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Be Empowered – Know the Trends in E-learningAre paper shortages cramping your school? 21st -century educators don’t say
“Turn it in,” they say “Publish it!” Read about it here.
E-learning Success StoriesELAs, teachers, administrators, parents, and students, submit your stories here:
http://goo.gl/MMt7t Please tell how virtual learning has made a difference!
GenerationText SuperUsers
Follow this link to nominate your SuperUsers!
Teach for NCVPS
NCVPS is actively recruiting teachers in all areas. You must hold an SP II NC Teaching License and have taught for four years in North Carolina. Check all the details here: http://www.ncvps.org/index.php/teach-for-ncvps/
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New Items
Checklists for Spring
Please make sure your enrolled students have access to the Getting Started Checklist for NCVPS Students below. You can send them the link or print the document. There is also a district and school checklist for you.
Getting Started Checklist for NCVPS Students: https://docs.google.com/a/ncpublicschools.gov/document/pub?id=1SY5w3-4IlXWpyLlRVfiZ5lDxfYjCL8khri8xf92i_kw
Getting Started Checklist for Districts and Schools: https://docs.google.com/a/ncpublicschools.gov/document/pub?id=13uve3zrBPpETH4cxqGxWTOzEKM_pkgrjiXjMFhIht2I
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Password Issues
Student Password Issues
Passwords will not work until the first day of class, which is January 3 for early calendar courses and January 23 for traditional calendar courses.
If the student’s password does not work on the first day of class, follow these steps:
1) Confirm that the student is enrolled and not waitlisted.
2) If the student is recently enrolled, remember that passwords will not work for 24 hours.
3) If the student is confirmed enrolled and it has been at least 24 hours since enrollment, then have the student submit an online ticket with our Help Center here: http://www.help.ncvps.org/ Click on “Open a New Ticket.” The student or the E-learning Advisor can submit this ticket.
4) Lastly, if the student took a course in the past and the student changed his or her password, then the student has to use the password that he or she changed it to, or the student can submit an online ticket with the Help Center.
5) If a student’s password stops working anytime during the semester, have the student submit an online ticket with the Help Center.
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Reserve Funds
If your district gets a message in the registration system that it has reached its maximum enrollment allotment, please contact your virtual learning consultant. We may have reserve funds available for your district.
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Summer and Fall 2012 Course Catalogs
The course catalogs for summer and fall 2012 are posted here: http://www.ncvps.org/index.php/courses/catalogue/
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Final Grades – Fall 2011
Grades are posted in the registration system. Look for the report with this title: Fall and YL 2011 Second Grading Period Rpt Due Jan. 19th 2012 (contains EC)
This link shows how to access your grade reports in the registration system: https://docs.google.com/a/ncpublicschools.gov/View?id=dfwwcvfq_1704fngh2vdv
It this grade report, you will find final grades for fall block courses in both the traditional calendar and early calendar courses. You will also find midterm grades for yearlong courses.
For all EOC and CTE courses, the grade that we report is 75% of the final grade. You will need to average in the EOC and CTE scores for the remaining 25% of the grade.
You will see “Null” grades for German courses, students who withdrew or dropped, and yearlong courses will have “Null” grades in the final grade column.
You will find these fields on the far right of the spreadsheet.
final exam
Grading Period 1
Comment
Grading Period 2
final grade
OSU reports German grades separately. Here’s OSU’s contact information:
Sabine Lewis, sabine.lewis@okstate.edu,
1-800-423-6493
german.online@okstate.edu
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Blackboard Pronto Update
For your district tech directors and school technology leaders:
NCVPS transitioned from the Pronto IM service to the new Blackboard Enterprise IM service on January 20, 2012. There were few changes to take place in this transition, one of which will be new instant messaging client download. Your students that use this on their personal machine should be able to install this with the normal installation instructions provided by their teachers. However, for those of you that need to use the IM service on the district machine, you will most likely need to install this for your students. Since this is the case, we have provided a link below in this email that will give you the installation files for both Mac and Windows platforms. Below the installation link there is also information that details port configurations and IP settings for the new service. Please make sure that your networks are set-up for these port configurations and IP acceptance.
The link to the zipped install file.
Download Zip File
- New Blackboard Collaborate IM server IP netblock will be: 69.46.102.224/27
- Connection information necessary for your Course Management System (CMS) to the Blackboard Collaborate IM Server –
o The CMS server needs to accept HTTP/HTTPS traffic from the following IP netblock69.46.102.224/27.
o The CMS server needs to be able to make outgoing TCP requests on port 443 and port 80 to IP netblock 69.46.102.224/27.
- The port requirements necessary for using Blackboard IM are the same as those needed to access web pages: Standard Web Access (Port 80/TCP). Components (features) of Blackboard IM will upgrade to use more efficient transport methods, when possible. The recommended ports to be opened on the network which the users will install the Blackboard IM desktop client onto their computer are:
o Text chat requires the ability to make TCP requests on port 443 or 5223 to the following IP netblock69.46.102.224/27.
o VOIP and Video requires the ability to make UDP requests on port 4569 to the following IP netblock 69.46.102.224/27.
o Application Sharing requires the ability to make TCP requests on port 5300 – 5900 and 5998 to the following IP netblock69.46.102.224/27.
If you have questions concerning the new installation process, please contact the NCVPS Helpdesk at http://www.help.ncvps.org/.
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AP Course Audits
During a recent AP Course Audit, the College Board approved the following courses to use the AP designation for the 2011-2012 academic year for the North Carolina Virtual Public School:
World History
Chinese Language and Culture
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On the Calendar: A Look Ahead
Thursday, January 26
Day 3 Student Status Report Posted in Registration System for Traditional Calendar
Friday, January 27
Last Day to Add Traditional Courses
Wednesday, February 1
Traditional Calendar Admin Drop Reports Sent to ELAs
Thursday, February 2
Corrections to Admin Drops Must Be Reported to Teachers by 5pm
Friday, February 3
Last Day to Drop Traditional Calendar Courses
School Usernames and Passwords
The e-learning coordinator (ELC) at the district office can now reset passwords for school and look up usernames.
Follow this link for directions: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZhbRzsiBzsVuwzXrEb8bUsHTRVlh6o-SqvC9RrQAp4c/edit
Previous Items
OCS Enrollment
Once a school registers for an OCS Blended Learning course in the NCVPS Registration System, the school contact listed in the NCVPS Registration System will be sent an email requesting information for the school’s classroom OCS teachers who will partner with the NCVPS content teacher. NCVPS will not assign an NCVPS partner teacher to a school until the school provides the teacher information. These emails requesting school information were sent out beginning on January 3, 2012. Additional emails for newly enrolled schools will be sent out several times a week hereafter. If your school contact has not received an email requesting classroom OCS teacher information, and it has been over three days since students were enrolled, please email Michelle Lourcey, michelle.lourcey@ ncpublicschools.gov.
If this information requested above is received by January 16, 2012, classroom OCS teachers will be contacted by their NCVPS partners during the week of January 17, 2012. At that time, classroom OCS teachers will have access to their course sections in Blackboard.
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NCVPS OCS Blended Learning program!
Want to learn more about the OCS Blended Learning program and its successes?
Check out our webpage: http://www.ncvps.org/index.php/courses/ocs-blended/
Here you can read about the program, read testimonials, and see the latest newsletter designed for the classroom partner teachers!
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Spring Registration
Registration for the Spring Semester will opened on November 14. NCVPS will be communicating information out regularly regarding enrollments, waitlists, and any course capacity situations. Please be vigilant in monitoring your enrollments.
SAS Computer Programming
SAS Computer Programming will be offered for Spring 2011 as a pilot. The course will not appear in the list of courses in the registration system or on the NCVPS course catalog. If you have students you would like to register for this course, please contact Karen Creech at – karen.creech@ncpublicschools.gov.
For more information on SAS Computer Programming, go to http://www.ncvps.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/NCVPS_SAS.pdf. You can download this flyer and share it with students. The flyer includes reasons why students should consider taking this course, career opportunities with SAS skills, a course description, and the prerequisites.
OCS Blended Learning
In order to register for NCVPS OCS Blended Learning courses for Spring 2012, please look in the NCVPS Registration System for the generic OCS Blended course in which you want to enroll students, such as OCS Blended Algebra I Spring 2012. You may need to scroll until you find the generic section that is not associated with any schools.
Once you enroll students into a generic course, the system will create a section of that course for your school’s students.
Courses available for Spring 2012 for OCS Blended Learning:
OCS Blended Learning Algebra I
OCS Blended Learning Applied Science
OCS Blended Learning Biology
OCS Blended Learning English I
OCS Blended Learning English II
OCS Blended Learning Intro to Math
NEW! Once a school registers for an OCS Blended Learning course in the NCVPS Registration System, the school contact listed in the NCVPS Registration System will be sent an email requesting information for the school’s classroom OCS teachers who will partner with the NCVPS content teacher. NCVPS will not assign an NCVPS partner teacher to a school until the school provides the teacher information. These emails requesting school information were sent out beginning on January 3, 2012. Additional emails for newly enrolled schools will be sent out several times a week hereafter. If your school contact has not received an email requesting classroom OCS teacher information, and it has been over three days since students were enrolled, please email Michelle Lourcey, michelle.lourcey@ncpublicschools.gov.
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Interventions for Low-Performing or At-Risk Students
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 school to follow.
- Have students contact their instructors during their office hours for live help.
- Try to establish a recurring time for student to meet with instructor (by Wimba, Pronto, or phone) for one-on-one tutoring.
- Have student sign up for NCVPS Peer Tutoring, which is available for certain courses. Go to this link to learn more: http://goo.gl/GRkwT .
- Establish peer tutoring with other successful NCVPS students at your school (if available).
- Have EC students meet with the school’s EC specialist.
- See our list of assistive technologies. Go to this link to learn more: http://goo.gl/eryLQ
- Have students attend your school’s review sessions (if available).
- Have students attend your school’s tutoring session (if available).
- If the student taking the course off campus, consider moving the student to a lab setting, especially if the student is not logging into the course.
- If you have students in EOC courses, but sure that they take part in our EOC Reviews that are in each EOC course. Have them contact their teachers for more information.
- Establish weekly or bi-weekly contact with instructors of any at-risk students.
- 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.
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Why NCVPS Credit Recovery?
Why should you choose NCVPS credit recovery?
Because it is a program completely different from all other credit recovery options — it focuses on the STUDENT and the differentiation that happens because of the powerful student/teacher relationship.
Learn more HERE! http://www.ncvps.org/index.php/courses/credit-recovery/
Check out the Testimonial link!
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FEATURED LINKS
follow this link for details on our LOCK Webinar Series. The series keeps district leaders apprised of NCVPS operations.
Follow this link to the new E-learning Advisors Portal.
Click here for the NCVPS district calendar.
CHECKLISTS
Click here for the online District and School Semester Checklist.
Click here for the online Getting Started Checklist for NCVPS Students.
REGISTRATION
School-level ELAs, follow this link to SchoolTube to watch a short video on the registration process.
District-office ELCs: Follow this link to watch a short video that shows how to check your district’s enrollment, check grades, and enroll and drop students at the school level.
Find our course catalogs here: http://www.ncvps.org/index.php/courses/catalogue/
If plan to enroll home school or private schools students into NCVPS courses through your districts, be sure to read this link first: http://www.ncvps.org/index.php/parents/homeprivate-school/
DLA Contact Information: Be sure to update your contact information in the registration system. Follow this link to see how to update your contact information.
CREDIT RECOVERY
Be aware of the new State Board grading policy in credit recovery courses: http://www.ncpublicschools. org/docs/stateboard/meetings/ 2010/12/gcs/12gcs.pdf This is for NCVPS and vendor credit recovery programs.
Please become familiar with the updated NCVPS IEP guidelines: http://www.ncvps.org/index.php/educators/operations-guides/
STUDENT SUPPORT
Find information on your new Help Desk here: https://docs.google.com/document/preview?id=1xIyjRZVIJGMHhSoz2K5EE7krBSN1RzUA70bOG7M1sV8
Follow this link to see a full list of assistive technologies that are beneficial for a variety of student disabilities: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Am5iphYrw8o_gwzsWHvO3RhhhPop81tLyhfiB-WK4g8/edit?hl=en&authkey=COv327YI&pli=1#
If your students need tutoring help, be sure to check out our Peer Tutoring Center by following this link. http://www.ncvps.org/?s=Peer+Tutoring
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Participation has been held as a key factor for achieving academic success for many years, and online education is no exception to this golden rule. A student’s level of participation in online schooling is a good indicator of their overall success. The reason why this is true is simple; an active student who is engaged in the curriculum has more opportunities to learn than a student who is not participating or is only active once in a while.
Allied National High School helps students taking online high school courses succeed by offering free scheduling advice. The Dean of Instruction creates customized schedules for students that need help planning their lessons upon request. Some students need assistance with creating a schedule that will work around their job, and other obligations. While others needs to catch up on some courses where they have fallen behind. Parents also ask for this type of assistance so they can help their child set academic goals and reward them as they hit weekly and monthly benchmarks.
We are pleased to announce the newest addition to the Allied National High School course offerings: Allied’s Guided Online Preparation for the GED® Test and Allied’s Self-Paced Online Preparation for the GED® Test. ANHS created these courses in response to the large number of inquiries we receive from prospective students that want to move on to post secondary goals as quickly as possible, and are not looking to complete their high school diploma.
Beginning with the ASCD SmartBrief.
