Freeform Points – Yellowdig

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Why we don’t recommend it for most courses

What are Freeform Points?

The freeform point system is mostly for open-enrollment courses or co-curricular uses (i.e., non-course communities). There is no weekly limit for how many points a student can earn in the community, and there is no course start or end date (the earning period is continuous). You simply set one earning goal for the entire course, and students can reach that goal at any pace. The grade (if displayed) is calculated as total points earned divided by the total goal for the community.

Common use cases

1) Student Clubs
2) Alumni Groups
3) Courses w/ Rolling Enrollment
4) Special Events

Why we don’t recommended it for most courses

With the freeform points system, if grades are displayed, members see their grade as the percentage of their points out of the total goal. As a result, grades in an LMS gradebook will appear low even when students are on pace to getting a good grade.

Also, without a weekly rollover and maximum, there is no point limiter. This means that, if there is a goal, members can achieve it as quickly as they can collect the points, possibly in a single session. In most communities, this is not ideal, since students won’t be encouraged to participate consistently over time.

For these reasons, we currently recommend the weekly points system rather than the freeform point system for courses with a designated start and end date.

How the Grade is Calculated

Yellowdig Grade = Points Earned / Total Goal

If, for example, you have a Total Goal of 10,000 points and you earned 1,000 points the first week, your grade would show as 10% (1,000 out of the 10,000 Total Goal).

Timeline of freeform point accumulations (per description above)