This article explains bonus points in D2L Grades. There are two methods of applying bonus/extra credit in Grades: add to an existing item or create a separate bonus item.
Method 1: Add Points to an Existing Grade Item
One method for adding bonus/extra credit is to add points to an existing grade item. For example, if you wish to add bonus points or curve an exam, you would just manually add points to the overall exam score.
If you are manually entering exam scores in D2L Grades, simply reflect the bonus points in the score. If you are adding bonus or a curve to a quiz that is linked to Grades, you will need to update the grades manually.
To manually update a grade item, click the “actions arrow” and choose “Grade All.”
Add the desired points to the existing quiz score. Then click “Save and Close.”
In some cases, you may wish to add bonus points to all students, even those that have already earned a perfect score. By default, D2L will calculate scores that exceed the “Max Points” as though the score was equal to the Max Points. To have D2L calculate scores above 100%, enter the grade item setup by clicking the "actions arrow” for the grade item and choosing “Edit.”
In the “Grading” section, enable the “Can Exceed” box. Be sure to click “Save and Close.”
Now, D2L will calculate student scores above 100%, enabling bonus points to be reflected in the overall grade.
Method 2: Create a Bonus Item
Another method is to create a separate “bonus” item in Grades.
To create a bonus grade item, set up a grade item as normal. For the “Max Points” field, enter the highest number of bonus points possible. Be sure to enable the “Bonus” checkbox so that any points entered for this item will only help student grades.
Weighted grades: It may seem intuitive to put a weight of 0 for bonus items, but this effectively nullifies any points earned. Rather, put in the weight box the most you’d want the student’s final percentage grade to increase if they earn all of the bonus points. Most faculty put this anywhere from .5 to 3 (just enough to push a student over the border of a grade).
“Bonus Items” will have a yellow star icon on the “Manage Grades” page; on the “Enter Grades” page, bonus items will have the work “Bonus” in parenthesis.
Important Notes about bonus items
Bonus items entered in a category will apply only to that category. By default, a category cannot exceed the maximum points/weight that is assigned to it. Therefore, if a student does not lose any points in the category that contains the bonus item, the bonus will not help the student’s overall grade. To apply a bonus item to reflect the overall grade:
- Do not apply a category to the bonus item. Set the bonus as an individual item in Grades.
- Set the category that contains the bonus to “allow category grade to exceed category weight/max points.”