Mark a Quiz as extra credit

(27)
Some of our instructors have the need to provide extra credit via a quiz.  Students would earn specific points based on their correct answer and receive extra points based on their score but it would not increase the course or assignment group total points. I envision this as a checkbox option in Quiz creation.  [] Mark this Quiz as extra credit.  Then it would behave in the manner described above.

 

Here is the old thread on this.  I could not find a new version here but maybe I am missing it.

Extra Credit Quiz : Help Center

 

An alternative to this would be to allow questions themselves to be marked as extra credit and that would allow the flexability to have specific questions within a Quiz or the whole quizzes set of questions marked as extra credit.

 

  Comments from Instructure

2022-07-12 -- After reviewing this long-existing idea, the Community Team has determined that this request will remain Open. While it was authored when only Classic Quizzes existed, the idea can be applied to New Quizzes as well. Ultimately, this will reduce the number of duplicated Idea requests and allow the conversation and collaboration to exist in a single space. 

93 Comments
eleupold
Community Novice

@David Schober - A lot of Instructors would love this feature.

soxford
Community Contributor

I see that this has been a request for Canvas since 2015 it is now two years later.   I know a lot of instructors at our institution that would like this feature. Our previous LMS allowed for quizzes to count as extra credit and it is difficult to not have a simple solution. 

pattene
Community Participant

I searched for a solution for adding an EC quiz today and am surprised that this has been a topic without a simple solution  for so long. I've used a number of other LMS' and never had to go to such great lengths to add EC. This really is a student centered issue. Students want to see EC on their grade book. Period.

I used the workaround of changing all Grade items to a weighted %, so if another EC opportunity arises, I will then go in and adjust that percentage. Some of the solutions offered are very time consuming. That leaves a lot less time for us to refine our pedagogy.

schutt_j
Community Novice

That's how they roll at Instructure.

kimberly_smith1
Community Participant

I have experienced similar issues.

scrimpshirea
Community Novice

How is this not already implemented? If I have 1000 points for my class, I should be able to create a 10-question quiz, worth 10 points -label it as extra credit - and it add to my total of 1000 points. That's it. I have worked with other LMS's and this is a standard feature. As many people that have suggested this and it's still not available? Do you not like your customers?

I have spoken with multiple support personnel and they all say, "well if your grades were weighted...", well, my grades are not weighted, and this should be simpler without weighted grades. Just add an option for a grade to be extra credit, pretty simple.

kimberly_smith1
Community Participant

As I understand it, this feature request has moved to the 'product radar' stage (see 11/01/2016 post above). However, according to the Quizzes LTI chatter at Quizzes LTI Feature Comparison , the extra credit option "...has been deferred for the time being, but it is still in our plans". There is a video associated with possible upcoming changes to quizzes at  

Hope this helps.

cohenf
Community Participant

I excitedly went to quizzes.next to see if this feature was available there. I'm not getting it. New quiz platform and still a refusal to develop an extra credit question/quiz option. I understand the other reasons for developing quizzes.next, but it is seriously disappointing to see an "extra credit" feature missing. Now, we have two quiz platforms, both lacking "extra credit" function. Has me shaking my head.

jfiebig
Community Novice

It is very frustrating that something as simple as offering an extra credit quiz is so difficult in Canvas.  We've been waiting since 2015, really? Please move this item request higher up in the queue to fix.

Renee_Carney
Community Team
Community Team

The Radar idea stage has been removed from the Feature Idea Process.  You can read more about why in the blog post Adaptation: Feature Idea Process Changes.

 

This change will only impact the stage sort of this idea and will not change how it is voted on or how it is considered during prioritization activities.  This change will streamline the list of ideas 'open for voting', making it easier for you to see the true top voted ideas in one sort, here.

bfloyd
Community Novice

This issue continues to be a problem in my Canvas course sites. There was some hope that with the next generation of quizzing (Quizzes.Next) it would be remedied, but in my recent experimentation with the Quizzes.Next, it is not possible to make a quiz bonus or extra credit with zero possible points, and yet have the students earn points automatically (i.e., without instructor having to re-grade, manually enter, or use fudge points). This is one of the only things I miss about Blackboard -- having the simple ability to over-ride the number of points a test/quiz/exam was out of.

bfloyd
Community Novice

It is very frustrating! Having the ability to over-ride the number of points a test was out of in order to accommodate bonus points on tests or to have extra credit quizzes is one of the only things I miss about Blackboard.

bethany
Community Novice

The issue of making a quiz extra credit/bonus points has been on the request list for years now.  It's a must.  It's one of the things I desperately miss after switching from D2L to canvas.  This is a very basic feature which should be in Canvas.  Please get this higher on to-do list.

Additionally, being able to make individual items within a quiz bonus items would be much appreciated too.

ad7628
Community Novice

Brand new to Canvas this year at my university and I am shocked that something so simple is NOT an option! We moved from Blackboard to Canvas and I have to say that I am thoroughly unimpressed so far.

 

It looks like this has been requested for over 3 years now and it has still not been adopted?  Does anyone from Canvas actually look at these pages or not?  

I think people need to start asking their Canvas administrators to elevate this tiny and easily fixable issue to Canvas, maybe that way it will actually get done.

kimberly_smith1
Community Participant

I see that a number of people voted down on this - but there appear to be no comments as to why??

schutt_j
Community Novice

Canvas knows about this. They either do not care to implement the suggestion or are not competent to do so.

dspiel
Community Participant

The addition to mark a question within a quiz as extra credit would be helpful as well.  Many professors used to add a question at the end of a quiz for an extra credit point or more when we used Angel and even way back in WebCT and see no reason why a product that is supposed to be "modern and new" can do something that was used 15 years ago and seems to not be able and figure it out or more important care what their users want.

kimberly_smith1
Community Participant

Hello dspiel 

I share your frustration surrounding offering extra credit in Canvas. You may already have seen this, but just in case... Here is an idea related to your comment that is still open for voting (current count 294).

https://community.canvaslms.com/ideas/1593-create-option-for-extra-credit-question-in-quiz 

hannahw_bodie
Community Novice

I fully agree with helping a child out by using a quiz for extra credit.  I think this also could encourage students to do their best, study in away that they could get extra credit in that class. I also feel like if a child might be slacking on their homework but do amazing on the quiz, that quiz grade could also replace their homework! 

bosborne
Community Novice

I completely agree, Becky Floyd. I used Blackboard before Canvas and extra credit was so easy. I could have an extra credit point on quizzes, ten extra credit points on exams, and fully extra credit quizzes, and none of them would disrupt the final points total in the course. 

In Canvas, I’ve had to give up on the extra points in all the quizzes (which hurts the students). I’ve held onto the EC quizzes and exam points so far, but I spend a ridiculous amount of time fielding questions from my 400+ student class about this in spite of a rather extensive PR campaign about it each semester. Students are so confused about how these points are being counted and why EC would hurt their grade...and I don’t blame them. It’s hard on me as I do workarounds and reconfiguring, hard on them as they panic over what they see and don’t understand in the gradebook, and hurts their grade when I ultimately have to take away options that were previously easy to execute because they’re just impossible or too time-consuming in canvas. 

The “points fudge” system is on quizzes and exams already once students have taken them, and that doesn’t seem all that much different in some ways. The problem is that this should be a global change on the front end that impacts what all students see in the gradebook, not how one student’s grade comes out. 

At any rate, my workaround happens on the grading end: make everything weighted at the very end, with two categories, one of all the assignments (1000 points, worth 100%) and one of EC (worth whatever possible percent they could have earned; this semester, mine could have earned 70 points, so this was 7%). All the required work goes in the assignments category, and I do any calculations that need to happen outside of canvas in excel and upload them as new assignments because of EC problems. EC goes in the EC category — out of the 70 points. And somehow it all works out.