Districts and Charter Schools,
 
Please forward this E-lert to your school-level stakeholders. We often have enrollment information for counselors, grades for data managers, tips for lab facilitators, announcements for testing coordinators, and strategies for school leaders, all of whom support your district's and school's e-learning efforts.
NCVPS E-lert for August 31, 2016 - Fall Edition III
CalendarCheckCalendar Check
2016

Start Dates 
Early Calendar: Aug. 15
Traditional Calendar:  Aug. 29

Day 3 No-Show Report
Early Calendar:  Aug. 18
Traditional Calendar: Sept. 1

*Find this document in the registration system. It will show which students have not logged in yet. Please contact those students. 

Day 7 No-Show Report
Early Calendar: Aug. 24
Traditional Calendar: Sept. 8

*Find the Day 3 and Day 7 no-show reports in our registration system (click "Reports.") These reports show which students have not logged in. Please contact them to see if they need help or if they need to be dropped.

Last Day to Drop and Add
Early Calendar: Aug. 26
Traditional Calendar: Sept.12

This is the last day districts and schools can drop students with no penalty for the student and no cost for the district or charter.

See our calendar for progress report dates. We post updates every two weeks throughout the semester. 
ReportingOverviewNCVPS Reporting Overview

Progress Reports 
 
See how your students are progressing! We post progress reports every two weeks in the registration system. These are unweighted grades.


Final Grade Report 

Only our final grade report is a weighted grade report. 


Student Status (No-Show) Reports 

NCVPS posts student status reports after the third and seventh days of class. These reports indicate if students have logged in or not to their NCVPS courses. These reports are early warning indicators for schools.


Additional Grade Reporting Resources 
Essential Links








NCVPS Is Hiring Teachers

Celebrate & Connect

Connect with us on Twitter! Find us here. Tweet to us on Twitter at @ncvps or with the hashtag #ncvps.
E-lert Subscription
If you are not on the E-lert subscription list, but would like to be, please add your name to our list here
Current E-lert News
Greetings!
what's new pic
NCVPS classes started August 29. Our registration is open until Sept. 12. 

We have a few courses that are at capacity, so it will be difficult to get into those courses. See the list below.

Here's all the NCVPS news: 

Updated This Week









Important From Last Week!


In addition, be sure to check out all of our tips and reminders in this week's e- lert .
NCFEWebinarNCFE Webinar
The North Carolina Virtual Public School will host two webinars to discuss changes in the North Carolina Final Exams (NCFE) as they pertain to NCVPS courses.

Starting with the 2016-17 school year, all students enrolled in NCVPS courses that administer the NCFE must take the NCFE at their local school. This includes NCVPS Occupational Course of Study courses that are taught jointly between the LEA and NCVPS.  

These twenty-eight courses have NCFEs:
  • English 1, 3, 4
  • American History: Civics, World History, American History 1 and 2
  • Physical Science, Earth/Environmental Science, Chemistry, Physics
  • Math 2, Math 3, Advanced Functions and Modeling, Pre-Calculus
Please forward this message and registration to the EVAAS and/or data personnel in your district.

Join NCVPS and Division of Educator Human Capital Policy and Research to discuss this update and answer questions.

Interested stakeholders should register for one of the follow dates (click the links):



Inquiries can be made to Mia Murphy at mia.murphy@ncpublicschools.gov or 919-513-8550.

Please forward this message to the EVAAS and/or data personnel in your district or charter.
StudentLoginLogin Details for Students
Please remember that schools need to issue usernames and passwords to students. NCVPS does not do this. You can find usernames and passwords in your enrollment report. Here's how to access your enrollment report.   

Students will be able to log in on the first day of class. Students should initially go our Student Login Page here: http://ncvps.org/student-bbmoodle-login

The Student Login Page gives some details about our Canvas learning management system (LMS), and it includes the troubleshooting steps below if they have difficulty logging in. 

The Student Login Page then takes students to their Canvas login, which students should bookmark:   https://ncvps.instructure.com/login/canvas/  .

If students have difficulty logging in, here are their troubleshooting steps:

1. Be sure that you have your correct username and password. Your school will issue you this login information. NCVPS does not issue usernames and passwords.

2. If this is your first time logging in, confirm with your e-learning advisor (ELA) that you are enrolled and not waitlisted.

3. If you were just registered today, it will take 24 hours to get access.

4. If you had an NCVPS class before in Canvas, and you changed your password, then that is the password that you will need to use.

5. If you still cannot log in, open a ticket with our  Virtual Support Center at this link. Be sure to include your name, PowerSchool ID number, school, and course that you're trying to log in to.

6. If you have forgotten your password, use the "Forgot Password" feature on the login page. This will work if you have your correct email address identified in the course settings.
MasteryRollingMastery Learning & Rolling Enrollment
You may have noticed the "Rolling Enrollment" semesters in our registration system. Those are for Mastery Learning courses. Schools and districts do not have access to enroll directly into those courses.




If you would like to enroll students into our Mastery Learning courses, you will need to open a ticket with the Virtual Support Center at this link.

Learn more about our Mastery Learning program at this link
FallUpdatesFall 2016 Updates

Follow this link to our registration system. 

If you need access, contact our  Virtual Support Center herePlease remember that there is only one login per school.  If your school already has access, you will need to share the login username and password.

If you are new to the NCVPS registration system or need a refresher,  the guide at this link will help

Don't panic if your students land the waitlist when you register them. Our instructional directors look at the waitlists daily to determine if a new section needs to be opened or if a current section needs to be expanded.

We do have a few courses operating at capacity, however.   See the list of courses at capacity here.  If a student is waitlisted in a course that is at capacity, the only way the student will move off the waistlist is  if an already enrolled student drops the course.


See our Calendar Check on the sidebar for our important fall dates.



NCVPS is transitioning all of its courses to the Canvas learning management system. Currently, Canvas does not have the functionality to let schools calculate weighted marking period grades.  
 
Starting in Fall 2016, NCVPS will post grades in the NCVPS registration system following our new process:
  • Cumulative progress reports every two weeks.
  • Final class average at the end of term (75%), along with the final exam grade (25%), and final grade.
  • For EOC, CTE, NCFE courses, we report the final classwork grade (75%), and schools calculate in the exam grades (25%).    
The cumulative progress reports are a very accurate indicator of exactly how a student is performing in the course. They are not weighted grades however, so they would not be grades that you would add to PowerSchool report card grades. Many schools will send home a separate NCVPS progress report when they send home report cards throughout the semester. They will record the final NCVPS grade in PowerSchool at the end of the term. It is a local decisions, however, on how to do this. 



Prior to Fall 2016,  NCVPS  students were not required to take NC Final Exams (NCFE) since NCVPS teachers are contractors with no Standard 6 in their evaluations.  While NCVPS did not take NCFEs in the 28 NCFE math, science, English, and social studies subjects, students did complete a final project and/or take an NCVPS Final Exam.

Now, student growth is no longer affiliated with teacher evaluations - a decision by the SBE this Spring.  For this reason, all NCVPS students will take the NCFEs as administered by their schools beginning with the Fall 2016*.  NCVPS will report the final course work grade, and just like EOCs, school districts will administer NCFEs and calculate final averages.


Our Day-7 No-Show reports for early calendar courses is posted in the registration system.  Look for the report with this name:  " Fall 2016 Early Calendar 7-day No Show Report due Aug. 23rd."

The traditional calendar Day-3 No-Show Report will be posted in the NCVPS registration system on Sept. 1.

See our sidebar to find an overview of NCVPS grade reporting. 




NCVPS is excited to announce that parents and guardians can now view their students' progress in our Canvas courses. Observers have limited permissions that allow them to view what is happening in a course without interrupting the flow of daily course communication. You can also download the Canvas Parent App in the iTunes and Android app stores.    

Important Note: Parents will need their students' login information to create their observer access. NCVPS will not be able to supply this information. Parents will need to get these details either from the local school or from their students. For more details,  view our Observer Access web page here





Our full catalogs  are posted here. We have additional updated catalog information below.

In NCVPS's Leadership Development course, students learn all of the skills and values associated with leadership. They will explore group dynamics, project planning, collaboration, and relationship skills. They will also investigate leadership qualities of present-day and historical leaders by identifying and analyzing leadership examples. This course has real-world applications, too. Students will develop personal leadership profiles and plans and leave the course as emerging leaders.  


See what students are saying about the course here!

NCVPS has a new art course and new Advanced History course! Check out the details on our new AP Art History course at this link.


We are happy to announce that we are offering the AP Calculus AB and  BC courses as block courses this year.  We will offer AP Calculus AB in the Fall '16 semester and AP Calculus BC in the Spring '17 semester. We do have a yearlong version of the AB course, but we do not have a yearlong version of the BC course. We are revising the BC course to meet the new College Board standards, and it will be ready in the spring.

Please note that AP Calculus AB is a prerequisite for AP Calculus BC.  Ensure students enrolled in the BC course have met the prerequisite. If your students are meeting that prerequisite with us in the fall, be sure they are enrolled in the fall block AB course.

Also consider that an AB subscore is provided when students take the AP Calculus BC exam. If students choose to take the AP exam, then they will want to register for the AP Calculus BC exam only.


We are in the process of revising our standard and credit recovery Math 1, 2, and 3 courses to reflect the change in standards. The 2016 - 2017 courses will follow the new curriculum. We recognize that the next year will be a transition year. Our teachers will work closely with our district partners to ensure that the transition is complete.


NCVPS will offer the newly developed AP Computer Science course. Read more about this new course at the College Board's website


To align with revised College Board requirements for AP Physics 1 and 2, we are revising the labs in these courses for the 2016-2017 school year. Students will require materials for these hands-on labs.  We will post a list of required materials on our course description page later this summer.


We have a great comprehensive guide for our Health and Physical Education courses.  If you've not seen this resource,  please check out the web page here .

We have recently added a Spanish language version to the page. We hope this helps!
QuickStartTempleteNCVPS Student Quick Start Template
This template is a guide to give to students before classes begin. It has a place for all the essential details to help students get started with their NCVPS courses. 

You will need to fill in some of the details or you can have students come to you and complete the details themselves. You can print the template for students, or you can copy and paste it into an email that you send to students.

Here's the link to the template. Feel free to add your own details!
Tech Updates
ChromebookUpdateChromebook Update
Google Chromebooks are currently supported for NCVPS Courses.

Google Chromebook and Chrome OS are possible options for you to consider to support your learning at NCVPS. While NCVPS learning environments are fully compatible with Google Chromebooks, some third party content within your courses may not yet be updated to meet the requirements set forth within the Chrome Operating System. If you experience an interruption in your learning, please open a help desk ticket at  help.ncvps.com and we will make reasonable accommodations to support your learning experience.

Password Reset

If you have had your password reset, the new password will not expire unless you have reset it. If you have forgotten what your password was reset to, you can look up the help desk ticket to access the new password or click on "Forgot Password". 


When requesting help regarding a course it always easier for tech support to respond quickly if we have the specific section name, for example: 

CourseSec01Sum16


When opening a ticket with the virtual support center, please always include the following:
  • Student's first & last name
  • PowerSchool ID number (This will help ensure we have the correct student)
  • School name (full name, i.e. Eastern Mills High School, not EMHS)
  • Course name - if the student is already enrolled,  include specific section, i.e. CourseSec01Sum16.
If you need a new student account for a student who is new to PowerSchool (not just transferring schools), include the following:
  • Your full school name (i.e. Eastern Mills High School, not EMHS)
  • The student's first and last name
  • The student's PowerSchool ID number
  • The student's email address 
  • The student's phone number (the contact number this will be in PowerSchool) 
  • Does the student have an IEP? Yes/No
  • Does the student have a 504 Plan? Yes/No

Replying to a Support Center Ticket
 
After you submit a ticket to the Virtual Support Center, you will receive a ticket confirmation and resolution via email. To expedite your resolution, please do not reply to the email. The email will have a link in it for your response. Please click on that link (see below). 



This will put the ticket right back in the queue of the person who is working on your ticket. If you reply to the email, then that will have to be manually put into the ticket, and that can delay the process by several hours. 

In Canvas:
Click on "settings" on your name in the upper right side of your course.
Click on "Add Email Address" under Ways to Contact on the right of screen.
Add your correct email if Canvas is not displaying your correct email.  
Click on "Register email."
Click the star next to your correct email address. 

javaflashUpdatesJAVA and Flash Updates

Please update your Java to Version Java 8, Update 91.

Head to http://java.com/en/download/manual.jsp and follow the instructions from there.

Please go to the following link to update Adobe Flash Player to the latest Version 22.0.0.209

Blackboard Instant Messaging (BBIM)
 
Students will need to click on the BBIM link in their class and create an ID and password that they will remember. NCVPS does not issue BBIM logins nor do we store this information.   

 
Many students visit our homepage to log in to their courses. It is a best practice to bookmark the actual login pages for both Moodle and Blackboard. Please have students and lab facilitators bookmark the following pages:



In addition, many school administrators visit our homepage to log in to our registration system or Virtual Support Center. Please bookmark both of these pages in your web browser:


Virtual Support Center:  http://www.help.ncvps.org/ 
 
 
For additional information, please see our Tech Requirements:
http://ncvps.org/technology-requirements 
Course Catalogues
NCVPS Courses
 
NCVPS offers over 150 different courses, including advanced placement, electives, traditional, honors, core, STEM, occupational course of study, and credit recovery courses. 

Check out our 150+ list of courses here

VendorApprovedUpdatesVendor Approved Courses

In addition to NCVPS courses, North Carolina public schools also have a list of approved third-party vendor courses that they may choose from for virtual classes. Please follow this link to see the list of approved vendor courses. More on the vendor approval process can be found here.  

Here are the newest approved vendor courses: 
(Course Title - Vendor) 

Courses -  Vendor

Science Grade K -  Connections Education
Science Grade 1 -  Connections Education
Science Grade 2 -  Connections Education
Science Grade 3 -  Connections Education
Science Grade 4 -  Connections Education
Science Grade 5 -  Connections Education
Science Grade 6 -  Connections Education
Science Grade 7 -  Connections Education
Science Grade 8 -  Connections Education
Social Studies Grade K -  Connections Education
Social Studies Grade 1 -  Connections Education
Social Studies Grade 2 -  Connections Education
Social Studies Grade 3 -  Connections Education
Social Studies Grade 5 -  Connections Education
Social Studies Grade 6 -  Connections Education
Social Studies Grade 7 -  Connections Education
Social Studies Grade 8 -  Connections Education
North Carolina Virtual Public School
1017 Main Campus Drive, Partners I Bldg., 
SUITE 3900, Raleigh, NC 27606
Phone:   919-513-8550    |  Fax:   919-513-2557  |