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.
February 5, 2015 - In This Issue:
Calendar Check
2015

February 2 - Last day to drop EOC or CTE courses.

February 4 - Last day to add or drop traditional calendar classes.

February 12 - Progress reports posted in the registration system.

February 26 - Progress reports posted in the registration system.
NCVPS Celebrations
Districts and Schools, tell us about your success stories. Let us hear about individual student successes, increased virtual enrollment, outstanding lab facilitators, or virtual support processes that your school or district has in place. We would love to promote these stories.

Click here to tell us about your successes. 
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Current E-lert News
Spring 2015 Updates

Thank You!

 

NCVPS would like to thank North Carolina schools and districts for their tremendous enrollments this semester. We would also like to thank everyone for their patience with our sluggish registration system. We will eventually be integrated into PowerSchool, and that will make the enrollment process much easier for everyone. 

 

We do have some important notes to share. Please have a look:  

 

E-learning Advisor Training

 

Are you new to the role of ELA? If so, we are offering some short training sessions that will provide a basic overview of NCVPS processes, procedures and helpful pointers. We have two sessions scheduled for next week. 

 

Register here. 

 

IEP Phone Conference (Action Required)

 

If a student with an IEP or 504 plan is enrolled in an NCVPS course, it is the responsibility of the local school system to ensure that all requirements of the Individuals with Disabilities Education (IEP) Act and Section 504 are met.  

 

NCVPS will follow all modifications and accommodations documented on the IEP or 504 plan as appropriate. There are some instances in which accommodations listed in the IEP or 504 plan are not conducive to the online environment and may not be provided. In this case, the local school system will be responsible for providing such accommodations in order to help the student to be successful in the online course.

 

When a student enrolls in a NCVPS course, the accommodations or modifications from the IEP or 504 plan are shared via a phone conference between the local school district liaison and the NCVPS Virtual Teacher for the course. No IEP or 504 plans are shared via email.  NCVPS and the school system must discuss the accommodations and modifications in the student's IEP or 504 plan each semester the student enrolls in a NCVPS course.  

 

For more on our IEP guidelines, please follow this link . 

 

ELA Contact Information (Action Required) 

 

Does your school have students enrolled with us?  We must have contact information for someone at the school.  This can be the advisor, lab facilitator, assistant principal, etc.  

 

 This link shows how to update your contact information.  

 

District advisors, if you run an enrollment report, you can see the ELA contact information for your schools.  Please ensure that each school has up-to-date contact information.

 

 This link shows how to run an enrollment report.  

 

You can also find school contact information in the grade reports.

 

Enrollment Options

 

We have passed our late add date to register students. We cannot enroll students who are new a course, but we do have these enrollment options:

 

1. OCS - We cannot create new OCS sections, but schools may add students to their already established NCVPS OCS sections throughout the semester. You may enroll into your existing OCS sections in the NCVPS registration system.

 

2. Credit Recovery - Schools may enroll students in credit recovery until April 17 as long as seats are available in the course. You can enroll into credit recovery sections in our registration system.

 

3. Transfer Students - NCVPS is now accepting transfer students. Transfer students must already be enrolled in the face-2-face version of the course, have seat time in front of an instructor, and have a grade to transfer in with. Students new to the course cannot transfer in.  NCVPS will accept transfer through April 17, 2015. Open a ticket with the virtual support center to get started on the transfer process.

 

4. Health - Enrollment for the 2nd 9-weeks health courses is still open. You may register for the health sections in the registration system.
Happy National School Counseling Week!

Feb. 2 - 6 is National School Counseling Week, and we would like to send a BIG shout out to all the school counselors in North Carolina. We certainly can't do what we do without you, and your students wouldn't enjoy their same levels of success without you!

 

Thank you for everything you do!
Chromebook Issues
silver-keyboard2.jpg

NCVPS leadership would like to remind school-based technologists that Chromebooks are not on our list of supported hardware specifications.  Students will struggle to successfully complete NCVPS courses with a Chromebook as their primary technology resource.  The collaborative tools, java content, pull down menus and submission of assessments can all be problematic and/or non-functional in NCVPS courses.


While we realize it can be a challenge for districts to supply technology resources for students, allowing students to attempt their coursework on a Chromebook will have a major impact on student success. This negative impact is seen by NCVPS on a regular basis.

Please take a look at NCVPS technology requirements (see below) to gain further information on system resources students will need to be successful in NCVPS courses.  
Tech Updates

We had another record breaking week with almost 900 tickets coming across the help desk. We thank you for your patience during this busy time. 

 

Below are some tips and reminders to help you have a wonderful school year!


Opening a Ticket

 

When opening a ticket with the virtual support center, please always include the following:

  • Students first & last name
  • ID number (This will help to insure we have the correct student)
  • Course name - including specific section ex: CourseSec01Spring15.
Replying to a Support Center Ticket

Reply back to a ticket by clicking on the link provided at the bottom of a help reply email will keep all students information secure and will attach your information directly to the ticket. 


See image: http://screencast.com/t/ZdciZ55coU4
 

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.
 

Student Email Confirmations in Moodle and Blackboard

If a student's e-mail is missing or shows pleaseadd@ncvps - the student will not receive important e-mails from their teachers.
Please have students confirm/update their email information by following these steps:


In Moodle: 

  • Navigate to Administration
  • My Profile settings
  • Edit Profile
  • Verify or update e-mail
  • Scroll to bottom and "Update Profile"

In Blackboard: 

  • Click on students name in the upper right side of your BB course
  • Click on setting
  • Click on Personal Information
  • Click on Edit Personal Information to update e-mail
  • Scroll to bottom and Submit 

Bookmark NCVPS Login Pages

 

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 and Blackboard. Please have students and lab facilitators bookmark the following pages:

 

Moodle: http://moodle.ncvps.org/

 

Blackboard:  https://ncvps.blackboard.com/ 

 

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:

 

Registration System: http://registration.ncvps.org/ncvps/user/login/ 

 

Virtual Support Center: http://www.help.ncvps.org/ 

 

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 in your email account to access the new password or click "Forgot Password" on the Moodle or Blackboard login pages.
Tech Requirements 

For additional information please see our Tech Requirements:
http://www.ncvps.org/index.php/technology-requirements/  

Approved eLearning Courses for NC
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.  

Vendor 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) 
  • AP FrenchMiddlebury - Interactive Languages
  • Biology - Apex Learning 
  • Biology - OdysseyWare
NCVPS Professional Learning

Shattering the Myths of Online and Blended Learning, a 6 Week, facilitator-led, professional learning course, is now available through North Carolina Virtual Public School. 

  

Have you ever questioned the relevance and rigor of online and blended courses in comparison to brick-and-mortar courses? Do you believe that online courses create an environment where learners simply read content and click "next"? Do you believe that online courses produce an environment where relationships cannot be developed and connected to the learning?  Then, you will not want to miss out on this learning experience. 

 

Join North Carolina Virtual Public School as we shatter nine myths of online and blended learning, in this newly launched 6-week professional learning course. 

 

The cost is $165.00/individual. 

 

For registration details, visit http://www.ncvps.org/index.php/ncvps-professional-learning/. 

 

Contact Don Lourcey for questions or comments: [email protected]
 
Middle School Art Adventures

NCVPS is pleased to announce that it will offer an arts course specifically designed for middle school students in the Spring 2015 semester. Please check out our Middle School Art Adventures course below!

(click image for larger view)


See more details about the Middle School Art Adventures course here.

 

View our full course catalog here. 
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  |