ONLINE ADJUNCT FACULTY TIP #7 - My thoughts on extra credit

I've never been a fan of extra credit at the college level and discourage faculty from including extra credit options in their syllabus.

I've never heard a compelling reason to offer extra credit to adults - and I usually build my courses so the student would earn 140 total points in a perfect world - so they can forfeit 7 points and still earn an "A" - and it's doubtful that student would lose 7 points on a single assignment.

Instead of offering extra credit, I'm flexible with deadlines - and will often allow a 24 hour grace period before assigning a late penalty. I'm not going to "drop the hammer" on a student who didn't post by 12:01 PM CDT because he was late returning from a weekend at his relatives.

Finally, as an adjunct faculty member - why would you want to add the time commitment of grading extra credit? I pour hours into my courses - and don't feel allocating additional time to EC is efficient.