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 March 3, 2017 - Spring Edition VI (2017-2018 Calendar & Catalog)
CalendarCheckCalendar Check
Spring 2017

Start Dates 
Early Calendar: Jan. 4
Traditional Calendar:  Jan. 23

Last Day to Drop and Add
Early Calendar: Jan. 18
Traditional Calendar: Feb. 8

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.
E-lert Subscription
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Current E-lert News
Greetings!
We have now posted our 2017-2018 calendar and catalog. See the details below.

We hope to open registration in late March or early April. We are still working on some final details for registration. 

We have a few important dates to keep in mind. Today, March 3, is our last date to transfer into early calendar courses. Students can still transfer into traditional calendar courses until March 24.

Updated This Week

2017-2018 Calendar and Catalog


Important From Last Week!







In addition, be sure to check out all of our tips and reminders in this week's e- lert .
calendarandcatalogNCVPS Calendars and Catalog
We have posted our 2017-2018 calendar at this link

Be sure to check out our Summer School Guide at this link

We have a new format for our course catalog. Please view our new catalog at this link.
Early Calendar Courses

Please note that we are phasing out our early calendar. We will only offer early calendar courses in the fall of 2017, and that will only be for OCS courses. We typically have low enrollment numbers for early calendar, and this puts a strain on our teacher pool as teachers have a limit in the number of sections they can teach. An early calendar section of a course may only have seven students in it, but a traditional calendar section may have 25-30 students in it. So the early calendar offering greatly impacts the number of students we can serve.

We are sorry for this inconvenience, but our teachers, of course, will work with early calendar students to help them finish their courses early if they need to.
SpringUpdatesSpring 2017 Updates
CurrentOptionsCurrent Enrollment Options

Our Spring 2017 enrollment has closed. However, we still have a number of options for schools. 

Credit Recovery: Credit recovery enrollment will remain open until March 24, 2017 Schools can continue to enroll in credit recovery courses that have open seats.   

OCS: Schools can continue to enroll in existing OCS sections throughout the semester. We cannot open new sections at this time.

1/2 Credit Health and 1/2 Credit PE Courses: Registration for our 2nd 9-week health courses will remain open until March 21. 

Transfer Students: We are now accepting transfers for students who meet our transfer criteria. Transfer students must already be enrolled in a traditional course at the school with an instructor AND have a grade to transfer in with. If a student has a grade to transfer in with, open a ticket with our virtual support center, and include this information:

Student's Name: 
Course Needed: 
Is course Year long or Block? 
Grade Level: 
Numeric Transfer Grade: 
The school's support plan if student does not have a passing transfer grade: 
Reason for Transfer: 
Student's School: 
Student's PowerSchool Number: 
Student's Email: (do not use ELA's email address) 
Student's Phone Number: 
Does the student have an IEP? (yes/no): 
Does the student have a 504 Plan? (yes/no):
Is the student an English Language (EL) learner? (yes/no):
Parent Contact information: 

We are able to accept transfer students through March 24, 2017, for traditional calendar courses.

Flex Learning (formerly Mastery Learning): Our Flex Learning program 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 Flex Learning enrollment.


February 23: Progress Reports for All Classes

March 9:  1st Session Final Grades for Early Calendar Health and Early Calendar PE Courses Posted in the NCVPS Registration System

March 9: Progress Reports Posted in the NCVPS Registration System


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


Parents and facilitators can now download the  CanvasParent  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

OnlineSuccessTips
NCVPS teachers have a lot of great tips to share with online students and the support crews who facilitate their learning. "They know a thing or two because they've seen a thing or two."




Help your students establish a daily routine for their online courses. Effective steps in a successful routine include the following:

Log in Everyday Monday through Friday - Check the NCVPS calendar. If it's a school day, you have work! Make it a habit every single school day, and you will be successful. A little each day is better than cramming all of your work in at once.

Check Daily Announcements - Each day your NCVPS teacher will post an announcement that is directly related to your learning for that day. Be sure to read it! There's valuable information there. You should also be receiving these announcements via email. If you're not, please check your Canvas settings to be sure that your email is registered correctly in your profile.

Check the "to-do" List in Canvas -  You should never be surprised with work is due or a test is coming up.

Check Grades for Feedback We teach in our feedback! We want you to learn the material, not just receive a grade.

Communicate with Your Teacher Regularly Ask questions. Let the teacher know if you need help.

Let Someone Know When You Have a Problem - Don't let a small problem turn into a big problem. Contact your teacher right away if you are having a problem in the course. If you can't log in, contact your ELA or the NCVPS Virtual Support Center. If you need a tutor, we have those, too! Ask your NCVPS teacher about our Peer Tutoring program or explore the link on your course home page.

Create a Schedule and Follow It - If you are working from home, have a specific time each day to work in your NCVPS course. You will have something to do every single school day. Be aware of your assignment due dates. Be sure to sign in to your course each day and complete that work.

Stay Organized - Keep track of our course work! You should save copies of your work on flash drives or on online. Know where everything is. Also, keep track of your NCVPS calendars and pacing guides. Know what's up next.

Have a Consistent Workspace - You need an organized, clean workspace to do your NCVPS work, whether it's in your school's lab or at home. Your workspace should be free from distractions. In front of your Playstation or television might not be the ideal workspace.
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.  
 
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.



When "Page Not Found" appears users should open a Virtual Support tickets by clicking on the ? Help button then clicking on "Enter a NCVPS Help Desk Ticket."

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 111.

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 23.0.0.207

 
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

American History 1 -  Florida Virtual
Biology -  Florida Virtual
Chemistry -  Florida Virtual
Exploring Career Decisions -  OdysseyWare
Latin 1 -  Florida Virtual
Math 1 -  Florida Virtual
Spanish 4 -  Florida Virtual
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  |