Districts and Charter Schools,
 
Please forward this E-lert to your school-level stakeholders. If you are having difficulty viewing this email, you may view the E-lert online here: 
September 25, 2014 - In This Issue:
Calendar Check
September 18 - Traditional and early calendar progress reports are posted in the registration system. 

October 2 - Traditional and early calendar progress reports are posted in the registration system. 

October 16 - Early Calendar Grade reports posted in the registration system. These are weighted grades (37.5%)

October 16 - Traditional calendar progress reports are posted in the registration system. 

October 30 - Traditional calendar grade reports posted in the registration system. These are weighted grades (37.5%)

October 30 - Early calendar progress reports are posted in the registration system. 

We heard . . . .
"Visionaries not only believe that the impossible can be done, but that it must be done." ~Bran Ferren, Ted Talks

"It doesn't matter what teachers teach. It only matters what students learn."  ~Richard Curwin

"Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel."  ~Socrates 

"Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known." ~Carl Sagan. 

"To admit that you begin the day planning to change the world certainly sounds grandiose, maybe even delusional.  Yet, I believe that you do change the world every day, whether you intend to or not.  Often it only takes a small act to make a difference." ~Mark Sanborn

"A teacher can either cement mediocrity or inspire excellence in a student, regardless of what subject is being taught."  ~ Stephen R. Covey

"To achieve great things, two things are needed; a plan, and not quite enough time." ~Leonard Bernstein 


"No rule you make during the 1st weeks of school will cause good behavior in May. Strong relationships will though." ~Dr. Joe Clark


 "The trouble is learning requires rethinking and rethinking hurts."


 

"The beautiful thing about learning is nobody can take it away from you." ~ B. B. King

'"The best teachers are the ones that show you where to look but don't tell you what to see."
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. 
E-lert Subscription
If you are not on the E-lert subscription list, but would like to be, please add your name to our list here
Current E-lert News
Progress Report Posted

See how your students are progressing!

 

A progress report was posted in the registration system on Sept. 18. The report is titled "Fall 2014 EC, CR, Block and YL Progress Report Due Sept. 16, 2014" This is an unweighted progress report.

 

The following fields are on this report:

 

Progress Grade = All courses (except credit recovery and OCS) will have a numeric grade reported here.

 

Comment = All instructors will leave a comment.

 

Number of Modules = This field is used for CR only.

 

Status = This field is used for CR only.

 

Sample Progress Report


 

Progress Report Details:

 

1. All standard classes will report a progress grade, and teachers will leave a comment for each student.

 

2. We do not report grades for OCS classes. Classroom teachers determine OCS grades. 

 

3. We do not report grades for credit recovery classes. See the comments section to determine if the student is on pace or not.

 

4. Even if a student is supposed to be dropped, we will report a grade until the school withdraws the student.

 

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

 

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

Supporting Students - Intervention Time

If you have students who are low-performing, under-performing, or at-risk for any reason, NCVPS has a number of intervention strategies for districts and schools to follow. 

 

1. Check for progress reports and report cards in the registration system.  Updates are made every two weeks.  You may contact teachers directly between updates to check on student progress. 

 

2. Have students contact their instructors during their office hours for live help. 

 

3. Try to establish a recurring time for student to meet with instructor (in Blackboard Collaborate or phone) for one-on-one tutoring. 

 

4. Have student sign up for NCVPS Peer Tutoring, which is availale for certain courses.  Go to this link to learn more:  http://goo.gl/GRkwT  . Peer Tutoring offers the following services:

  • Peer Tutoring - Peer Tutors provides tutoring in specific content areas. 
  • Virtual Buddy - Virtual Buddies are select student volunteers who have agreed to work with NCVPS students who need more than content help in their online classes.   
  • Quick Questions - Services are available to all students via Blackboard  IM at the start of the semester. For the first four weeks, this is the primary work we provide to ALL NCVPS students. 

5. Establish peer tutoring with other successful NCVPS students at your school (if available). 

 

6. Have EC students meet with the school's EC specialist. 

 

7. See our list of assistive technologies for students with special needs.  Go to this link to learn more: http://goo.gl/eryLQ  

 

8. Have students attend your school's review sessions (if available). 

 

9. Have students attend your school's tutoring session (if available). 

 

10. If the student is taking the course off campus, consider moving the student to a lab setting, especially if the student is not logging into the course. 

 

11. If you have students in EOC courses, be sure that they take part in our EOC Reviews that are in each EOC course.  Have them contact their teachers for more information.   

 

12. Establish weekly or bi-weekly contact with instructors of any at-risk students. 

 

13. Have parents log in with the students at home and monitor their work. Parents can communicate with the instructor, too. 

 

14. Be sure students are aware of our basic support structure:

  • Teachers help with course questions and course content. 
  • The Virtual Support Center helps with technology issues in the course and login issues. 
  • The school ELAs help students with enrolling and withdrawing from a course and with transcript and report card questions about their NCVPS classes.
NCVPS & SAR Data

School data managers will find the NCVPS SAR data in the NCVPS enrollment reports and grade reports.  E-learning advisors at the school will be able to help the data managers access the enrollment reports.

 

Data managers will need to manually enter the NCVPS teacher SAR data into PowerSchool.  

 

Schools will use the PowerSchool UID for NCVPS teachers instead of their social security numbers.  

 

Enrollment reports and grade reports will open into an Excel spreadsheet. Scroll to the right of the spreadsheet to access the SAR data (see below).



Please note that most HQ errors are due to a data input error or a spreadsheet sorting error on the school's end.  Please confirm that the correct UID has been used.  In addition, sometimes a school will misread the spreadsheet and enter the wrong teacher for a course.  If you accidentally enter the Latin teacher's data for an English course, it will naturally come back as non-HQ.

Current Enrollment Options

Here are our current 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.

 

2. Credit Recovery - Schools may enroll students in credit recovery until the midway point of the semester if we have seats available in the course.

 

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.  

 

4. Heath - Enrollment for the 2nd 9-weeks health courses is still open.

 

5. Spring 2015 - Registration for Spring 2015 is still open.

Log-in Message for Students 
silver-keyboard2.jpg
Advisors and facilitators, please be sure that all of your NCVPS students see this message:

Students, are you having difficulty locating your class?

NCVPS offers courses in two learning management systems, Blackboard and Moodle. If you are unsure which platform your course is being offered in, please see the "Fall 2014 Course Login Site" link here:
http://www.ncvps.org/index.php/student-bb-logon/

If your e-mail address is up-to-date in Moodle and Blackboard then there is no need to open a Helpdesk ticket for a password reset; just click on "Forgot Your Password?" Your new password will be sent to the e-mailed in our system, so make sure you're up-to-date!

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 
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

Virtual Support Center

When submitting tickets to www.help.ncvps.org, the tickets can be routed and responded to much more efficiently when one topic is addressed per ticket.

 

Please consider opening a new ticket for separate issues. If inquiries are made regarding multiple students, it is best to generate a ticket per student inquiry unless all students are affected by the same issue. For example, a request for transferring two students into two different courses would be best addressed if submitting one ticket per course request. If the two students need the same course, both can easily be addressed on the same ticket. 

If a ticket has been closed, yet there is a recurrence or further need to follow up on that same ticket topic a few days later, then please respond back to that ticket or respond back to the email that was generated for the ticket request. Please do not use the same ticket for new help requests.  This will create delays in response time and inaccuracy of resolution.  
Tech Updates

We have some important tips from our tech team. These tips help ensure smooth operations. 


Help Desk Ticketing Tips
To answer your tickets faster and more efficiently we ask for the following when opening a ticket with the Virtual Support Center:
  • Students first & last name
  • PowerSchool ID number
  • Course enrolled (example CourseSec01Fall14)
Please specify if course is:
  • AP
  • Honors
  • Early Calendar
  • CR
  • OCS
This will help to insure we have the correct student.

If Student is showing pleaseadd@ncvps.org as their E-Mail address in Moodle and Blackboard, it's time to update:

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

 

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 Art History - Florida Virtual
  • Art History and Criticism - Florida Virtual
  • English 1 - Florida Virtual
  • English 2 - Florida Virtual
  • English 3 - Florida Virtual
  • English 4 - Florida Virtual
  • English 4 College Prep - Florida Virtual
Course Spotlight 
Music Business and Recording

This is an entry level music business course that prepares students for careers in the music industry, both in music management and music recording. This introduction to the music industry establishes communication skills and knowledge of copyrights, music publishing and contracts, concert promotion, and recording studio business. 

 


An introduction to music recording and music engineering is established through introducing skills needed for studio mixing, concert sound mixing, and D.J. applications. This course focuses on the technical and basic electronic aspects of music technology. Areas of instruction include beginning music theory, physics of sound, basic electronics, sound reinforcement systems, multi-track recording, digital audio recording, and digital signal processing. 

 

Offered: Fall and Spring Block (Traditional and Early Calendar) and Summer

 

Prerequisites: None 

Course Spotlight - ACT Prep

ACT Prep sections are open for Spring 2015 enrollments! This course offers a great way to prepare for your future! 


If you have questions, please contact Karen Creech at Karen.creech@ncpublicschools.gov. 

Twitter School
Follow us on Twitter! Throughout the week, our team posts valuable links that help followers better understand today's learners and find the right tools to teach with, ideas that are important to all educators. Dive a little deeper into virtual education with the following links curated by the NCVPS Professional Learning team. 
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  |   
STAY CONNECTED

Like us on Facebook   Follow us on Twitter