This semester I changed the way I encourage students to communicate with each other on the discussion board. They still get extra credit for writing to each other, but I tightened the criteria to earn points and placed a limit on the points possible.
I also changed how I record the grade data. Last semester I included the points with the grade item for each chapter topic, but this skewed the stats for discussion points. I also felt the need to break out the score for each chapter topic to show each part of the score (original post, replies to others, and replies from others).
This semester I have one grade item for all chapter topic discussion extra credit, and the comments for that only list the total extra credit points for each topic. After the first grading session, it feels more manageable.
It's working well after the first couple of chapters. I had to define carefully the criteria for points. It will be better to award extra credit after the chapter discussion is locked, as it can be tricky to track which student gets the extra points.
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