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 Oct. 27, 2016 - Fall Edition X
CalendarCheckCalendar Check
2016

Start Dates 
Early Calendar: Aug. 15
Traditional Calendar:  Aug. 29

Day 3 No-Show Report
Early Calendar:  Aug. 18
Traditional Calendar: Sept. 1

*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: Aug. 24
Traditional Calendar: Sept. 8

*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: Aug. 26
Traditional Calendar: Sept.12

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

Celebrate & Connect

Connect with us on Twitter! Find us here. Tweet to us on Twitter at @ncvps or with the hashtag #ncvps.
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Current E-lert News
Greetings!
This week have have two important reminders. Be sure to check out the details below on NCFE testing and our new grade reporting procedures.

We still have a number of enrollment options for Fall 2016. See the details below for credit recovery, OCS, and transfer students.

Thank you, and here's all the NCVPS news this week: 

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 .
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.  
 
FallUpdatesFall 2016 Updates

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


Our Fall 2016 enrollment has closed. However, we still have a number of options for schools.

Credit Recovery : Credit recovery registration will remain open until November 23, 2016.

OCS : Schools can continue to enroll in existing OCS sections throughout the semester. We cannot open new OCS sections after Sept. 12, but students can be added to existing sections.

1/2 Credit Health and 1/2 Credit PE Courses : Registration for our 2nd 9-week health and PE courses will remain open until November 14.

Transfer Students : We are now accepting transfers for students who meet our transfer criteria. Transfer students must already be enrolled in the course at the school with an instructor AND have a grade to transfer in with. Transfers are not for students who are new to the course. We are able to accept fall transfers through November 23, 2016. This is a good solution for students who move into the district and have a course that they school does not offer. It's also a good solution for home-bound students and suspended students.

Mastery Learning for First-Time Credit : Our new mastery learning courses will help students who have a special or hardship situation. If any of the above options work for a student, you will need to use those options, but when you are out of options, check out the details here for mastery learning enrollment .

Spring 2017 - We are still enrolling for all Spring 2017 courses. Spring registration is open until Feb. 3, 2017.


Your students are registered, now what? Check out our Semester Success with NCVPS web page for the basic support details that will assist your students throughout the semester.  


See our Calendar Check on the sidebar for our important fall dates.



NCVPS is transitioning all of its courses to the Canvas learning management system. Currently, Canvas does not have the functionality to let schools calculate weighted marking period grades.  
 
Starting in Fall 2016, NCVPS will post grades in the NCVPS registration system following our new process:
  • Cumulative progress reports every two weeks.
  • Final class average at the end of term (75%), along with the final exam grade (25%), and final grade.
  • For EOC, CTE, NCFE courses, we report the final classwork grade (75%), and schools calculate in the exam grades (25%). Districts can adjust those percentages based on their percentage weight for final exams.   
The cumulative progress reports are an accurate indicator of exactly how a student is performing in the course. They are not weighted grades, however, so they would not be grades that you would add to PowerSchool report card grades. Many schools will send home a separate NCVPS progress report when they send home report cards throughout the semester. They will record the final NCVPS grade in PowerSchool at the end of the term. It is a local decision, however, on how to do this. 


October 201st Session Early Calendar Health and Early Calendar PE and Progress Report and Final 9-Week Grades for Health Courses are posted in the NCVPS Registration System

November 3: A progress report will be posted in the NCVPS registration system for early and traditional calendar courses. 

November 3: 2nd Session Health and 2nd Session PE Day 3 Status Report posted in the NCVPS Registration System

What's Next on the Schedule? 


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

CanvasParentAppCanvas Parent App
Parents and facilitators can now download the Canvas Parent 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

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.



Students can click on the ? Help button to open a ticket. At that point, be sure students select  "Enter a NCVPS Help Desk Ticket" NOT "Report a Problem". 

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 101.

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 22.0.0.209

 
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

AP Computer Science -  Florida Virtual
AP Human Geography -  Edgenuity
AP Language & Composition -  Florida Virtual
AP Macroeconomics -  Florida Virtual
AP Microeconomics -  Florida Virtual
AP US History -  Florida Virtual
Music Appreciation -  Edmentum
OCS Intro to Math -  Edmentum
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  |