Hi Kathleen: I think I'm more with your way of thinking. I would add that any graded activity should be available to all students, graded in the same way, and applied to the student's overall grade in the same way. And like you've stated, It's got to be related to the course objectives, student learning outcomes, and any applicable skills. Free points (or points for relatively easy work that produces little original learning) is just wasteful time spent, in my opinion. Regards, Barry