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. If you are having difficulty viewing this email, you may view it as a web page here.
NCVPS E-lert for Dec. 15, 2016 - Fall Edition XV
CalendarCheckCalendar Check
Fall 2016

End Dates
Early Calendar: Dec. 16
Early Grades: Dec. 21
Traditional Calendar: Jan. 13
Traditional Grades: Jan 19

Spring 2017

Start Dates 
Early Calendar: Jan. 4
Traditional Calendar:  Jan. 23

Day 3 No-Show Report
Early Calendar:  Jan. 9
Traditional Calendar: Jan. 26

*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: Jan. 13
Traditional Calendar: Feb. 1

*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: Jan. 18
Traditional Calendar: Feb. 3

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

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Current E-lert News
Greetings!
Early calendar courses end Friday. Check out the details below on how to ask for course extensions, how to best close out the semester, and tips for spring.

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 .
EndSemTipsEnd of Semester Tips and Reminders
Early calendar courses end on Friday, Dec. 16. Grades will be posted on Wednesday, Dec. 21. 

Be sure to check our webpage End of Semester Tips and Reminders at this link. See the end of semester timeline, testing information, grade reporting, extension requests, and more.  

Please note that if you are an early calendar school, you also may have students enrolled in traditional calendar courses with NCVPS. Those classes end on January 13, 2017.  However, if students have already made arrangements with their instructors, they can finish in December. Contact the students' instructors if you have questions about this.
CourseExtensionsCourse Extensions
We've started receiving requests for course extensions.  The only course extension requests we are accepting at this time are for Early Calendar courses.

It is too early for us to make course extension decisions about traditional block courses.  The semester ends on December 16th for Early Calendar courses and January 13th for traditional/block courses.

Instructional Directors can start granting extensions on now for Early Calendar and January 6th for traditional and block courses.  The reason for this is there is still a lot of time left for students to work, and extensions are for those students who need just a little more time to finish the course.

If large portions of the course are missing, an extension won't help the student.  The student will need to be re-enrolled for spring courses.

Of course, we will work with student situations as we get closer to the end of the semester.  We want our students to be successful.  What we need now is for the student to begin to work steadily and make progress in the course.

Please submit an extension request through the Help Desk now for Early Calendar courses and January 6th for traditional and block courses.

FallUpdatesFall 2016 Updates
CurrentPostedGrades What Grades Are Currently Posted?

December 1: A progress report has been posted in the NCVPS registration system for early and traditional  calendar courses. 

What's Next on the Schedule? 

December 21: Final grades for early calendar courses will be posted in the registration system. See details on the final grade report here.

December 21: Progress reports for traditional calendar courses will be posted in the registration system.


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

SpringUpdatesSpring 2017 Updates
Registration is still open for spring courses. We will continue to register until Feb. 3, which is our tenth day of class.

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 waitlists is  if an already enrolled student drops the course.


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!

Start Dates 
Early Calendar: January 4
Traditional Calendar: January 23

Day 3 Status Report
Early Calendar: Jan. 9
Traditional Calendar: Jan. 26

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

Day 7 Status Report
Early Calendar: Jan. 13
Traditional Calendar: Feb. 1

*Be sure to check the Day 3 and Day 7 reports to determine 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: Jan. 18
Traditional Calendar: Feb. 3

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. 


Coming soon!


Coming soon!


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


Parents and facilitators can now download the  CanvasParent  app in both the  iTunes and   Google Play stores.
Parents and facilitators will need student login information to set up their parent accounts. This will have to come from the school. NCVPS cannot supply login credentials to parents or facilitators. Check with your school's e-learning advisor (ELA). 

The  Canvas Parent  app is designed to provide visibility into a student's progress at a glance.  Canvas Parent allows both parents and facilitators to:
  • View assignment descriptions and due dates
  • Set reminders for assignments
  • View assignment grades
  • View course grades
  • Set grade alerts
  • View course announcements
Here are several helpful links:




Parents and facilitators can also use the Parent Portal online.  Directions on how to use the portal are here

OnlineSuccessTips
NCVPS teachers have a lot of great tips to share with online students and the support crews who facilitate their learning. "They know a thing or two because they've seen a thing or two."




Are you aware that NCVPS offers course extensions at the end of the semester? We have two types of extensions. The first is a one or two-day extension. This is granted for technical reasons that were beyond the student's control. The school may have had a scheduling conflict in the lab or the internet was out. Reach out to the NCVPS teacher directly for this short extension.

Our second type of extension is for medical hardships are for difficult life events that the student has faced. These extensions are for up to two weeks. The course extension has to begin at the school level. If you think that the student would benefit from a course extension, have the school principal go to  www.help.ncvps.org  and complete a virtual support center ticket requesting the extension. Read more about  NCVPS course extensions here .
NCFETEstingNCFE Testing Update
Please remember that districts and charter schools must test  all students enrolled in NCVPS courses that have a North Carolina Final Exam. This includes OCS courses that are taught jointly between the LEA and NCVPS.

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 check your rosters to see if you have students enrolled in these courses with NCVPS. You will need to administer the NCFE test to them. You do not need to report the scores back to NCVPS, but you will need it to determine the final grade for students in those courses. 

DPI's Accountability Services will communicate with districts and charters about the testing windows.  

RepordcardUpdateNCVPS Report Card Update
Beginning Fall 2016, NCVPS will no longer report two grading period averages for students. Instead, NCVPS will report cumulative progress reports every two weeks. At the end of the semester, we will report a Final Course Work grade. 

In the past, our weighted grades for report cards looked like this:

First Grading Period: 37.5%
Second Grading Period: 37.5%
Final Exam/Project: 25%
*Schools administered EOC and CTE Exams and averaged in those scores with our two grading period averages.

Now, our weighted grades will look like this:

Final Course Work Grade: 75%
Final Exam/Project: 25%
*Schools now administer EOC, NCFE, and CTE Exams and average in those scores with our Final Course Work grade. 

As always, schools may recalculate grades if the district policy has different weights for the final exams.

NOTE: NCVPS progress report grades are not weighted grades. Therefore, our progress report grades would not be accurate for schools to use when they are generating their weighted Quarter 1 and Quarter 2 or Midterm and End term (or whatever variation a district might use) report card grades. The school's final averages and NCVPS's final course work grade will not match each other when districts do this.
 
A number of districts are only entering NCVPS grades at the end of the term. Districts use a similar method when students take courses at the local community college. These districts are sending home separate NCVPS progress reports when they mail home progress reports, Quarter 1, or Midterm grades.  
 
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.


Students are able to open a help ticket with our Virtual Support Center when they are logged into Canvas.



When "Page Not Found" appears users should open a Virtual Support tickets by clicking on the ? Help button then clicking on "Enter a NCVPS Help Desk Ticket."

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 111.

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 23.0.0.207

 
Many students visit our homepage to log in to their courses. It is a best practice to bookmark the actual login pages for Canvas. Please have students and lab facilitators bookmark the following page:   https://ncvps.instructure.com/login/canvas/  

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

Advanced Functions & Modeling -  Apex Learning
ELA Grade 7 -  Founders Education
ELA Grade 8 -  Founders Education
Intermediate Business & Marketing -  Apex Learning
Science Grade 7 -  Founders Education
Science Grade 8 -  Founders Education
Social Studies Grade 7 -  Founders Education
Social Studies Grade 8 -  Founders Education
PE Grade 6 -  Founders Education
PE Grade 7 -  Founders Education
PE Grade 8 -  Founders Education
PE for High School -  Founders Education
Health Grade 8 - Founders 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  |