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 - Jan. 4, 2018 - Fall Edition XV (Inclement Weather Announcement)
CalendarCheck
Calendar Check
Fall 2017 Dates

See our calendar for progress report dates. We post updates every two weeks throughout the semester. 
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Current E-lert News
Greetings!
We are in our last week of Fall 17 classes! Classes end on Friday. That will be the last day that students have access to classes.

Be sure to check out our inclement weather message below. We know that school closings affect many NCVPS students.

Also, be sure to check our course extension message. Instructional leaders will begin looking at extension requests on January 8. 

Spring 2018 classes begin on January 29. Registration is still open and will remain open until our 10th day of class. Be sure to check the course capacity list below as some classes are filling up.

New Updates

Important Information







Thank you, and have a wonderful week!
WeatherGuideNCVPS Guide for Inclement Weather
Winter weather is here. A number of districts and charters have closed due to the inclement weather. We know this has an impact on NCVPS students. 

We've got you covered! 

See our I nclement Weather Guidelines for details.
EndSemesterEnd of Semester Tips and Reminders
We are less than a month away from the end of our fall courses, but with the holidays coming up, we wanted to post the details for finishing an NCVPS semester. 

Traditional calendar courses end on Friday, January 12, 2018.  Grades will be posted on Thursday, January 18. 

Be sure to check our webpage  End of Semester Tips and Reminders for the end of semester timeline, testing information, grade reporting, extension requests, and more.  


Thank you for your request!
It is too early for us to make course extension decisions.  The Fall semester ends on January 12, 2018.
 
Instructional Directors will begin reviewing extension requests on Monday, January 8th.  The reason for this is there is still time left for students to work, and extensions are for those students who need just a little more time to finish the course.  If large portions of the course are missing, an extension won't help the student.  

Extensions will only be granted for two weeks,  Please review our Course Extension Reference Guide for details on extensions and the extension process. 
 
Of course, we will work with student situations as we get closer to the end of the semester.  We want our students to be successful!  What we need now is for the student to work steadily and make progress in the course.  

If course extensions are only needed for one to two days for technology issues, illness, and similar reasons at the close of a semester,  those requests should be arranged directly with the NCVPS teacher from the ELA. 

Please submit a course extension request through the Virtual Support Center on January 8th.  Directions are found on the link above.
SpringFrenchSpring French III and IV Courses
In the spring of 2018, Chromebooks will no longer support Flash content of any kind. It's anticipated that there will be no workaround solution. This is a problem for two NCVPS courses: French III and French IV. Both courses rely heavily on Flash content. We recommend that students enrolled in French III and IV have access to full desktop or laptop computers and not just Chromebooks or mobile devices. 

We are rewriting the French III and IV courses to replace the flash content. The newly revised French III course is tentatively set to be released in Fall 2018, and the newly revised French IV course is tentatively set to be released in Fall 2019.

We apologize for the inconvenience!  Thanks for working with us on this issue. 
Fall2017UpdatesFall 2017 Updates


If you need access, contact our  Virtual Support Center here

Please 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, visit our Registration System User's Guide here


Please remember that districts and charter schools must test  all students enrolled in NCVPS courses that have an EOC, CTE, or North Carolina Final Exam. This includes OCS courses that are taught jointly between the LEA and NCVPS.  Schools must also administer Advanced Placement tests for students taking those tests.  

Please check your rosters to see if you have students enrolled in these courses with NCVPS. 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. 


T ransfer Students: It's too late to transfer into fall block course, but transfers for yearlong courses are still open. 

Transfer students must already be enrolled in a traditional course at the school with an instructor AND have a grade to transfer in with. We will have more details on this next week. We are able to accept transfer students through November 22, 2017.

Open a ticket with the Virtual Support Center here: http://www.help.ncvps.org/  and include the following information with your transfer request:

1. Student's Name
2. Student's PowerSchool Number
3. Student's Email
4. Student's contact phone number
5. Student's School & District
6. Course transferring in to
7. Transfer Grade (and support plan if needed)
8. Does the student have an IEP?  Does the Student have a 504 Plan?
9. Brief reason for transfer

Flex Learning: Our Flex Learning courses 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 Flex Learning page for enrollment information.

Grade Report Updates


December 21: Final Grades Posted for Early Calendar Courrses

December 21:  Progress Report with Expected/Anticipated CTE Grades and Anticipated EOC Scores Posted in the Registration  System


January 18Fall Block Courses Final Grades Posted in the NCVPS Registration System

January 18Yearlong Progress Reports Posted in the NCVPS Registration System


Reporting Overview

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



Only our final grade report is a weighted grade 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.


MusicCanceledMusic Appreciation and Music Business & Recording Closed 2018
NCVPS has closed its sections of Music Appreciation and Music Business & Recording for Spring 2018. Each course is in need of revisions. After reviewing the necessary revisions, we have decided to pull both courses from our spring catalog. 

If you are looking for electives, we do have our visual arts courses. We hope your students may be interested in one of those offerings. Visit the NCVPS Course Catalog to see all of our course options. 

Thank you, and we apologize for this inconvenience!
SpringUpdatesSpring 2018 Updates

Registration remains open for Spring 2018 block courses.

Be sure to see our Course Capacity List for courses that are closed, at capacity, or nearing capacity.


If you need access, contact our  Virtual Support Center here

Please 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, visit our Registration System User's Guide here

Music Appreciation and Music Business and Recording

NCVPS has closed its sections of Music Appreciation and Music Business & Recording for Spring 2018. Each course is in need or revisions. After reviewing the necessary revisions, we have decided to pull both courses from our spring catalog. We greatly apologize for this inconvenience.  
If you are looking for electives, we do have our visual arts courses. We hope your students may be interested in one of those offerings. You can see our catalog here:    https://ncvps.org/ncvps-course-catalog.

Thank you, and again, we apologize for this inconvenience.
DownloadAppDownload the NCVPS App!
NCVPS has a new free app developed by  School Info App, which is recognized by District Administration Magazine as one of the Top 100 school applications in 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2016. Download the app in the Google Play and iTunes stores. Search for "NCVPS" to find the app in either store.

Current app features allow users to do the following:
  • Receive calendar and news notifications
  • Have quick access to course catalogs, online learning tools, and important documents
  • Translate messages to 30+ languages
  • See NCVPS social media posts
  • Follow specific teacher announcements
The app is not required for students or teachers. However, some of our teachers will be using the app as an additional way to contact students. We already have a few early adopters.  iKeepSafe has certified the app for COPPA, CSPC, and FERPA compliance; although, no account is necessary to receive announcements or notifications from teachers or the staff.

New features and additional capacity will be added throughout the year.

We hope to see you in the app and look forward to your feedback!
NCVPS Resources
CultureCafeNCVPS Culture Cafe




Check back for January dates!

TechUpdatesTech Updates
HelpDeskEmailIssuesHelp Desk Issues with Certain Emails


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  4. Click About Chrome
  5. Relaunch



Password Reset

If you have had your password reset through the Virtual Support Center, the new password will not expire unless you have reset it again. Occasionally, multiple people will request a student's password to be reset (i.e. the student, ELA, lab facilitator, and/or parent), so the password is reset multiple times. This, of course, causes confusion.  It's always best if only one person requests a password reset for a student. 

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" on the course login page.

Students should make sure that NCVPS teachers have their correct email addresses, and those email addresses should be confirmed in our Canvas learning management system. This will allow students to receive messages from their teachers and peers in the course forum.

Here's how to confirm student email addresses 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. 
 
 
For additional information, please see our Tech Requirements:
http://ncvps.org/technology-requirements 
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  |