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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.
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NCVPS E-lert for January 6, 2016 - Winter Edition 1
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2015 - 2016
Dec. 11:
End of early calendar courses.
Dec. 15: Progress reports posted in the registration system.
Dec. 17: Final grades for early calendar courses posted in the registration system.
Dec. 17: Progress reports posted for traditional calendar courses.
Jan. 5: Early calendar Spring 2016 semester beings.
Jan. 8: End of Fall 2015 traditional calendar courses.
Jan. 14. Final grades for Fall 2015 traditional calendar courses posted in the registration system.
Jan. 19: Traditional calendar Spring 2016 semester begins.
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 Greetings, North Carolina districts and schools!
Check out the updates in this week's e-lert:
New 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
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 Closing Out the Fall Semester |
 Fall 2015 is coming to a close. Our early calendar courses ended in December, and our traditional calendar courses end Friday.
Important Dates
Dec. 17, 2015: Early Calendar Fall 2015 Final Grades Posted in the Registration System
Jan. 8, 2016: Traditional Calendar Fall 2015 Courses End
Jan. 14, 2016: Traditional Calendar Fall 2015 Final Grades Posted in the Registration System
Tips and Reminders
We have some tips and reminders for you to help successfully close out the Fall 2015 semester with NCVPS.
- Student Access to Courses
- EOC and CTE Testing
- Grade Reporting & Transcripts
- Middle School Reporting
- Transcript Records for the NCAA
- Grade Questions
- Course Extensions
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| Spring 2016 Semester Updates |
Early calendar courses for Spring 2016 are underway, and Spring 2016 traditional calendar classes are about to begin soon.
Important Dates
Jan. 5: Early Calendar Classes Begin
Jan. 8: Day 3 Status Report for Early Calendar
Posted in the Registration System
Jan. 17: Day 7 Status Report for Early Calendar Posted in the
Registration System
Jan. 19: Traditional Calendar Classes Begin
Jan. 19: Last Day to Enroll and Drop for Early Calendar Classes
Jan. 22: Day 3 Status Report for Traditional Calendar Posted in the
Registration System
Jan. 28: Day 7
Status Report for Traditional Calendar Posted in the
Registration System
Getting Started for Schools
If you are new to the e-Learning advisor role or if it has been awhile since you registered students with us, please visit our Getting Started for Schools web page. You will find valuable insights and tips for registering and having a successful e-learning program at your school.
Getting Started for Students
Courses Nearing Capacity
Please note that we have a number of closed early calendar courses for Spring 2016. We are converting those courses to Canvas (from Blackboard and Moodle), and they will not be ready for the early calendar opening. Early calendar students affected by this can be enrolled in our traditional calendar courses. Have the students notify their instructors that they are at an early calendar school and need to finish the course early. Our spring-semester traditional calendar courses end on May 20, 2016, so this is not a problem.
We have a few courses on our traditional calendar that are approaching capacity for Spring 2016. Courses that are "At Capacity" will not have any new sections opened. The only way that students will move off the waitlist is if a student who is already enrolled in the course drops.
See this list of courses that are at or near capacity
Student Status Reports
Be sure to check the registration system for our no-show reports. We post these immediately after Day 3 and Day 7 of class. The student status reports give ELAs an early warning about students who have not logged in to their courses yet.
If students are listed as a "no-show" be sure to reach out to those students to make sure that they have access and can get started. If you know the student isn't going to take the course, please go ahead and drop that student in our registration system.
Enrollment Reports
Funding
If your district uses its total allotments for NCVPS, the district coordinator can request access to our reserve funds. Here's the link for that request. Using our reserve funds will not cost your district or charter school anything this year; although, you will likely see an increase in your allotment totals in next year's budget.
Notes from Tech for Spring 2016
Student Login Check
We encourage students to confirm their login information before classes start. Students can first access their courses the weekend before classes begin.
Note that students will have to be enrolled into the course for their logins to work. After a student is enrolled, it usually takes 24 hours for their logins to work.
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".
Course Issues
When requesting help regarding a course it always easier for tech support to respond quickly if we have the specific section name, for example:
CourseSec01Spring16.
Help Desk Ticketing Tips
When opening a Help Desk ticket please always include the following:
-Students first & last name
-ID number
-Course enrolled
This will help to insure we have the correct student.
Student Email Confirmations in Moodle and Blackboard
Please have students confirm/update their e-mail. Here's how to do that:
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 if it's incorrect.
Scroll to bottom and Submit
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.
Student Logins:
Students, are you having difficulty locating your class?
During the 2016 Spring semester NCVPS will be offering courses in three learning management systems, Canvas, Blackboard and Moodle. If you are unsure which platform your course is being offered in, please see the "Student BB/Moodle/Canvas Login" link below:
Course Spotlights
We have a number of courses that can help expand a school's course catalogue. See if the following options can help your students for spring:
Middle School Courses - We have some great middle school electives. These courses are for middle school credit, and they are a terrific way to introduce middle school students to online learning.
See those courses at this link
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Health and Physical Education - We now have a ½ credit health course, a ½ credit physical education course, and a full-credit health and physical education course. These courses have already helped schools with students who have moved in from out-of-state and are missing some combination of health and PE. Early college campuses are also using these courses to meet their needs for health and PE. Learn more about our health and PE courses at this link
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| Grade Reporting |
What's on the Schedule?
We have two new reports posted in the registration system.
Dec. 17
- Early Calendar Final Grade Report
Jan. 8 - Early Calendar Day 3 Status Reports
Jan. 14 - Traditional Calendar Final Grade Report
Report Details
See the details below for all of our reporting.
Progress Reports
See how your students are progressing! We post progress reports every two weeks in the registration system.
Grade Reports
Our grade reports are weighted grades similar to school report cards.
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 Resources
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| OCS Students and NC Final Exams |
This is a reminder that NCVPS OCS students must participate in the following North Carolina Final Exams (NCFE) this year:
OCS English 1, 3, 4
OCS Am History 1 and 2
For more details, please refer to the DPI memo dated August 20, 2014, that serves as guidance for NC Final Exam requirements for Exceptional Children.
If you have any questions regarding final exam testing for NCVPS OCS students, please contact Sherry Bell at [email protected].
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| Health and PE Enrollment Best Practices |
In the guide, you will find the permission form for students and the list of resources that students will need to take the course.
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| CTE Final State Exam for NCVPS Courses |
All students enrolled in NCVPS CTE courses must take the state final exam. The face-to-face school is responsible for making arrangements for their students to take the state final exam on their school campus. Charter schools who need information on how to administer the state final exam can contact Rhonda Welfare at [email protected] or call her at 919-807-3876.
The following information is provided by NC DPI regarding the state final exam. By legislation, students must test during the last five days (semester), or last ten days (yearlong).
Waiver: The local district CTE Director can complete a testing outside the window application if the student falls into one of the four categories:
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Family Emergency,
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Family Relocation,
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Accommodate IEP, and/or
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Accommodate Section 504 Plan.
Also, students who complete a CTE course before the end of the semester can be tested prior to the end of the semester. The local district CTE Director can contact Rhonda Welfare for additional testing dates.
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| Lab Facilitator's Guide |
Do you have NCVPS students who are working in a facilitated lab at your school?
We have a lab facilitator's guide that
is designed to provide an understanding of the basic processes and procedures that successful online facilitators use to support students.
We reached out to North Carolina public schools and our partner schools in the Virtual Schools Leadership Alliance to pull together the most fundamental elements of facilitating online learning.
Each time we visit a facilitated lab in North Carolina, we see a new process, a new innovation, a or just a new way of thinking in supporting lab students, and we add that to our evolving guide.
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| Visual Arts with NCVPS |
Do you have arts students who need a wider selection of courses?
NCVPS has a great visual arts program that can expand a school's arts catalogue.
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Opening a Ticket with the Virtual Support Center
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 - including specific section, i.e. CourseSec01Spring15.
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.
If students have their correct email addresses in the registration system (this is important for a number of reasons), then they can use the password-reset feature on the Blackboard, Moodle, and Canvas login pages.
JAVA and Flash Updates
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 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:
Tech Requirements
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NCVPS Courses
NCVPS offers over 150 different courses, including advanced placement, electives, traditional, honors, core, STEM, occupational course of study, and credit recovery courses.
 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)
Courses -
Vendor
Biology -
Connections Education
Earth and Environmental Science -
Connections Education
Physical Science -
Connections Education
Health -
Edmentum
Physical Education -
Edmentum
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North Carolina Virtual Public School
1017 Main Campus Drive, Partners I Bldg.,
SUITE 3900, Raleigh, NC 27606
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