EdgeEX — Customizing courses: Creating an Additional Activities grade weight activity

Use this article to learn how to add an activity in the Additional Activities grade weight category. This category gives educator-created work a dedicated place in weighted grading.

For information about how course customization works in general, reference EdgeEX — Customizing courses overview.

In EdgeEX there is no separate Additional Activity entry point for entering an outside or external score, such as a whole-class assignment like a field trip or a transfer grade. Any score that should count in the Additional Activities category must come from an educator-created activity added through course customization. (This is different from the Edgenuity workflow, where educators can enter an Additional Activity from View Courses.)

Additional Activities is an EdgeEX grade weight category for scores from educator-created activities built through course customization. It gives educator-authored activities a dedicated place in weighted course grading instead of requiring those scores to be tracked outside the gradebook or placed in an unrelated curriculum category.

The category is distinct from curriculum-authored content, which uses EdgeEX native categories such as Assignment, Exam, Essay, Instruction, Lab, Lab Report, Performance Task, Practice Assessment, Project, Quiz, Short Writing, Speaking Activity, Speaking and Writing Assessment, and Test.

When the category is enabled and assigned a weight above 0%, graded educator-created activities contribute to Overall, Actual, and Relative course grades. A 0% weight excludes the category from grade calculation, and an unscored item is excluded until it is graded.

Frequently asked questions

Adding an Additional Activities grade weight activity

1. Access the Customization Editor for one of the following:
   • Course in the District Catalog
   • Course in the School Catalog
   • Section
   • Enrollment
2. On the left navigation, select the Lesson that you would like to add an activity to.
   
3. At the top-right of the list of activities, the Add Activity button displays. Click it.
   
4. From the drop-down list that displays, click Create New Activity.
   

5. The page displays. Input the following information, then click Next.
   

   Note

   All fields except Activity Description are required.

   Field	Action
   Title	Input the activity title. This title will be visible to educators and students.
   Activity Description	Input a description of the activity. You can use this description to help locate the activity in the library later.
   Grade Weight Category	Select the Additional Activities grade weight. This action determines the grade weight category of the activity; it does not impact the activity template on the Activity page.
   Counted Toward Course Grade	Keep the toggle set to Yes to have the activity count toward the student's grade.
   Completion Time	Input the estimated time the activity should be completed in.

6. The Activity page opens to the Edit tab. Author your activity.
   

   Field	Action
   Response mode	Select one of the following free response activity types: Write: Student will complete a written activity (in Edgenuity courses, this activity is a Writing Prompt). Upload: Student will upload their response (in Edgenuity courses, this activity is a Project). Record: Student will complete a speaking activity.
   Prompt	Written responses For written responses, input a prompt.  You can upload or link to files. Within the prompt box, click the link icon to link to a web page or upload a document for students to view. Click the Upload tab to upload a file. Upload responses For upload responses, the prompt is prefilled, but you can edit it. You'll also need to select from some additional choices: Supported file types: Click the arrow to view supported file types. The most common are preselected, but you can remove or add file types as desired. Maximum number of files: Toggle to increase or decrease the maximum number of allowable files to upload. Student view settings: Allow students to capture photos or upload using Google Drive, or both.
   Minimum word limit	For written responses, input a minimum word limit.
   Customize formatting options (for student player)	For written responses, you can customize formatting options for the student player by selecting or deselecting toolbar options, controls, equation editor, and special characters.
   Scoring guidance	Input scoring guidance.  This is optional, however for AI-generated suggested comments to display during grading, you must input scoring guidance or a scoring resource.
   Scoring resources	Upload scoring resources, such as rubrics. This is optional, however for AI-generated suggested comments to display during grading, you must input a scoring resource or manually input scoring guidance in the previous field.

    Note

   Use the Preview tab to see how students will view your activity. Use the Sample Response tab to input an optional sample response.
   

7. At the top of the page, click Save.
8. A sample of the newly created activity displays. Click Publish, or click Edit to continue working on the activity.
   
9. On the pop-up window that displays, click Confirm.
   
10. The new activity displays in the list of activities for the lesson. 
    You can hover over the button to the left of the custom activity title to view who created it and when. If desired, you can move the activity within the lesson by clicking and dragging it. You can also delete it by clicking the trash icon.
11. Once you have made all the desired customizations, at the top-right of the page, click Publish. 
    
12. On the Apply Customizations window, click through the workflow to review your new activity and its impacts. On the Review Grade Weights screen, the Additional Activities grade weight category displays. Review the grade weights and update them if necessary. Then click Save Customizations.
    
13. On the success window that displays, click Done.