Adding Extra Credit in HuskyCT

This article is for instructors working with extra credit assignments in HuskyCT.

For Ultra Course View, refer to: Extra Credit in Ultra Course View

Things to Keep in Mind when Working with Extra Credit

Extra credit assignments are easy to create in HuskyCT, but they can be tricky to calculate into a final grade. When you create an extra credit assignment, be mindful about how you would like extra credit to be calculated. For example, would you like to have the extra credit added to a student’s overall final grade, or would you like those points to be added to just a portion of a student’s grade? Would you just like to add an extra credit question to a test?

It is also important to remember that although HuskyCT can work with a lot of complicated grading scenarios, instructors are still responsible for communicating to students about their grades. With this in mind, instructors should avoid having HuskyCT calculate a grade that they cannot calculate themselves. It is a good idea for instructors to check a few students’ grades by hand after they finish imputing their grade center columns in HuskyCT to make sure that they have not overlooked anything.

Adding Extra Credit to a Final Weighted Grade

These directions apply to instructors who have calculated their final grades using a weighted column to have grades displayed as percentages or for instructors who have a total points column that is set to a scale of 100.

Open your HuskyCT course and navigate to the Full Grade Center tab under the Grade Center option on the side menu.
Click Create Column at the top of the Full Grade Center.
Under Column Name enter a name for your final grade column. If you plan on pushing these grades directly to Student Admin, name the column “Final Course Grade.”
Scroll down on the Create Column page to select how you would like the grade to be displayed to your students. To show your students a final letter grade in the column, select Letter Grade for your Primary Display. If you would like to also see the point value for each student (although it will be hidden from students), select Score for your Secondary Display.
Enter 100 in the Points Possible box and click submit.

Tip: When you create a new grade center column, it will automatically show up at the end of your grade center. It is easiest to have your column calculating the final grade with extra credit next to the column calculating the final grade without extra credit. You can move your grade center column using the Course Management tool.
In your new Final Course Grade column, click on the box across from a student’s name to manually their final grade + extra credit points.

Making an Assignment Extra Credit

These are directions for instructors who would like to make an individual assignment extra credit. It is important to note that if the instructor is working with a weighted column to calculate a final grade, then the instructor should also follow the directions for adding extra credit to a portion of a grade outlined below. If the instructor is calculating the final grade using the total points column, then they can just use these directions to incorporate the extra credit assignment into the final course grade.

Method 1: Creating an Assignment to be Extra Credit

Follow the directions for Creating Assignments in HuskyCT and enter 0 in the points possible box.

Method 2: Adjusting an Assignment Column to be Extra Credit After the Assignment is Created

Open your HuskyCT course and navigate to the Full Grade Center tab under the Grade Center option on the side menu.
Click on the drop-down icon at the top of the grade center column you would like to edit, and click Edit Column Information.
On the Edit Column Information page, adjust the Points Possible value to 0 and click Submit.

Adding Extra Credit to a Portion of a Weighted Grade

These are directions for instructors who are calculating their final grades with a weighted column and would like to add extra credit to a portion of a student’s grade (e.g., add a bonus quiz or optional reflection paper).

Create the extra credit assignment or grade center column following the directions listed above on this page.
Navigate to the Full Grade Center and scroll over to the extra credit assignment column.
Click on the drop-down icon at the top of the column and click Edit Column Information.
On the Edit Column Information page, click on the drop-down next to Category.
Select No Category and click Submit.
In your Full Grade Center, click Create Calculated Column and select Total Column.
On the Create Total Column page, select Percentage under Primary Display.
Scroll down to check the Selected Columns and Categories option and select the columns or categories that you would like to add together. Then, click on the small arrow next to move them into the selected columns box. Click Submit to save your changes.
Navigate to the weighted Final Grade column to click on the drop-down at the top of the column and select Edit Column Information.
On the Edit Weighted Column page, scroll down to the Selected Columns box and delete the category or assignments that were previously added to your extra credit total column by clicking the small delete icon to the right of the column’s name.
Select the new total column with extra credit and add it to the Selected Columns.
Enter the appropriate grade weight. Click Submit to save your changes.

Adding an Extra Credit Question to a Test

These directions are for instructors who would like to add an extra credit question to their test. Fortunately, there do not need to be any further adjustments to an instructor’s final grade calculation when they add extra credit questions inside of a test as long as the test has overall points possible higher than 0.

Add a question to the test following the standard steps for building a test.
After the question is added, click on the Points box next to the question in the Test Canvas.
Check Extra Credit and click Submit.

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