Call for Submissions:
Exploring Extra Credit
Giving students extra credit opportunities is one of the few instructional practices about which many who teach have strong feelings—mostly on one side or the other of its legitimacy. But at The Teaching Professor, we think there’s more involved than whether it’s right or wrong, and we’d love your help as we explore why. Here are some options to guide your responses.
Share your views. Yes, you can tell us if you’re for or against it—be sure to say why—but we think the role of extra credit is more contextual. It depends on how it fits with the course goals and objectives, what students are doing to earn it, how much it counts for, and the relationship between extra credit and course content. These contextual factors gain clarity when we look at specific examples. We’ve come up with four scenarios.
- Two faculty members, one on the tenure track and the other with a renewable contract, are concerned about the low response rates for online end-of-course evaluations. They’ve decided to tell their students that everyone will get five extra credit points if 75 percent of the class completes the course evaluation.
- At a commuter campus in a large metropolitan area where most of the students enrolled are working adults, a faculty member’s syllabus lists 10 on-campus events scheduled throughout the course. Students my attend up to three, writing a page-long summary of each, and get enough extra credit points to boost their course grade by 5 percent.
- A faculty member lets students earn extra credit that can proactively be applied to their exam scores. Students write five multiple choice questions and three short answer questions. They must correctly answer each question on submission two days before the exam. Each student can receive up to 10 extra credit points based on the appropriateness of their questions and the quality of their answers. The exam is worth 100 points.
- A faculty member is involved in a research project exploring student study habits in required courses. For a small amount of extra credit, students may complete the 20-question online survey being used in the study. After completing the survey, students are given information on evidence-based study habits along with recommendations for their use.
What issues do you see with each of these scenarios? What are their implications, and what questions and concerns do they raise for you? What benefits might accrue, and at what costs? Be welcome to comment on any or all of these. You may even craft your own scenario, and we’ll share it for response as time permits.
Share your extra credit assignment. If you use extra credit activities, please share what you have your students do. Concrete examples are interesting and helpful. Submit copies of the extra credit options as it they appear on your syllabi. Be welcome to add commentary describing the activities’ origins and your assessments of what they contribute to learning in your courses.
Syllabus statements describing “no extra credit” policies are also welcome, especially if they outline the reasons for the policy.
Write an article. As always, we welcome outside contributions. Has your thinking about extra credit evolved, changed? Why are students so enamored with it? If you’d like to explain, explore, or otherwise address extra credit issues, please do so. Here’s the website link to our submission guidelines: https://qa.teachingprofessor.com/about-us/submission-guidelines.
Please submit this material to Maryellen Weimer at grg@psu.edu by June 30, 2020. (Please respect the deadline. In all likelihood we will be unable to use material submitted after it.) And thanks in advance. We look forward to hearing from you.
