In Oncourse Gradebook, how do extra credit or grade penalties affect grade calculation in percentage gradebooks?

In the Gradebook tool, you can give extra credit or grade penalties with adjustment items and adjustment categories, either of which can take positive or negative values. See Giving extra credit or a grade penalty in Gradebook.

How the adjustments affect the grade calculation will depend on how you have set up your gradebook. To understand how the different ways of setting up your gradebook work without adjustment items, see How categories and weighting affect grade calculation in percentage gradebooks. For information about setting up your gradebook, see Using categories and weighted grades in Gradebook.

For points gradebooks, see How categories and weighting affect grade calculation in points gradebooks and How extra credit or grade penalties affect grade calculation in points gradebooks.

On this page:

• Adjustment items with no categories
• Adjustment items with unweighted categories
• Adjustment items with weighted categories
• Adjustment categories with weighted categories

Adjustment items with no categories

If you set up a percentage gradebook with no categories, the value of an adjustment item is added to the final calculated percentage:

Weighted item score = item score * item weight

Grade calculation: Sum of weighted item scores divided by sum of item weights; adjustment is added last

• Grade without adjustment: 93.08% (1117/12)
• Grade with adjustment: 98.08% ((1117/12)+5)

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Adjustment items with unweighted categories

Grades in gradebooks with simple, unweighted categories are calculated the same way as in gradebooks with no categories:

Weighted item score = item score * item weight

Grade calculation: Sum of weighted item scores divided by sum of item weights; adjustment is added last

• Grade without adjustment: 93.08 (1117/12)
• Grade with adjustment: 98.08% ((1117/12) + 5)

Note: In a percentage gradebook with unweighted categories, adjustment items are included in category averages for display purposes only; for course grade calculation, adjustment items are applied to the course average. Category averages in unweighted gradebooks do not affect the grade calculation, and are truncated (not rounded) for display purposes.

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Adjustment items with weighted categories

In gradebooks with weighted categories, the category average is used to calculate the final grade, and adjustment items affect the category average:

Weighted item score = item score * item weight

Weighted category score = ((Sum of weighted item scores/sum of weights for that category) + adjustment items) * category weight

For example, with the adjustment item, the weighted category score for the essays is ((380/4)+5)*.3 = 30%; without the adjustment, the weighted category score would have been (380/4)*.3 = 28.5%.

Grade calculation: Sum of weighted category scores

• Grade without adjustment: 93.05% (28.5% + 27.75% + 36.8%)
• Grade with adjustment: 94.55% (30% + 27.75% + 36.8%)

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Adjustment categories with weighted categories

With weighted categories, you can also add adjustment categories. Note that the category weight for the regular categories totals 100% without the adjustment category.

Weighted item score = item score * item weight

Weighted category score = ((Sum of weighted item scores/sum of weights for that category) + adjustment items) * category weight

For example, with the adjustment item, the weighted category score for the essays is ((380/4)+5)*.3 = 30%; without the adjustment, the weighted category score would have been (380/4)*.3 = 28.5%.

Grade calculation: Sum of weighted category scores, including adjustment category

• Grade with no adjustments: 93.05% (28.5% + 27.75% + 36.8%)
• Grade with adjustment items but no adjustment category: 94.55% (30% + 27.75% + 36.8%)
• Grade with adjustment items and adjustment category: 97.55% (30% + 27.75% + 36.8% + 3%)

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