Extra credit can be an overused classroom tool. As a learner, I always viewed extra credit as teachers bribing students to work for points instead of cash. And as a new teacher, I thought the same and acted accordingly. We've all done it! You need something from your class—a survey to be completed, an event to be attended. Or maybe the students underperformed on the midterm, and you’re looking for ways to boost their grades. In all these scenarios, the go-to method seems to be offering extra credit. But is incentivized manipulation the intended purpose of extra credit?