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I trot out a version of this PSA more years than not, but it’s still relevant.
For any faculty out there who are confronting students who are terrified of getting a grade they don’t want, and are asking for some sort of last-minute extra credit assignment:
Don’t do it.
I made that mistake the first time I was a teaching assistant, back in the day. An earnest but poorly performing student asked for another chance. I let him write another paper. It, too, stank. Suddenly I faced a dilemma: yes, he did extra work, but it was just as bad as his assigned work. Do I reward that?
Significant extra credit warps the scale.
If you must do extra credit, though, there’s a right way and a wrong way.
The right way is to come up with the option before the course starts, build it into the syllabus and make it available to any interested students evenly. Let’s say you want to encourage students to attend performances or speeches or exhibits, and you’re willing to offer a few points for it. That’s fine, depending on local expectations and custom, but put it in writing, figure out what the standards for verification will be, and make it available equally to everybody.
The wrong way is to take pity on the one student who came forward and come up with something just for them on the spot. That’s because one of the grounds for a successful grade appeal is that one student was treated differently from others in the class. An opportunity to earn extra credit that was only offered to one student, or to a select group of students, creates a disparity that can form the basis for a successful appeal by one or more of the other students. You’d be far better off either simply refusing or offering the same opportunity to everyone.
I know it’s the holiday season, and the temptation to be Santa hangs in the air. But no good comes of it. I’d rather see entire classes have their grades curved than have idiosyncratic extra credit offered to fill in gaps. At least with curves, the rising tide lifts all boats. (Don’t mix metaphors like this at home, kids. I’m a trained professional.) When appeals get filed, I can stand behind anything that’s reasonable, written down and consistently applied, even if it’s something I never would have offered myself. If you want to give students a gift, bring food or gift cards to class.
This has been the annual extra-credit PSA. Now back to our regularly scheduled blog …
