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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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May 20, 2015 - In This Issue:
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2015
May 8
- End of early calendar courses.
May 14 - Final grades for early calendar courses posted in the registration system.
May 22 - End of traditional calendar courses.
May 28 - Final grades for traditional calendar courses posted in the registration system.
June 15 - Summer Session 2015 starts.
August 7 - Summer Session 2015 ends.
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Success Stories
Districts and Schools, tell us about your success stories. Help us celebrate 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 submit your celebration.
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Connect with us on Twitter! Find us here. Tweet to us on Twitter at @ncvps or with the hashtag #ncvps. |
If you are not on the E-lert subscription list, but would like to be, please add your name to our list here.
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 Greetings, all!
We have no new updates this week, but we do have some essential items for districts and schools to be aware of. Please be sure to complete or review these items:
In addition, be sure to check out all of our tips and reminders for closing out Spring 2015 and starting up Summer 2015.
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Summer Contact Information
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 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.
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NCVPS recently sent a stakeholder survey to this listserv. The survey is designed to assess NCVPS customer service, processes and partnership efforts.
The results of this survey are one component of the on-going process for improvement in our collaboration with districts across the state.
This is an opportunity to share your views regarding NCVPS.
Results of this survey will provide insightful information to create positive change, improved processes, and optimal customer service.
The survey will remain open from
May 14, 2015 to May 28, 2015.
Thank you in advance for taking the time to submit your responses!
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End of the Semester Tips & Reminders
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Spring 2015 and yearlong courses are coming to a close!
Important Dates
Mark these dates on your calendar for the close of Spring 2015 classes:
- May 8: Last day of class for early calendar courses.
- May 14: Early calendar grades posted in the registration system.
- May 22: Last day of class from traditional calendar block courses.
- May 28: Traditional calendar block grades posted in the registration system.
Students will lose access to their courses at midnight on the last day of class. Students will not be able to submit assignments after the last day of class!
Testing & Grades
Schools must administer all EOC and CTE tests. Schools will also need to average the EOC and CTE scores (25%) into the grades that we post for those courses. If you've not already made arrangements with your school's testing coordinator, please do that right away. Our final grade report will have EOC and CTE anticipated scores for your testing coordinators.
Our final grade report will show two weighted marking period grades (37.5% each) and the final exam grade (25%) and final grade. EOC and CTE courses will only show the marking period grades. Schools will need to calculate in the exam grade.
You will want to be aware of our grading policy and how we weight grades, especially for EOC courses where you will need to calculate the final grade once you receive your test scores. Follow this link to see our Grades Quick Reference Guide and how we calculate grades.
Transcripts and Report Cards
Schools must enter grades into PowerSchool. Be sure the data manager has access to the grade report and understands our grade calculations. Be sure to examine the spreadsheet closely to find the final grade. This will be essential when your data manage enters NCVPS grades into PowerSchool to avoid data entry errors.
Middle Schools: Be sure to use the NCVPS course codes so that your students can receive high school credit for the courses that they take with us. You can find the courses that middle schools can take for high school credit in our catalog here.
Transcripts and the NCAA
NCVPS is listed as an approved school on the NCAA website. Look for our school identifier: North Carolina Virtual Pub Sch.
Be sure to indicate on student transcripts that the student took the online course with NCVPS. The NCAA will accept this information without asking for further information from the student.
The transcript should look like this: NCVPS - Math 1
Not this: ONLINE - Math 1
Grade Questions
If you have questions about a student's grade, you should send those directly to the student's teacher or submit a help ticket to the
Virtual Support Center.
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Course Extensions
As the early calendar semester comes to a close, we know that some students will need a course extension. Please review our course extension guidelines here.
You may request extensions for early calendar courses now. Course extensions for traditional calendar courses will be accepted on May 18th.
It is important to remember that ONLY school administrators or their designee may request Course Extensions. Teachers, parents, tutors, etc. may not request an extension.
A school administrator may request a course extension through the NCVPS Virtual Support Center at www.ncvps.help.org by sending the information below in a ticket. Once this information is received in full, the Instructional Director for the course will be in contact about the status of the request. Each course request for a student will need to have its own ticket. If multiple extension requests are needed, each student and course should be in its own ticket.
1- Student's First and Last Name
2- NC Wise/Powerschool ID#
3- High School/District
4- ELA's First and Last Name
5- ELA's Email Address
6- Principal's First and Last Name
7- Principal's Email Address
8- NCVPS Course Name and Specific Course Section
9- NCVPS Teacher's First and Last Name
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We hope these procedures help you successfully close out your semester. Thank you for enrolling your students with NCVPS! We look forward to serving you in the future.
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Registration Open for 2015-2016
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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.
Summer Session 2015 Guide
We have a general guide for our summer session here. This guide is particularly useful for parents who need some basic information about our summer session works, what the expectations are for students, and what the time requirement is.
Courses Nearing Capacity
We 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.
OCS Message
We encourage ELAs to enroll students into OCS courses now even if you do not know all the students that will need the course. You can always add additional students or drop students before classes begin.
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Rising 9th Graders
Rising 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."
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Catalogue Updates
Please note the following updates to the NCVPS course catalogue:
1.Following the name change by the State Board of Education, Civics and Economics has been renamed to American History: The Founding Principles, Civics, and Economics. This name change is effective in the fall of 2015.
2. The following courses are being revised and will not be offered in the 2015 - 16 school year:
- AP Art History
- AP Biology
- AP European
- AP Latin
- AP Statistics
- Latin 3 (will return in the spring of 2016)
3. Calculus Honors is being removed from the catalog due to low enrollment.
4. Principles of Business and Finance has returned to our catalogue.
5. The following courses are new to the 2015-16 NCVPS course catalogue:
- Middle School Creative Writing
- Visual Arts Specialization (6-8): Middle School Art
- Visual Arts Specialization (6-8): Middle School Discovering Photography
- AP Physics 2
- Forensic Science (Previously offered as a STEM course)
6. NCVPS will pilot its new physical education course in our Fall 2015 semester. This course is particularly great for early college campuses that have difficulty scheduling physical education for their students. The course will require students to upload videos of physical assessments. The course can be taken as a .5 credit course or a full credit course in conjunction with your health course. If you would like to be part of the pilot, please contact Karen Creech at [email protected].
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AP Test for NCVPS Courses
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Please forward this message to your school's AP testing coordinator.
Be sure to input the NCVPS code (045) into the "Online Provider Code" found on page 1, item G of the student's AP answer sheet during administration of the exam.
This will allow NCVPS to receive a copy of the student's May 2015 test scores for our records.
These scores are needed as part of the accountability piece for NCVPS.
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Please see our attached parental permission form for our health course.
Schools should keep this form on file at their schools.
NCVPS Health Permission Form
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See how your students are progressing!
We will post an unweighted progress report in the registration system on April 23 for all classes.
Follow this link to see the details on this progress report.
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JAVA and Flash 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.
Please go to the following link to update Adobe Flash Player to the latest Version 17.0.0.169 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
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:
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/
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Approved eLearning Courses for NC
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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)
- Biology - Accelerate Education
- American History 1 - Apex Learning
- AP MacroEconomics - Apex Learning
- Math 1 - Founder's Education
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Professional Learning with NCVPS
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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.
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Sharepoint Added to Catalogue
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NCVPS has a great arts program during the summer. Click on the image above to see a preview!
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German is returning to the NCVPS catalog! The North Carolina ITS has decided to allow NCVPS to continue to offer German courses through Oklahoma State University for the 2015-2016 while NCVPS completes the RFP process.
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NCVPS Middle School Courses
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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.
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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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STAY CONNECTED
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