Setting Bonus Point Options:

Are you an instructor who would like to have a way to give rewards that "shape" students into engaging in the kind of studying behaviors you'd prefer they practice? And would you like to be able to point to this system as a preferred alternative to, say, the implied "tangential and/or distracting" behaviors students typically suggest when they ask for "extra credit" opportunities? Well, we've built in a means by which you can address this issue and still accomplish your intentions of getting students to better understand your originally assigned materials! If you would like to incentivize tutoring or self-assessing on each topic, you will want to set the system to give bonus points for tutoring and/or self quizzing. To do this, navigate to the "Bonus Options" screen by selecting the "Bonuses" option from the "Group Parameters" menu:  

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This screen offers two on/off options for you (Tutoring Bonuses and Quiz Bonuses), and you may set either or both to "On" or "Off." We'll discuss each in turn, but recognize that there is a degree of overlap in how parameters are set and saved, if not how they function.

Setting Bonus Points for Tutoring:

The first option, "Tutoring Bonuses," is for offering bonus points if a student uses the tutor mode while studying topics throughout a chapter. When you set this option to "On" you first see a feedback screen which briefly explains what you have done and what you still need to do:

 

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Of course nothing is registered with the server yet, even though you have selected to turn Tutoring Bonuses "On." Before registering with the server, you should also attend to the parameter settings to make sure they are values with which you are satisfied. There are actually two "point" systems at work when bonus is on:

1. One point system is the percentage of correct answers on certification tests and feedback given on multi-part questions in tutoring or self-assessment. In the case of Chapter Certification Tests, these percentage of correct answers are the "scores" reported to instructors for grade calculations.

2. The second "point system" is a "credit reward" system that is totally separate from percentage of correct answers points, and there is no direct translation between the two systems. The credit reward system offers points for doing the tutorial and self-assess activities that should have a direct impact, as well as an extra-credit indirect impact, on grades. The direct impact is from the acquisition effects of studying more. The indirect impact is via the "reward points" earned for putting in this particular type of effort. However, the impact of points earned as "Reward Credits" is through their weighted addition to the testing percentage scores.

To determine what the "Reward Credit" points' impact should be on percentage test scores earned, instructors may set an arbitrary point value for each type of question successfully answered in tutoring as well as the proportional impact these will have collectively on test scores. We default to more points for fill-blank questions (20 extra points) than multiple choice (10 extra points) because recall is typically more demanding of students than recognition, even when students are highly prompted. Students receive a "total bonus score" by tutoring through a topic based on how many, and what type of, questions they encounter. Accumulating points are earned for correctly answering an appropriate type of question on each "frame/segment" of presented text based on the student's current "adaptive tutorial" levels. Total points earned on each topic are maintained as a "running average" across all topics within a chapter, with non-tutored topics adding a "zero" into the average for each such topic. A student earns the number of points you set in the parameters field for getting a specific format of question correct and 0 points for getting it wrong. All such points earned for each topic is summed and divided by the total number of topics presented.

We have a proportional algorithm which translates these accumulating averaged points into varying impacts on final test scores based on the assumption that lower test scores should be more impacted than higher scores, with no extra points ever moving a student beyond 100 points for a chapter. You can use the "slider" to adjust this algorithm's effects, but, again, it never gives a student more than "100" on any given existing test score:

 

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Students may see this "impact matrix" via their "margin service menu" in their textbook, and it reflects the settings you have established. Students will also see the points they get both from testing and from rewarded efforts, as well as the total points earned in combination, when they check their scores in the Certification screen. Once you have set the scores and weighting system to your desired setting, don't forget to use the "Accept for my Group" button to register them:

 

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This "registration" is required if you wish to set the values before you displace them to set the "Bonus Quiz" values, should you decide to also use this system, and it is to this topic that we now turn.

Setting Points for a Bonus Quiz:

To work with Bonus Quiz settings, you should first turn the Bonus Quiz system "On," which immediately brings you a feedback screen illustrated below:

 

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Acknowledging this feedback will hide it and reveal all of the parametric settings available for establishing the rules for how a Bonus Quiz will be constructed and how its points will count toward the "percentage correct" point system described above:

 

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A Bonus Quiz is a bit different from the self-assessment (Assess Mode) options in the textbook. Self assessment allows students to self-select for as many, or few, of any and all types of questions for a score that doesn't really count in any way other than offering feedback to the student as to how well s/he is doing in learning a topic. A Bonus Quiz guarantees that at least one (how many of each type is a parameter for you to set--see the upper right of the illustration) of each type of question for each associated frame/segment of text used for tutoring is included. Thus every segment at every possible tutoring level is covered with an appropriate type of question when a Bonus Quiz is composed. As with all testing in MediaMatrix, this composition is still "adaptive" in that the selection of questions is also influenced by the student's individual history with questions from this topic. Because bonus quizes test a topic as thoroughly as one would want, as opposed to tutoring which allows a student to test only on selected "levels" of tutorial skill, bonus quizes count double the total value of tutoring bonus points. We justify this because the item "sample" is so much more reliable a measure of what the student really has learned.

As with the Tutoring Bonus system, each Bonus Quiz on a topic is maintained as a running average for the entire set of topics within a chapter. Thus taking a Bonus Quiz only on a few topics will add extra credit points, but those points are diluted by the zeros of all topics not quizzed. And, as with the Tutoring Bonus, Bonus Quiz points earned must be translated into their impact on Test Scores using the slider scale.

IMPORTANT NOTE: When both bonus reward systems are turned "On," and students engage in both tutoring and bonus-quizzing, the highest averaged points acquired via one behavior or the other are used, not both. That is, if bonus quizes result in a higher average than bonus tutoring, then only the bonus quiz scores are used, and vice-versa. Further, if you chose to activate the option (clearly labeled on the Bonus Quiz Parameters panel), you may allow a bonus quiz average of 100 to "exempt" this student from subsequent "Chapter Certification Testing."

As with the Bonus Tutoring Parameters, Bonus Quiz parameter settings must also be registered using the "Accept as Group Set" button before submitting all such settings to the server.

Final Registration of Both Tutor and Bonus Quiz Settings:

If you have turned both the Tutor and Quiz bonus systems on, you will have registered them "locally" by use of the "Accept as Group Set" button for each set of parameters you established. Of course, if either one of these bonus systems is "Off," no such "local" registration of parameter settings is required. But now you need to submit your settings to the server for them to take effect. This is equivalent to "saving" a file on your computer. To register settings with the server, use the green "Register Bonus Instructions" at the lower right of your screen (see illustrations above). That completes your registration for the actively selected section (and only for that section) of your course.

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