Extra Credit, How do I Do?

The extra credit exercises are ways you can expand your learning. There's no grading just like in the real world they are just ideas for things you can learn about on your own.

Stuart Cowley Thanks for the feedback and insight. James Barnett is exactly right. Extra credit is meant to help expand your learning. To push students to explore possibilities that may not be easily testable.

We use lots of gray on the site as a base color for our designs (if you hadn't noticed :) and try to reserve color for elements that either wouldn't work without color (i.e. avatars, videos), or where the color has significant meaning (i.e. topic colors, moderator tags in the forum, quiz question right/wrong tally) or for actionable items (i.e. buttons, hyperlinks).

Extra Credit doesn't really fall neatly into any of these categories. It's definitely not a primary element on the video pages (in that it's "optional") and it's also not really actionable in any way. It's optional, and mainly there to encourage students to take a step out and explore new ideas.

I'll pitch this question to the rest of the designers for discussion, but that's some of the reasoning that went into why we designed it the way we did.

I think your answer is quite appreciated Jeremy Jantz but I think the real question issue is this. It looks like the module is incomplete. It's shouldn't be listed as an "excercise" or a "step" in the completion of the project unless there is an actionable way to test the credit. And so far I haven't found one.

I, too, get excited about earning that green check mark when completing a step. When I saw the first Extra Credit "assignment" I thought I'd earn a colored icon as referenced by Jeremy Jantz. Alas, that was not the case. I understand that it's optional, but as with any student, it'd be nice to know there's an incentive to do the work required in earning the extra credit.

Then make it a lightbulb instead of a star for god sake! It's so frustrating not to be able to check that star in green. And make an easier indication that, even though it's part of the session, it is still a stand-alone objective. Just a bolder border or someting like that or some extra spacing.

Peace :)

I had to Google extra credit as I it appears to be something that you can do and so be awarded for. It turns out this is not the case and it's just a tip.

PLEASE make this clearer by changing the styling of the extra credit or by renaming it to something else. Calling it a credit combined with current styling makes it appear something it's not.

Improving this this would mean less forum posts like this and less wasted time by new members searching for info.

I too was pretty confused by this, and had to use Google to (thankfully) find this forum post. I love the design of the site, but this is truly a tad confusing.

Just spent ages trying to figure out how to complete the extra credit step, then found out you cant after reading above, at least I know now wish I had known sooner though lol

I too was under the impression that Extra Credits is some sort of task or badge and desperately clicked on its icon :))

Maybe the icon should be replaced with some sort of "info" sign and a clearer description that this is not interactive, but a side task for you to research on your own.

Cheers, Ciprian

I found this page via a Google search as well. It really should be presented differently. Maybe "Extra Practice" instead of "Extra Credit."

I believe that the term "Extra Credit" and the star in a circle icon are misleading, especially when given the point-based scoring system at Treehouse.

It looks exactly like the rest of the icons that you can click on... It does make you think there is more to do than is reality.

Like everybody else, i was confused by this "extra credit". What do you think about rename this stuff? May be "idea to self study" or something like that.

I really enjoy the website, the courses, the global design and all the stuff. However, and like everybody else, i was confused by this "extra credit" too. Maybe there are some good ideas in this forum to fix it. (Sorry for my english, i'm just a frenchy..) Thanks!

Maybe yellow. The extra credits uses a star as an icon anyway. It should catch the attention of the user.

I was also mousing around in an attempt to complete the Extra Credit. I feel as if I'd know it was extracurricular if the icon was removed and the text emphasized. But I also, feel like I'm in the club now. So, if someone were to ask about it, I would know that it's just text. However, I would tell them that in order to unlock the Extra Credit they need to comment on 32 threads in the Forum.

Another one here hunting around trying to figure out how to unlock the green after doing the extra credit. I think it would be cool to get extra credit but if not maybe a hover state for the design saying that there is no way to actually receive extra credit or something.

Ditto, did the extra credit and couldn't figure out how to upload it. Googled and found this page

The UX is definitely misleading. Please change the grayed out star! It feels that i haven't completed something!

Still misled one year on!

Agreed. Misleading. Should change.

For users with an organization account, an easy solution would be for an administrator to award extra credit manually. Many 'extra credit' assignments are about independent research rather than completion of a task. An admin of a group account would then be able to review that person's write-up, research, or report outside of Treehouse and approve the extra credit within Treehouse.

In this sense, extra credit can provide an easy way to:

• Review and touch base about a particular topic with the individual to see if they truly understand the material
• Provide feature/value to a group accounts
• Make the Treehouse account the hero that keeps tally of the score.