During the time period of a course, the redline will travel from the bottom to the top of the points meter. As it travels, the redline will cross each milestone at each milestone's due date.
To create a sense of urgency and encourage students to make regular progress in a course, the Milestone Tracker gives students "bonus points" when they earn enough points to cross a points milestone before the redline, and "penalty points" when they earn enough points to cross a points milestone after the redline.
Note: Calculating bonus and penalty points depends on when an assignment "submitted", not when it is "graded". Some assignments may take several day to grade. This may temporarily generate penalty points or lower bonus points in the Milestone Tracker. However, when the grade is entered into Canvas, it will be counted from when the student originally submitted the assignment and the bonus and penalty be will be recalculated accordingly.
Note: Resubmitting an assignment that results in a higher grade will change the submission date for that assignment. This will move the submission from where it was in bonus and penalty calculations and it will may no longer be counted towards an earlier milestone. This shifts all the other submissions down and may have a huge impact on when a student's total points cross milestones. For example, if a student resubmits a large assignment, that was originally submitted at the beginning of the semester, and the new submission date is at the end of the semester, then it is possible that EVERY milestone would be adjusted from receiving max bonus to max penalty. This could lower the student's grade and would likely be distressing to the student. We recommend that if you intend on resubmitting an assignment, that you do so as close to the original submission date as possible to limit the impact on bonus and penalty calculations.
Bonus Points
Bonus points are used to reward and celebrate students for staying ahead of the redline and earning points ahead of schedule. The earlier a student crosses a milestone before the red line, the larger the bonus points will be (up to the max bonus points for that milestone). Each milestone lists its "potential bonus" under the milestone title in green text in the Milestone Tracker next to a green "clock" icon. As the redline approaches a milestone, the "potential bonus" begins to decrease until it reaches 0 when the redline is equal to the milestone.
"Potential bonus" has no impact on a student's grade. "Potential bonus" is converted to "locked-in bonus" when a student earns enough points to cross a points milestone before the redline crosses it. "Locked-in bonus" is added to the points a students earns from completing assignments when the course grade is computed and bonus can improve a student's final course grade. "Locked-in bonus" is listed in green text in the Milestone tracker next to a green "lock" icon.
Students should maximize bonus points by staying ahead of the red line enough to cross points milestones when "potential bonus" is highest and they can "lock-in" the most bonus points.
Note: Bonus points earned from earlier milestones are NOT added to the points meter and do NOT affect future milestones. In other words, you cannot earn bonus with bonus points.
Note: It is usually best to earn as many points as possible on each assignment. While "sacrificing" an assignment to submit it in time to cross a milestone ahead of the redline might earn more bonus points, losing points on the assignment to get it done early will usually result fewer points overall in the class and lower your grade. The extra points you earn will also make it easier to beat the redline to the next milestone.
Penalty Points
Penalty points are used to discourage students from falling behind the redline and earning points behind schedule. The later a student crosses a milestone after the red line, the larger the penalty points will be (up to the max penalty points for that milestone). If a the redline crosses a points milestone before a student earns enough points to cross that milestone, the milestone lists its "potential penalty" under the milestone title in red text in the Milestone Tracker next to a red "clock" icon. As the redline travels higher above a milestone, the "potential penalty" begins at 0 and increases until it reaches the max penalty for that milestone. Students should aim to "freeze" increasing "potential penalty" by crossing the milestone as soon as possible.
"Potential penalty" has no impact on a student's grade. "Potential penalty" is converted to "locked-in penalty" when a student earns enough points to cross a points milestone after the redline crosses it. "Locked-in penalty" is subtracted from the points a students earns from completing assignments when the course grade is computed and penalty can lower a student's final course grade. "Locked-in penalty " is listed in red text in the Milestone tracker next to a red "lock" icon.
Note: Penalty points earned from earlier milestones are NOT subtracted from the points meter and do NOT affect future milestones.
Note: It is usually best to earn as many points as possible on each assignment. While "sacrificing" an assignment so you don't cross a points milestone and lock in penalty can limit penalty points, the assignment itself will usually add more points overall in the class than the penalty subtracts and improve your grade.
Note: Students can cancel out some of the penalty points they earn by earning bonus on other points milestones. Students should aim to keep a bonus and penalty balance that is as high as possible and avoid a negative balance. This system provides students with some flexibility to recover from difficult personal schedules.
Thoughts about the Milestone Tracker
The Milestone Tracker aims to mimic real-world consequences for performance. In primary, secondary, and higher education, rules for turning in assignments are often rigid. However, in the real world, work is rarely refused if it is a few minutes late, but consistently being late can have a lasting negative impact. Also, in the real world, consistently exceeding expectations can have a lasting positive impact.
Milestone due dates with bonus and penalty points mirrors this reality. Even a few bonus and penalty points can affect a final grade, so it is important to stay ahead of the red line. Students who are hard working and get ahead are rewarded for their efforts, as they will be in real life. Students who procrastinate or have life events that make performance difficult will have the consequence built right into their grade, but they still get a chance to recover from early poor performance.
