Faculty Forum

Abstract

The extra credit exercise (ECE)—a nonpunitive pop quiz—is a useful adjunct to the traditional lecture-style course. The ECE potentially encourages class attendance, fosters preclass preparation, gives students (and instructors) feedback on their learning (and teaching) of the course material, provides students with test-type questions, perhaps reduces test anxiety, and gives students extra credit toward their final point totals. In addition, students often find ECEs a desirable feature of the course, something that is almost never true of the traditional pop quiz.