What is a participation activity in zyBooks?
It is part of the reading. zyBooks says a participation activity (PA) “is usually an animation or learning question, for which a student’s completion is visible to an instructor, and for which any student can get 100% completion just by participating.” For an animation, “steps just need to be viewed.” For a learning question, the answer “must simply be eventually answered correctly, and answers are available to students.”
zyBooks is firm that PAs are not quizzes: “Participation activities are NOT homework problems or quizzes. Nor are PAs supplementary to the text.” Some have a “Show answer” button. zyBooks also hides your old answers on purpose: it “intentionally does not show previous answers to learning questions” so you can redo a section to study.
What is a challenge activity in zyBooks?
The homework part. zyBooks calls a challenge activity (CA) “comparable to traditional homework: Small tasks that give students practice,” and says you must “eventually get a CA right on their own to get points.” Several kinds exist:
- Generated problems. “Some CAs are algorithmically-generated. Some provide solutions if a wrong answer is entered, requiring the student to then answer a different problem.”
- Progressions. These start with an easy problem and increase “in difficulty (usually 3-5 levels) after the student gets a level right.”
- Code-writing challenges in programming books. A beta Socratic AI hint appears “After a learner fails the same level twice,” and it is designed to guide “without pointing to the answer.”
The model solutions are for instructors: zyBooks says “solutions for challenge activities are not available to students.”
| Participation (PA) | Challenge (CA) | Lab (zyLab) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What earns credit | Viewing each animation step; answering each question correctly eventually | Answering each level correctly on your own | Your program’s results; labs “also have the option for manual grading” |
| Points | “Each animation is one point and each question is 1 point” | “Each level is worth one point”; for coding CAs, “passing one test case is 1 point, passing the rest is another point” | — |
| Tries | Unlimited | Unlimited | — |
| Can you see the answer? | Yes, answers are available | No, solutions are instructor-only | Hidden by default; instructors can enable |
| Completion icon | Fills orange with a checkmark | Fills blue with a checkmark | — |
The tries row comes from zyBooks’ Canvas guide: “Students have unlimited attempts on any participation and challenge activities.” We left the lab cells blank where the articles we read don’t give one rule for labs.
How does zyBooks turn activities into points?
By counting points and dividing. zyBooks’ report guide says each section has its own points, and the totals “are percentages, indicating what percent the student completed.” Its example: 70 of 76 participation points is 92.1%. Here is a different made-up assignment worked the same way:
| Illustration | Points available | Points earned by the due date | Percent |
|---|---|---|---|
| Participation: 18 animations and 12 questions | 30 | 27 | 90% |
| Challenge: four progressions with 3 levels each | 12 | 9 | 75% |
How those two percentages become your course grade is your instructor’s choice. zyBooks says instructors usually just upload the “Participation Total, Challenge Total, and Lab Total percents in their gradebooks,” and that it generally recommends “assigning all participation activities before class and all challenge activities after.”
Does redoing a zyBooks activity lower your score?
No. zyBooks says “once an activity’s completion has been recorded, that completion never goes away,” and “Re-attempting activities can never decrease points already achieved.” It also does not give instructors first-try scores for PAs and CAs: “We intentionally don’t provide that data,” because “Fear of being marked down for incorrect answers can be a barrier to learning.”
What happens after a zyBooks due date?
Your work is still saved, but it stops counting. zyBooks says that after the due date “we will still collect activity data, but we will not apply the scores towards the assignment.” If an instructor moves the due date or gives you an extension, “the activity scores will be updated to reflect all activity completed by the new due date.” Only instructors can do that.
There is no built-in late penalty. zyBooks tells instructors who want one to manage it “outside of zyBooks, typically in a learning management system,” and notes that due dates in zyBooks and an LMS “do not synchronize.”
How do zyBooks points reach Canvas?
Automatically on connected assignments. zyBooks says “Anytime they earn a new point, that point will automatically be sent to Canvas,” and that work after the due date “does not count towards the assignment and is not sent to Canvas.” If a score doesn’t arrive, the Assignments tab has a manual submit button. If you never open the zyBooks assignment, zyBooks says the score “will remain a dash even after the due date has passed.”
Why isn’t zyBooks giving me credit?
zyBooks says “In nearly all cases, their activity IS being recorded.” Its checklist:
- Look for the filled-in icon in the activity’s upper right. That is the sign it was recorded.
- Refresh. zyBooks “does NOT auto-refresh,” so a report open in another tab won’t update by itself.
- Check the due date. Work after it is recorded but doesn’t count.
- On weak internet, spinning circles mean the activity hasn’t reached zyBooks yet. Don’t leave the page until checkmarks appear.
- Make sure the zyBook code in the URL matches your instructor’s, and that you are in the right section.
One more thing zyBooks records: for challenge activities it says “We can detect if a student submits a solution from the web,” without saying how.
Where Silent Student fits
We make Silent Student, a desktop app for Mac and Windows from El Dorado Ignition LLC. On zyBooks its general vision agent, not a solver written for zyBooks, follows the zyBooks link in your Canvas course, plays participation animations, answers learning questions and works challenge activities level by level, then reads zyBooks’ completion marks back.
- It does not do zyLabs or code-writing challenges. Labs run your program against tests you can’t see, and the agent has no code-editor support.
- Due dates are firm, so queue a section well before it is due. Activity timestamps are recorded as usual, and nothing is faked or backdated.
- It does not ask for or type your zyBooks password; it uses the Canvas link. Plans are $11.99, $24.99 or $49.99 a month, with no free plan.
zyBooks’ Terms. zyBooks’ Terms of Use, effective November 7, 2025, list among prohibited uses “Using any automated means for making submissions to the Site or Services.” In our reading, that reaches Silent Student. We are not lawyers. Your course policy applies too.
More: Silent Student as a zyBooks solver, and what it skips. zyBooks scores land in Canvas, so the Canvas grade calculator can show what your zyBooks percentages do to the course grade.
Questions people ask
Are zyBooks participation activities graded on correctness?
Only in the sense that a learning question must eventually be answered correctly. zyBooks says any student can get 100% completion on a participation activity just by participating, and the answers are available.
How many attempts do you get on zyBooks challenge activities?
Unlimited. zyBooks says students have unlimited attempts on any participation and challenge activities.
Can students see zyBooks challenge activity solutions?
No. zyBooks says solutions for challenge activities are not available to students. Some generated challenges show a solution after a wrong answer and then give you a new problem.
Does redoing a zyBooks activity lower my score?
No. zyBooks says a recorded completion never goes away and re-attempting can never decrease points already achieved.
Do zyBooks activities count after the due date?
They are recorded but not counted toward the assignment, and they are not sent to Canvas. An extension from your instructor recalculates the score to the new date.
Why is my zyBooks grade not showing in Canvas?
Points are sent each time you earn one before the due date. If a score is missing, use the submit button on the Assignments tab. If you never opened the assignment, the score stays a dash.
Does Silent Student do zyLabs?
No. It works participation and challenge activities, not zyLabs or code-writing challenges. Do coding work yourself.
Sources
All fetched and checked October 20, 2026 unless a line says otherwise.
- About zyBooks (zyBooks Help)
- Students: Getting started (zyBooks Help)
- How do I get points for an assignment (zyBooks Help)
- Downloading activity (score) reports (zyBooks Help)
- How to access zyBooks through Canvas and submit assignments (zyBooks Help)
- Why am I not receiving credit for my work? (zyBooks Help)
- Viewing challenge activity and zyLab solutions (zyBooks Help)
- Why can’t I see my previous answers to the activities? (zyBooks Help)
- Can I give credit for late work? (zyBooks Help)
- Won’t students cheat the system to get points? (zyBooks Help)
- AI hints in Codewriting Challenge Activities (beta) (zyBooks Help)
- zyBooks Terms of Use , effective November 7, 2025
How this guide was made. We read each zyBooks Help article listed above on October 20, 2026 and quote them directly. The points table is a made-up assignment worked with zyBooks’ published rules. We wrote the guide with AI assistance and checked each quote against its source.
Related guides: MyLab Math attempts and partial credit · How Canvas What-If grades work · All guides · zyBooks · Canvas grade calculator
Written by the company that makes Silent Student. Silent Student is not affiliated with or endorsed by zyBooks or Zyante Inc. zyBooks and zyLabs are trademarks of their owners.