Extra credit is one of those small policies that reveals what you think grades are for. If grades describe learning, bonus points for bringing tissues or attending a game don't fit. If grades are partly about effort and engagement, some extra credit may.
The common problems
- It rewards circumstance. Extra credit for supplies, event attendance or projects done at home favors students with money, transport and time.
- It distorts the grade. A student who hasn't mastered a unit can still earn a B with enough bonus points.
- It adds work. Grading optional projects takes time you might rather spend on core feedback.
- It invites negotiation. End-of-term requests for "anything I can do" are hard to handle fairly.
When it can work
Extra credit is more defensible when it:
- Is tied to the course goals (an extension problem, an additional analysis)
- Is available to every student during class time or without cost
- Is announced in advance, not offered at the end to individual students
- Is capped (for example, no more than 2 to 3 percent of the final grade)
Better alternatives
Most of the time, what students want from extra credit is a second chance. These options give that while keeping grades meaningful:
- Retakes after a learning step: see our retake policy guide.
- Revisions of major assignments, with the new score replacing the old.
- Most-recent-evidence rules for skills that develop over time, as in standards-based grading.
Where it goes in the gradebook
If you do offer it, decide which category it belongs to. Bonus points behave very differently depending on the category's weight; see how weighted grades are calculated. Putting extra credit in a small-weight category limits its impact; putting it in tests makes it powerful.
A simple policy
"Up to 2% extra credit per term is available through the optional extension problems posted with each unit. They're due with the unit test and can't be submitted after it." Short, fair, and tied to learning.