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.
July 16, 2015 - In This Issue:
Calendar Check
2015

June 15 - Summer Session 2015 starts.

June 19 - Last Day to Enroll for Summer Session

June 26 - Last Day to Drop from Summer Session

August 7 - Summer Session 2015 ends.
Essential Links






Celebrate & Connect

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Current E-lert News
What's New?
what's new picGreetings, North Carolina districts and schools!

Check out this week's important updates:

New This Week








In addition, be sure to check out all of our tips and reminders in this week's e-lert.
CanvasNC DPI Selects Canvas as Its Statewide LMS

You may have already heard that the Department of Public Instruction signed a contract with Instructure's Canvas to be the host of its statewide learning management system (LMS). All districts and charter schools will be able to opt in to Canvas at a greatly discounted rate.

Staff members from NCVPS and several North Carolina districts contributed to the evaluation process. Canvas will move the state forward in its digital future as it integrates with PowerSchool, NC IAM, and NCLOR. The Canvas contract includes implementation, training, course migration, and 24/7 support to any school or district that opts in. 

 
At present, 80 districts have opted in to the service. NCVPS will be migrating its courses into the Canvas LMS, as well. 

 
A number of districts and schools were already using Canvas prior to the statewide adoption including Rockingham, Yadkin, Burke, Edenton-Chowan, Newton-Conover, and the North Carolina School of Science and Math.

 
What can Canvas do for schools? It can do everything from helping teachers flip their classroom, implement blended learning, start BYOD initiatives, and even host professional development.


 


NCVPS will have a phased rollout of all of its courses into Canvas. Here's our schedule:

Pilot Phase 1:  Two Courses by Fall 2015 - Journalism and Chemistry

Phase 2:  40 Courses by Spring 2016 - Course list is TBD

Phase 3:  All courses migrated to Canvas by July 1, 2016


 

Instructure's Canvas in North Carolina
Instructure's Canvas in North Carolina

VirtualOpenHouseNCVPS Virtual Open House
NCVPS is pleased to announce that it is hosting its annual virtual open house. Here are the details:

Date: July 30

Time: 6pm - 7pm

Location: Online (details to follow)

Audience: Parents, Students, Educators, Public School, Home School, Private School

Registration: Follow this link to register.

After you register, we will email you the link to our online classroom.

We look forward to seeing you there!
NCAAThe NCAA Eligibility Center

A number recent high graduates who had taken courses with NCVPS have contact us about their NCAA eligibility. Their colleges are requesting more information about their online courses. When colleges need more information for the NCAA to clear a student, it usually indicates that the NCVPS course was not recorded correctly onto the student's transcript.

 

A transcript should indicate NCVPS courses like this:

 

Math I - NCVPS

Math I CR - NCVPS (for the credit recovery classes)

 

Versions of this are incorrect: 


 

Math I - ONLINE

Math I CR - ONLINE

 

Transcripts may also reflect the course title like this:

 

algebraIsec04spr11 - NCVPS

 

This is how the NCAA needs to see NCVPS courses on student transcripts. This will allow the student to clear the NCAA Eligibility Center.

withdrawWithdrawing Students
June 26 was our last day to drop students without penalty. 

Schools may withdraw students throughout the summer session; however, students withdrawn after June 26 will still count in a district's or charter school's allotment totals. We will issue a W grade for withdrawn students.

If you are unsure how to withdraw students, follow this link to our drop/withdrawal guide
healthpeHealth & PE Course Updates
We are offering three versions of our health and/or physical education courses. These are the course titles that you will find in the registration system:

Health Education: .5 credit 
Fitness-Physical Education: .5 credit 
HPE - Health and Physical Education: 1 credit 

We are piloting the Fitness-Physical Education and HPE - Health and Physical Education courses this fall. They will be available for open registration in the Spring 2016 semester.

If you are interested in piloting the courses this fall, please email Karen Creech at  karen.creech@ncpublicschools.gov
PeerTutoringPeer Tutoring for the Summer Session
Our Peer Tutoring Center (PTC) is back in action this summer! We have veteran teachers, seasoned peer tutors, and a group of new tutors to help your struggling students.

It's easy to get peer tutoring help for your students. Students just need to click the Peer Tutoring Center button in their courses to get help. Our teachers will also recommend PTC help to struggling students. 

Check out our Peer Tutoring Center video here for an overview of the program.
SummerGuide2015 Summer Session Guide

 

Start Date: Monday, June 15

 

Last Day to Register: Friday, June 19

 

Last Day to Drop: Friday, June 26

 

Progress Reports Posted: Weekly

 

End Date: Friday, August 7

 

 

The NCVPS summer session is a fast-paced program that offers both traditional courses and credit recovery courses. An entire 18-week course is taught in just 8 weeks. Students will spend 3-5 hours each day, Monday through Friday, working on their courses, and just like at a traditional school, there is often work over the weekend, too. 

 

Students must have daily access to the internet for the duration of summer school. There are no exceptions made for students who attend camps or go on vacations where they do not have access to the internet.

 

Due to the workload, we recommend that students only take one NCVPS course over the summer, especially if the student has not had an online course before. Students are much more successful in our summer program if they only take one course.

 

Students can work on our courses at any time during the day or night, 24/7. They just need to pay close attention to the due dates for the assignments, tests, and quizzes. Students can also work from any location as long as they have access to their classes for 3-5 hours a day.

 

Summer Contact Information 

 

Districts and schools need to identify their summer contact information at this link.  NCVPS needs the contact information for each school that registers students for Summer 15 classes.  Students will need to know who the contact is, as well. Students can drop through our 10th day of class, and they need to know who to contact at the school or at the district level so that they can be dropped. Districts may elect to have just one contact for the entire district over the summer.

 

Presently, you may not have any students enrolled in NCVPS summer courses, but if your school does enroll students in the coming weeks for Summer 2015, we will need this information.

 

If districts have their school-level ELA contact information in an Excel document, they can copy and paste that into the contact box on the link above.

 

 

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 summer session at our Getting Started page. For instance, remember that NCVPS does NOT send usernames and passwords to students. Schools must issue login information to students. See that and all of the essential details at our Getting Started page.

 

 

Summer Calendar

 

Student Checklist

 

Credit Recovery Information

GradeReportingGrade Reporting

Progress reports will be posted each week during the summer session in the NCVPS registration system. The only weighted grade report will be the final grade report posted on August 13.

 

Our grade reports are weighted grades similar to school report cards.

 

Follow this link to see the details on the latest grade report. 

 

See how your students are progressing! We post progress reports every two weeks in the registration system.

 

Follow this link to see the details on this progress report.

 

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.

 

Follow this link to see the details on student status (no-show) reports. 

 

Follow this link to see how to run a grade report.

 

Follow this link to see our Quick Reference Guide on Grades. 

Registration Open for 2015-2016

Registration is open for Summer 2015, Fall 2015, and Spring 2016.

 

Getting Started 

 

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. 

 

 

coursecapacityWe already have a few courses that are approaching capacity for Fall 2015. 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 our list of courses that are at capacity and near capacity here.

 

rising9thRising 9th-grade students will be added to high school rosters in the NCVPS registration system at the Year-End-Transition (YET) in July. Middle school ELAs can enroll their students in NCVPS courses for high school. Those enrollments will transition with the student to the high school's account in the NCVPS registration system.

 

If the middle school does not have an ELA, the high school ELA can open a ticket with our virtual support center to request access.  Additionally, the district's e-learning coordinator can get the login information for the middle school by logging into the registration system and clicking "Schools." 

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

  • AP Biology - Edmentum
  • AP Calculus AB - Edmentum
  • AP Chemistry - Apex Learning
  • AP Chemistry - Edmentum
  • AP French - Edmentum
  • AP US History - Edmentum
  • ChemistryApex - Learning
  • Spanish 2 - Florida Virtual
  • Spanish 3 Honors - Florida Virtual
Tech Updates


Please update your Java to Version Java 8, Update 45.


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


AdobeUpdatePlease go to the following link to update Adobe Flash Player to the latest Version 18.0.0.160  http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/ 

 


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 ensure 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 

 

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:

 

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/ 

 

 

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/  

Middle School Creative Writing

(Click on image for a larger view.)

 

creativewritingNCVPS is looking for middle school writers!

 

Our Middle School Creative Writing course introduces students to short and long fiction, poetry, drama, and creative nonfiction. While emphasis is on production, students will also read samples of great writing as they learn the tools that creative writers use.

 

Students will create a writing portfolio that showcases their work.

 

This is a great opportunity for young writers! Enrollment is now open.

Professional Learning with NCVPS

 

The NCVPS professional learning team is pleased to offer its next round of the "Shattering the Myths of the Online and Blended Learning" course.

 

The next class starts on June 15. Please check out this link for details.

Sharepoint Added to Catalogue

NCVPS is please to offer SharePoint next year! Check out our catalogue for details!

 

View our full course catalog here

NCVPS Middle School Courses

The NCVPS catalog is growing. We will offer four middle school courses next year. Check out our catalog for details.

 

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  |