{"id":20182,"date":"2024-04-15T11:31:12","date_gmt":"2024-04-15T16:31:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/?p=20182"},"modified":"2024-04-15T11:31:12","modified_gmt":"2024-04-15T16:31:12","slug":"brightspace-tip-442-demystifying-bonus-items-in-a-weighted-grade-book","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/brightspace-tip-442-demystifying-bonus-items-in-a-weighted-grade-book\/","title":{"rendered":"Brightspace Tip #442: Demystifying Bonus Items in a Weighted Grade Book"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\"extra<\/a>\n<\/div>\n<\/p>\n

I am writing this blog post as a follow up to my Brightspace Tip #440: Grade Book - Bonus Points<\/a> blog post. I've received a few questions about bonus items in a weighted grading system. This blog post addresses how bonus items work in a weighted Grade Book.<\/p>\n

Bonus refers to optional activities. Students are NOT penalized for skipping the activity. Points earned for Bonus activities will improve the student\u2019s grade. Checking the Bonus option means that any points earned will be added onto the Final Calculated Grade. Bonus items appear in the Grade Book with a Star next to them. <\/p>\n

Bonus grade items are not included in the maximum points for a category or final grade. They are added on top of the calculated grade.<\/strong> The Can Exceed<\/em> option must be selected in order for users' grades to exceed the maximum points specified.<\/p>\n

The Can Exceed and Bonus options can both be selected for a grade item.<\/p>\n

\n\"bonus<\/a>\n<\/div>\n<\/p>\n

If you allow an item to exceed 100% or include Bonus items, but do not check the box \"Can Exceed\" in the category and\/or \u201cFinal Calculated Grade\u201d settings, then extra credit will count but it will be limited to no more than 100% for the category or \u201cFinal Calculated Grade.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you create a \u201cBonus\u201d item with no category<\/strong>, limit its weight to the most you wish to add to the final course percentage. For example, if you do not<\/strong> want to add more than 3% to any given final grade, limit the Bonus item\u2019s weight to 3%. The bonus points can be any number of points because the weight makes the difference in the overall calculation.<\/p>\n

\n\"thought<\/a>\n<\/div>\n<\/p>\n

Refer to this Demystifying Bonus Items in a Weighted Grade Book<\/a> document for example of weighted grading system with bonus item and an explanation of the final grade calculation.<\/p>\n

Want more information?<\/h2>\n

Demystifying Bonus Items in a Weighted Grade Book<\/a>
\nBrightspace Tip #440: Grade Book - Bonus Points<\/a>
\nAbout Bonus Grade Items<\/a>
\nExtra Credit<\/a>
\nCreate a Grade Item (video)<\/a>
\nBrightspace Tip #437: Grade Book<\/a><\/p>\n

View current, past, and preview upcoming Continuous Delivery release notes<\/a>
\nInstructors Quick Start Tutorial<\/a>
\nBrightspace Known Issues<\/a>
\nRequest a sandbox course<\/a>
\nSign-up for Brightspace training sessions<\/a>
\nYou can find Brightspace help<\/a> at D2L's website.
\nJoin the Brightspace Community<\/a>.
\nTry these Brightspace How-To documents<\/a>.
\nVisit our Brightspace FAQs<\/a> for additional Brightspace information
\nor schedule a one-on-one session<\/a>, email<\/a>, or
\ncall Janice Florent: (504) 520-7418.<\/p>\n

Note: Are you doing something innovative in Brightspace or perhaps you've discovered a handy tip? Share how you are using Brightspace in your teaching and learning in The Orange Room<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Image credits: extra png from pngtree.com<\/a> and image by OpenClipart-Vectors<\/a> from Pixabay<\/a><\/small> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am writing this blog post as a follow up to my Brightspace Tip #440: Grade Book - Bonus Points blog post. I've received a few questions about bonus items in a weighted grading system. This blog post addresses how bonus items work in a weighted Grade Book. Bonus refers to optional activities. Students are ...continue reading \"Brightspace Tip #442: Demystifying Bonus Items in a Weighted Grade Book\"<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[403],"tags":[402,427,411,505],"class_list":{"0":"post-20182","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-brightspace","7":"tag-brightspace","8":"tag-extra-credit","9":"tag-grade-book","10":"tag-weighted-grades","11":"h-entry","12":"hentry","13":"h-as-article"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p82MQk-5fw","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":21321,"url":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/brightspace-tip-505-demystifying-bonus-items-in-a-weighted-grade-book\/","url_meta":{"origin":20182,"position":0},"title":"Brightspace Tip #505: Demystifying Bonus Items in a Weighted Grade Book","author":"Janice Florent","date":"April 11, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"I am writing this blog post as a follow up to my Brightspace Tip #504: Grade Book - Bonus Points blog post. I've received a few questions about bonus items in a weighted grading system. This blog post addresses how bonus items work in a weighted Grade Book. Bonus refers\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Brightspace Small Plates"","block_context":{"text":"Brightspace Small Plates","link":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/topic\/brightspace\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"extra bonus icon","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/red-and-yellow-extra-bonus_9023709-pngtree-3.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":19183,"url":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/brightspace-tip-380-demystifying-bonus-items-in-a-weighted-grade-book\/","url_meta":{"origin":20182,"position":1},"title":"Brightspace Tip #380: Demystifying Bonus Items in a Weighted Grade Book","author":"Janice Florent","date":"March 29, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"I am writing this blog post as a follow up to my Brightspace Tip #277: Grade Book - Bonus Points blog post. I've received a few questions about bonus items in a weighted grading system. This blog post addresses how bonus items work in a weighted Grade Book. Bonus refers\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Brightspace Small Plates"","block_context":{"text":"Brightspace Small Plates","link":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/topic\/brightspace\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"extra bonus icon","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Png-extra-bonus-in-banner-style_8398254.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":21883,"url":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/brightspace-tip-550-grade-book-drop-the-lowest-grade\/","url_meta":{"origin":20182,"position":2},"title":"Brightspace Tip #550: Grade Book – Drop the Lowest Grade","author":"Janice Florent","date":"November 20, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Organizing your Grade Book using categories offers significant advantages beyond simply creating headings for your Grade Items. One key benefit is the ability to automatically drop the lowest grade within a category. This blog post will guide you through the process of setting up Grade Categories in Brightspace specifically for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Brightspace Small Plates"","block_context":{"text":"Brightspace Small Plates","link":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/topic\/brightspace\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Graphic of 5 assignments boxes lined up in a row. Each box has a grade of \"A\" or \"B\" in it. One box has a grade of \"C\". The assignment box with the grade of \"C\" in it is falling away (dropping) from the rest.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/drop-lowest-grade.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/drop-lowest-grade.png?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/drop-lowest-grade.png?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/drop-lowest-grade.png?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":21351,"url":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/brightspace-tip-508-grade-book-drop-the-lowest-grade\/","url_meta":{"origin":20182,"position":3},"title":"Brightspace Tip #508: Grade Book – Drop the Lowest Grade","author":"Janice Florent","date":"April 16, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Organizing your Grade Book using categories offers significant advantages beyond simply creating headings for your Grade Items. One key benefit is the ability to automatically drop the lowest grade within a category. This blog post will guide you through the process of setting up Grade Categories in Brightspace specifically for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Brightspace Small Plates"","block_context":{"text":"Brightspace Small Plates","link":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/topic\/brightspace\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Graphic of 5 assignments boxes lined up in a row. Each box has a grade of \"A\" or \"B\" in it. One box has a grade of \"C\". The assignment box with the grade of \"C\" in it is falling away (dropping) from the rest.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/drop-lowest-grade.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/drop-lowest-grade.png?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/drop-lowest-grade.png?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/drop-lowest-grade.png?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":12856,"url":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/brightspace-tip-63-grade-book\/","url_meta":{"origin":20182,"position":4},"title":"Brightspace Tip #63: Grade Book","author":"Janice Florent","date":"October 10, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"The Brightspace Grades Tool is useful for providing students with up-to-date information about their current standing in the course. For instructors, it\u2019s useful for assigning and keeping track of student grades. Students can view grade entries and monitor their progress throughout the course. As an instructor, you can determine how\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Brightspace Small Plates"","block_context":{"text":"Brightspace Small Plates","link":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/topic\/brightspace\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"grade book page","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/c1.staticflickr.com\/1\/662\/23198966652_0c40d6bb4a_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":18098,"url":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/brightspace-tip-304-grade-book\/","url_meta":{"origin":20182,"position":5},"title":"Brightspace Tip #304: Grade Book","author":"Janice Florent","date":"March 6, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"The Brightspace Grades Tool is useful for providing students with up-to-date information about their current standing in the course. For instructors, it\u2019s useful for assigning and keeping track of student grades. Students can view grade entries and monitor their progress throughout the course. As an instructor, you can determine how\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Brightspace Small Plates"","block_context":{"text":"Brightspace Small Plates","link":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/topic\/brightspace\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"grade book page","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/c1.staticflickr.com\/1\/662\/23198966652_0c40d6bb4a_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20182"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20182\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20347,"href":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20182\/revisions\/20347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}