Bonus Grade Items in Brightspace

This Information is Intended for: Instructors, Staff
Created: 05/08/2024 Last Updated: 09/16/2024

In Brightspace, you can make any grade item worth extra credit by turning it into a bonus grade item using the steps below:

  1. Go to the Manage Grades tab of your Gradebook
  2. Select the arrow next to the grade item you wish to turn into a bonus item, and select Edit
Image of the manage grades tab and a grade item highlighted to be edited
  1. Select the checkbox that says Bonus
Image of the bonus box checked off in the grade editing field
  1. Choose Save and Close to finish

When creating bonus grade items, there are some important things to consider:

Weighted Gradebooks

Points Gradebooks

Weighted Gradebooks

My bonus items are going in a category, what should the weight of the bonus grade item be?

For weighted gradebooks, if you place a bonus grade item in a category, then students who complete the bonus item will have their score go towards the overall category's weight. However, you still need to determine how much this bonus grade item will assist by assigning a weight for the bonus grade item itself. 

In this example, I have a discussion category worth 15% of my final grade. Within this category I have five discussions, each with a weight of 20 (meaning 20% of the category).

If I add a bonus grade item to the category, I can decide how much this grade item will assist students by adjusting it's weight. For example, if I gave the bonus grade item a weight of 20, then it would be equal in weight to all of the other discussions within the category. So if a student did not complete one of the discussions and received a score of 0, they could still complete the bonus grade item, which would make up for their missing work without penalizing their overall score for the category. 

Image of a discussions category worth 15% of final grade, and 5 discussion grade items within the category, each worth 20% of the discussions category
Image of a bonus grade item added to the discussions category with a weight of 20, the same as the other grade items in the category.

This is just one example of assigning a bonus item to a category in a weighted gradebook. When deciding the weight of a bonus grade item, make sure to take the weight of the other grade items in the category into consideration. This will assist in determining how much the bonus grade item will effect the students grade for the category. 

Can I allow my students to achieve a score that is higher than the highest possible score in the category?

Bonus grade items can assist students by giving them an opportunity to make up for lower scores on grade items, or missing work which resulted in a score of 0. However, some instructors may consider allowing students to complete bonus grade items, even if they already achieved higher scores. If you are considering this, you may run into the possibility of your students scoring higher than the max amount set for a category or final grade.

If you wish to allow for your students to exceed the max score for a category, follow these steps:

  1. Edit the category
  2. Select Allow category grade to exceed category weight
Image of a category being edited with the option titled "Allow category grade to exceed category weight" enabled
  1. Select Save and Close to finish
My bonus item is outside a category, what should the weight of the bonus grade item be?

If you have a bonus grade item outside of a category, and a student completes it, then the score will go towards the final overall grade for the course. But how much should that bonus grade item be worth? 

The answer depends on the purpose of the bonus grade item. For example, are you are creating a bonus item to make up for low scores on a particular grade item? If so, then you should take into consideration the weight of the grade item with low scores. In this example, multiple students did not do well on a midterm that was worth 15% of their final grade. 

Image of students with poor scores on a midterm worth 15% of their final grade

If I want to create a bonus item in the gradebook to make up for this low score, I would have to take the 15% the midterm was worth towards the final grade into consideration to determine the weight of the bonus item and how it can assist students. For example, I can make the weight of the bonus item 3%, which would give students an opportunity to make up 1/5 of the original weight of the midterm. 

Image of a bonus grade item next to poor midterm scores. Students scored 100% on the bonus item, and the item has a weight of 3%.

If your bonus item is not making up for scores on a particular grade item, and you just wish to give students an opportunity to increase their final overall grade, then choose the weight based on how much you would like to increase their final score by. For example, you could set the weight to the bonus item to 2 so they could make up 2% towards their final overall grade. 

Can I allow my students to achieve a score for their final grade that is higher than 100%?

If a student who is already achieving high marks in your gradebook completes bonus items, it is possible for them to receive a score higher than 100% for their final grade. In order to allow this, you would complete these steps:

  1. Edit the final grade column
Image of a final calculated grade item being edited
  1. Under Grading, select the Can Exceed checkbox
Image of the "Can Exceed" option being selected when editing the final grade column
  1. Select Save and Close

Points Gradebooks

How many points should my bonus item be worth? Does it matter that the bonus item is in a category?

A bonus item in a points style gradebook can be worth any amount the instructor wishes. Points style gradebooks do not separate points by category. So any bonus items within a category will go directly towards the final overall grade of the course. Please note however that if a bonus item is in a category, and you wish for students to achieve a score higher than the max amount of points of other items in the category, you must follow these steps:

  1. Edit the category
Image of a category being edited
  1. Under Grading select Can Exceed
Image of the "Can Exceed" option being selected when editing the final grade column
  1. Select Save and Close

Otherwise, the bonus points will not apply to the final grade.

Can I allow my students to achieve a score that is higher than the max amount of points for the course?

To allow students to achieve a score higher than the max amount of points for the final grade, follow these steps:

  1. Edit the final grade column
Image of a category being edited
  1. Under Grading, select the Can Exceed checkbox
Image of the "Can Exceed" option being selected when editing the final grade column
  1. Select Save and Close

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