Weighted Assignment Groups , the extra credit Assignment must be within one specific Assignment Group, depending on how the extra credit should be weighted. Often this is easiest if you make the total extra credit possible equivalent to a small assignment. For example, if the extra credit points should be the equivalent of one homework, the extra credit Assignment can be added to the homework Assignment Group and given a point value equivalent to one homework. 

Create an Extra Credit Assignment Group that is weighted beyond 100%

During the semester, an instructor can create an Extra Credit Assignment Group weighted at 0% of the final grade. All Weighted Assignment Groups should add up to 100%. At the end of the semester, after all other grading is complete, an instructor can change the weight of the Extra Credit Assignment Group to be percentage beyond 100% to award students extra credit in the course as a whole. 

how to set up an extra credit assignment in canvas

Special Consideration: Timing!

All other grading in the course must be complete before awarding this extra credit! If this extra credit is graded before students have graded entries in other Assignment Groups, the grading will not scale correctly. This means an instructor must either:

  • Only create this Assignment Group and grade this assignment once all other assignments have been graded.
  • Or set this Assignment Group to be worth 0% of the final grade until all other grading is complete. Then remember to change the weight at the end of grading for the semester.

This works best for extra credit points awarded at the end of the semester to the course as a whole, rather than extra credit intended to raise a grade on a specific assignment. 

Special Considerations: Multiple Assignments

This solution is the simplest when you only have one Assignment within your extra credit Assignment Group.

If you have multiple Assignments within this extra credit Assignment Group, please keep in mind that these Assignments must be worth points relative to each other. For example, a 2-point Assignment is worth twice as much as a 1-point Assignment.

Connect with Help

Awarding extra credit can be complicated, and the best way to set it up will depend on specific situations in your course. It is best to plan your strategy for awarding extra credit at the beginning of your course rather than at the end. IDC staff can help with awarding extra credit, setting up grading to match your syllabus and course policies, and more. 

Schedule a Meeting

References & Further Reading

  • Canvas Instructor Guide: How do I set a default grade for an assignment in the Gradebook?
  • Canvas Instructor Guide: How do I add an assignment group in a course? 
  • Canvas Instructor Guide: How do I weight the final course grade based on assignment groups?
  • Canvas Instructor Guide: How do I adjust the point value for an entire quiz using fudge points in SpeedGrader?

How to Credit this Guide

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License . This means that you are welcome to adopt and adapt content, but we ask that you provide attribution to the L&S Instructional Design Collaborative and do not use the material for commercial purposes.

Example attribution:  From Awarding Extra Credit in Canvas  by the  L&S Instructional Design Collaborative,  licensed under the  BY-NC 4.0 license .

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how to set up an extra credit assignment in canvas

How do I make Extra Credit Assignments in Canvas

There are two methods for creating extra credit in Canvas. The method you should use will depend on how you have organized assignments in your course. If you have weighted assignments, or weighted grades, you’ll create extra credit assignments differently than if you do not have this feature enabled in your course.

If you’re not sure if you’re using weighted grades, go to the Assignments tab of your course.  If you’re using weighted grades, a percentage will be at the top of each assignment group.

how to set up an extra credit assignment in canvas

If you’re not using weighted grades, you will not see this percentage icon.

To make extra credit with weighted grades, check out this link: https://learningandteaching.byui.edu/technology/how-do-i-create-an-extra-credit-assignment-in-a-we

If you’re not using weighted grades, check out this link to learn how to create extra credit assignments:

https://learningandteaching.byui.edu/technology/how-do--i-create-an-extra-credit-assignment-in-my--c?new=true

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eLearning Faculty

Extra Credit in Canvas

Date posted: July 19, 2017

Three Ways to do extra credit

There are several approaches instructors can adopt to can give students extra credit in Canvas using Assignments:

  • awarding extra points for an existing Assignment– or for a Discussion or a Quiz
  • creating an Assignment worth zero points
  • providing extra credit using weighted assignment groups

Award extra points to graded items

First, you can always add extra points to graded items such as Assignments, Discussions, and Quizzes in the Canvas grade book. You can do this by typing new values directly into the cells while you are looking at the overview of the grade book. For Quizzes only, you can use the Fudge Points  feature in the SpeedGrader as an alternative. Be sure to click the button to update grades when issuing fudge points for a Quiz.

Assignments worth zero points

Instructors can create new assignments with zero points possible. After students complete the extra credit work, these Assignments should be graded and points should be awarded– even though the Assignment itself should stay set at 0 points.

The Assignment has to be set to zero points so that students who opt out of doing extra credit aren’t penalized. The grade book automatically totals the points from all graded, published items in the course – so if the Assignment did have points, all students’ overall grades as calculated by Canvas would be impacted.

Weighted Assignment Groups

Assignment Groups provide a means for organizing and working with multiple Assignments. Not only can instructors use Assignment Groups to weight the final grade , but since the total percentage of all assignment groups can be set above 100%, it’s possible to create an Assignment Group that houses extra credit Assignments.

The Canvas Guides explain the ins and outs of using this approach here

*Thanks to Gabrielle Orsi (Gabrielle.Orsi at lwtech.edu) for her help on this document.

Last Updated July 18, 2017

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IMAGES

  1. Managing Extra Credit in Canvas

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  2. Managing Extra Credit in Canvas

    how to set up an extra credit assignment in canvas

  3. Extra Credit in Canvas: Points-based Gradebook

    how to set up an extra credit assignment in canvas

  4. Adding Extra Credit in Canvas

    how to set up an extra credit assignment in canvas

  5. How to Assign Extra Credit in Canvas

    how to set up an extra credit assignment in canvas

  6. Canvas: Assigning Extra Credit

    how to set up an extra credit assignment in canvas

VIDEO

  1. How To: Canvas

  2. Business Law Extra Credit Assignment

  3. Add an extra attempt to a Canvas Assignment

  4. Uploading assessments on CANVAS

  5. Dr. Cole's OPSU channel -- POLS 1013 Week 1 Spring 2024 (Jan. 16)

  6. I got Extra Credit from this at school

COMMENTS

  1. How do I give extra credit in a course?

    Create a new assignment with zero points possible [1] and select any submission type [2]. Assignments set to the No Submission type work well for classroom activities, such as in-class discussions or presentations. After students complete an online submission or complete and submit work offline, you can add and adjust points in the Gradebook.

  2. How to Assign Extra Credit in Canvas

    Using a Rubric For specific information on how to add extra credit using the above methods, see the following Canvas Instructor Guide: How do I give my students extra credit? *Note - You can add extra credit manually by downloading/exporting your Gradebook to Excel.

  3. Assigning Extra Credit in Canvas

    Option 1: Adding Points to an Existing Assignment When giving points to students on graded assignments in the Gradebook, you can add the extra credit points directly to their score. Locate the assignment in the Gradebook, click on the score area for the student you want to give extra credit to and update the score points.

  4. Setting Up Extra Credit in Canvas

    The first method for setting up an extra credit assignment is to add an extra credit weighted assignment group containing only the extra credit assignment. For example, let's say you add an Extra Credit assignment group worth 3%. Your grading breakdown may look something like the following:

  5. Back to Basics: How to Set Up and Grade Extra Credit Assignments in Canvas

    Back to Basics: How to Set Up and Grade Extra Credit Assignments in Canvas - YouTube Canvas offers a number of ways to award extra credit to students. If that's an instructional...

  6. Give Extra Credit

    1. Make sure that your extra credit Assignment is zero points. 2. Award points in the SpeedGrader. All points awarded are extra credit. 3. Or, award points in the gradebook. All points awarded are extra credit.

  7. Weighting Grades, Giving Extra Credit, and Other Tips on Managing

    You can give extra credit in Quizzes as well. To adjust the point value for an entire quiz, use fudge points. Method 2: Grant Extra Points in a Stand-alone "Extra Credit" Assignment and Gradebook Column . If you want to keep track of extra credit for the course as a whole, you can create a stand-alone extra credit assignment and gradebook ...

  8. Create an extra credit assignment in Canvas

    Create an extra credit assignment in Canvas. For instructions for creating an extra credit assignment in Canvas, see How do I give extra credit in a course? For more, see How do I calculate extra credit or optional assignments in my Gradebook? This is document bgpj in the Knowledge Base. Last modified on 2021-08-20 16:49:04.

  9. Extra credit in a course

    There are several different ways to award extra credit within Canvas. Choose the method below that you are interested in learning about: Extra credit Assignment. Award extra points to an existing Assignment. Add "Override" column in the Gradebook. Award extra points to a Quiz. Create a Rubric to include extra credit.

  10. Extra Credit Assignments

    The answer is YES! There are several methods for adding extra credit in Canvas. To learn more about extra credit in Canvas and the best ways to add it to your course, see the guide below. Click here for a guide to Extra Credit Assignments in Canvas. Click here to view an example of an extra credit assignment in Canvas.

  11. Extra Credit Options in Canvas

    2.1 Option 1: Add extra credit to existing assignments 2.2 Option 2: Create an Extra Credit Assignment 2.3 Option 3: Add extra credit to quizzes 3 Have questions? Best Practices Create extra credit opportunities that are aligned and relevant to the course (not just busy work).

  12. Managing Extra Credit in Canvas

    Create an additional assignment group called "Extra Credit." Set the weight percentage of the new extra credit assignment group to be worth the maximum amount of extra credit you want available. For example, if you want 5% possible extra credit in your course, you'd weight this assignment group 5%.

  13. PDF Diial Lai Ivai Duai Setting Up Extra Credit in Canvas

    There are two ways to set up extra credit in Canvas depending on your gradebook set up. If you are using Point System Grades in a Canvas course, please see Option 1. If you are using Weighted Grades in your Canvas course, see Option 2. Option 1: Point System Grades

  14. Adding Extra Credit Assignments in Canvas to Weighted and ...

    A quick tutorial that walks through the process for adding extra credit assignments to courses with unweighted and weighted assignment groups.

  15. Awarding Extra Credit in Canvas

    Add extra points to an existing Assignment In Canvas, an instructor can add points beyond the total points for an Assignment, Graded Discussion, or Graded Survey for any student. This can be done from the Gradebook, or from Speedgrader.

  16. Extra Credit in Canvas

    If you'd like to handle it individually, an extra credit assignment can be set up in Canvas that requires students to submit a screenshot of their completed eval task in Blue (not the responses, just the "to do" page showing it was turned in). To do this in Canvas, you just create a 0-point assignment, then manually enter point values for each ...

  17. BYU-Idaho Learning and Teaching

    There are two methods for creating extra credit in Canvas. The method you should use will depend on how you have organized assignments in your course. If you have weighted assignments, or weighted grades, you'll create extra credit assignments differently than if you do not have this feature enabled in your course.

  18. Extra Credit in Canvas :: eLearning Faculty

    The Assignment has to be set to zero points so that students who opt out of doing extra credit aren't penalized. The grade book automatically totals the points from all graded, published items in the course - so if the Assignment did have points, all students' overall grades as calculated by Canvas would be impacted.

  19. Extra Credit in Canvas

    Howdy! By the end of the video viewers will be able to articulate how to give extra credit using rubrics in Canvas...The Office for Academic Innovation at Te...

  20. PDF Canvas Quick Tip #2 How to Set up a Graded Survey and Give Extra Credit!

    One Way to Give Extra Credit in Canvas Go to Gradebook. For each student who has submitted the extra credit assignment, the low point value will appear. Click on the low point score and type in the number of extra credit points. You will get a bright orange warning, "This student was just awarded an unusually high grade". You will get that ...

  21. how to use a quiz as extra credit.

    The way I create extra credit quizzes is more work on my part, but I know it works. This method only applies if you are using weighted gradebooks. I use classic quizzes, so it may be easier in New quizzes using the first method described. For this method with weighted gradebooks, I create an extra credit assignment group and weight it at 0%.