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Canvas Quizzes do not have a true extra credit option for automated grading. It’s possible to award extra credit, but this requires manual grade input as shown below. For large classes that need a mostly-automated option, see “Creating an Extra Credit Quiz.”

To create an extra-credit question, you set that question’s point value to zero. When you grade the question, any points assigned are added to the quiz total. The total can exceed 100%. Once extra points are manually entered with SpeedGrader, the new total transfers to Grades as usual.

Note: in the New Quiz engine, it’s possible to enter a point value for the full quiz that differs from the sum of points-per-question. For example, if you set the total points on the assignment details page to 50 and create a quiz with 10 questions each worth 1 point, the quiz has a total of 10 points but is worth 50 points when graded. If a student answers 9 questions correctly, their quiz score is 90% (9/10). However, their final score in the Gradebook will be 45/50 (90%). For quizzes with extra credit questions, we recommend that the assignment total and sum of point values are the same to avoid student confusion.

  1. Create a quiz and, on the assignment details page, enter the total possible standard question points, excluding any possible extra credit points.
Assignment detail points for standard questions.
  1. Select Build and enter each required question and point value, selecting Done after each question. Make sure the sum of these question points corresponds with that in your assignment details.
  1. For an extra credit question, create a question and enter the point value as zero. We recommend letting students know that extra credit points must be manually graded.
New question with point value set to zero.
  1. Grading completed quizzes: open SpeedGrader from the Grades column for this quiz.
SpeedGrader selected in quiz Grades column header 3-dot menu.
  1. Add points for a  correct extra-credit question.
  2. Select Update to save these scores to Grades. The score can exceed 100%.
  3. Enter optional feedback in the Comment field and select Submit.
Points entered manually, Update button selected, comment Submit button optional.

This article was last updated on Sep 22, 2023 @ 9:51 am.