Extra Credit in Ultra Course View

Owned by Ashiespal Bharara (Deactivated)
Last updated: Jun 19, 2024 by Jordan Vinikoor
4 min read

This page is for instructors who would like to add extra credit to their Gradebook in their Ultra course.

For Original Course View, refer to:

Overview

In Ultra, extra credit can be included in the Overall Grade. However, the method to include extra credit depends on the calculation type used for the Overall Grade:

  • Points

  • Weighted

In both cases, instructors should start by creating an extra credit column.

Creating an Extra Credit Column

  1. From within your Ultra course, click on the Gradebook tab.

  2. Hover your cursor between 2 columns of your Gradebook and click the “+” sign that appears.

    Column.png

  3. Select Add Item to create a column where extra credit can be entered manually.

  4. Provide a name for the column.

    EC column.png

  5. To remove the due date, click on the date field, highlight the date, then hit delete on your keyboard.

  6. Use Grade using Points.

  7. Then assign the maximum points to “0”. This allows any points entered to be additive.

  8. 🚨Under Grade category, choose the category you would like the extra credit to be included in.

    1. Overall Grade “Points”: The category selection is not very important, so long as the selected category is included in the Overall calculation.

    2. Overall Grade “Weighted”: The category selection is very important, since the extra credit will need to be totaled up with other category assessment items. See Weighted section below for more information.

  9. Click Save when finished.

Entering Extra Credit

To enter extra credit, click on the cell for any student and input the number of extra credit points that they have earned.



Extra Credit in “Points” Overall Grade

If your Overall Grade uses a Points calculation, the Extra credit will automatically be included in the calculation via the assigned category.

This image shows the Overall grade calculation with the 3 components of the Assignment category totaling up to 200 overall points. The extra credit is included, but since it has a max points of “0”, it is not reflected in the overall points.

This image shows an individual student’s Overall Grade and their scores on the Assignment category items, including extra credit.

 

 

Extra Credit in “Weighted” Overall Grade

Overview

  • Including extra credit into a Weighted Overall grade is more complicated because the the weighted calculation is performed using both assessment point values and percentages.

  • An extra credit column that is included in a Category, has 0% weight in that category because it has “0” maximum points. As such it is not included in the overall calculation.

  • In order to include extra credit, the extra credit column needs to be part of a Total calculation with another assessment item/category that has a point value. That Total calculation is then assigned a percentage of the Overall grade.

Instructions:

  1. First, determine which category or assessment the extra credit will be combined with. Change the extra credit column category if needed.

  2. From the Gradebook, hover your cursor between two columns and click the “+” sign that appears. Then click Add Total Calculation.

  3. From the Points Calculation screen, deselect the other categories by clicking on the “∅” null symbol. A purple “∅” indicates it has been removed from the calculation.

  4. Only the category containing the extra credit should be part of the calculation. Confirm by checking the total points at the bottom of the page.

  5. Once you are finished, click Save.

  6. This will create a new Calculation column which includes the extra credit.

  7. Return to the Overall Grade calculation page.

  8. At the bottom of the list, locate the Calculations tab. Click the tab to see the Total calculation column.

  9. Click the “unlink” icon next to the previously created Total column.

  10. The calculation column will pop out and can now be assigned the percentage that the category (including the extra credit) should receive.

  11. Then be sure to scroll back up to the category area and null that percentage so that the category is included in the weighted calculation twice.

 

For more information or assistance with Ultra, please contact CETL Educational Technologies at edtech@uconn.edu or 860-486-5052 (M-F 9am-4pm)