NCVPS E-lert for March 12, 2015

What seems to be a semi-regular Friday feature…

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 webpage here. March 12, 2015 – In This Issue: Current E-lert News For Your Information In The Loop Calendar Check 2015 March 6 – End of early calendar 1st 9-Weeks. March 9 – Beginning of early calendar 2nd 9-Weeks. March 12 – 1st 9-week grades for early calendar posted in the registration system. March 12 – Progress reports for traditional calendar and yearlong courses posted in the registration system. Celebrate & Connect Success Stories Districts and Schools, tell us about your success stories. Help us celebrate 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 submit your celebration. Connect with us on Twitter!Find us here. Tweet to us on Twitter at @ncvps or with the hashtag #ncvps. E-lert Subscription If you are not on the E-lert subscription list, but would like to be, please add your name toour list here. Current E-lert News E-learning Advisor of the Year Award! Yes! NCVPS is celebrating the BEST in e-learning support! The first annual search for the E-learning Advisor of the Year is underway!  2015 marks the first year NCVPS will recognize an E-learning Advisor or E-learning Coordinator who demonstrates exemplary support, innovation and commitment.   Award Description The E-learning Advisor (ELA) and/or E-learning Coordinator (ELC) award is to recognize an ELA or ELC whose innovative practices serve as a model for other schools or districts. Their innovation results in improving the overall effectiveness of online learning and contributes to the success of students taking NCVPS courses. This success has led to opportunities for students and improved student achievement.   Stay tuned for more details. Our teachers are nominating ELAs and ELCs right now. NCVPS Catalogue Updates NCVPS has posted its course listing for the 2015 – 2016 school year on our catalogue page here.  Below are some highlights to note.   1. Following the name change by the State Board of Education, Civics and Economics has been renamed to American History: The Founding Principles, Civics, and Economics. This name change is effective in the fall of 2015.   2. The following courses are being revised and will not be offered in the 2015 – 16 school year: AP Art History AP Biology AP European AP Latin AP Statistics Principles of Business and Finance Latin 3 (will return in the spring of 2016) 3. Calculus Honors is being removed from the catalog due to low enrollment.   4. NCVPS is unable to offer German through Oklahoma State University at this time.  In order to be compliant with North Carolina’s Information Technology System’s procedures, NCVPS is required to complete an RFP process in order to offer German and will be completing this process during the 2015-2016 school year. If it is possible to offer German courses at any time during the 2015-2016 school year, the course catalog will be updated and information sent out to all stakeholders.   5. The following courses are new to the 2015-16 NCVPS course catalogue: Middle School Creative Writing Visual Arts Specialization (6-8): Middle School Art Visual Arts Specialization (6-8): Middle School Discovering Photography AP Physics 2 Forensic Science (Previously offered as a STEM course) Early Calendar Grade Report – March 12 See how your students are progressing!  Two reports have been posted in the registration system. The first report is the first weighted grade report for early calendar classes. The second report is a progress report for traditional calendar classes. Let’s take a look at the weighted early calendar report first.   Look for the report with this title: “Early Calendar Spring 2015 Third Grading Period Rpt Due March 10, 2015.” (The first traditional calendar weighted grade report will be posted on March 26.)   Here is how we weight our grades:   Standard Grading Scale for Block Classes 37.5%     (First Grade Report) 37.5%  (Second Grade Report) *Final Exam/Project: 25% Standard Grading Scale for Yearlong Classes 18.75%  (First Grade Report) 18.75%  (Second Grade Report) 18.75%  (Third Grade Report) 18.75%  (Fourth Grade Report) 25%       (Final Exam/Project)*   *EOC and CTE Courses   The Final Exam for EOC and CTE courses will be the EOC and VoCATS score. Schools are responsible for the administration of all EOC and CTE tests. For those courses, the grades NCVPS reports to the school will be 75% of the final grade. Schools will score the EOCs and CTEs and average in the remaining 25% to determine the final grade.   *SAT Prep will not have a final exam because of the two-part nature of the course.   All other courses have their final exams or final projects online in the course. The following fields are on our first weighted grade reports:   Grading Period 3 = All early calendar courses will report a numeric grade here.   Comment = All instructors will leave a comment.   Progress Report Details:   1. All of your enrolled students will be on this report, including traditional calendar students. Traditional calendar students will have a “null” grade in this report. The first grade report for traditional calendar students will be posted onMarch 26.   2. The grade column is titled “Grading Period 3” because this will be the third grade report for yearlong classes. This is the first grade report for spring block early calendar courses, though. Please keep that in mind.   3. Even if a student is supposed to be dropped, we will report a grade until the school withdraws the student.     Sample Grade Report   Supporting Links:   Follow this link to see how to run a grade report.   Follow this link to see our Quick Reference Guide on Grades. Progress Reports Posted – March 12 A progress report was posted in the registration system on March 12. The report is titled “2015 Spring YL, Block, CR Progress Report Due March 10, 2015.” 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. Registration Options SummerSummer registration is scheduled to open onMarch 30. Stay tuned for more details. You can start collecting student emails, which you will need for registration, and preparing summer support plans in advance of summer registration.   Transfers NCVPS is still accepting transfer students on a case-by-case basis.   The last date to transfer in to NCVPS is on Friday, March 20.   If you have a transfer student, open a ticket with the virtual support center to get started. The support center will send you some information to complete before the transfer request is evaluated. Celebrate National Learning Day! The national Digital Learning Day is Friday, March 13, 2015! NCVPS teachers have been showcasing and highlighting the best in digital learning in their courses throughout the week. How can you participate with us?   Start by checking out the national DLDay webpage here.   Meet our 2015 Teacher of the Year Jessica Ludders here.   Follow NCVPS throughout the day on March 13 for our digital learning showcase. You can follow us on Twitter @ncvps and with the hashtag #NCDLDay. Supporting Students – Intervention Time Be sure to check the latest progress report to see how your students are progressing. If you have students who are low-performing, under-performing, or at-risk for any reason, NCVPS has a number ofintervention strategies for districts and schools to help.  Follow this link to see our intervention strategies. AP Test for NCVPS Courses Please forward this message to your school’s AP testing coordinator.   Be sure to input the NCVPS code (045) into the “Online Provider Code” found on page 1, item G of the student’s AP answer sheet during administration of the exam.   This will allow NCVPS to receive a copy of the student’s May 2015 test scores for our records.   These scores are needed as part of the accountability piece for NCVPS. Chromebook Issues NCVPS leadership would like to remind school-based technologists that Chromebooks are not on our list of supported hardware specifications.  Students will struggle to successfully complete NCVPS courses with a Chromebook as their primary technology resource.  The collaborative tools, java content, pull down menus and submission of assessments can all be problematic and/or non-functional in NCVPS courses.While we realize it can be a challenge for districts to supply technology resources for students, allowing students to attempt their coursework on a Chromebook will have a major impact on student success. This negative impact is seen by NCVPS on a regular basis. Please take a look at NCVPS technology requirements (see below) to gain further information on system resources students will need to be successful in NCVPS courses. Tech Updates Below are some tips and reminders to help you have a wonderful school year! Opening a Ticket  When opening a ticket with the virtual support center, please always include the following: Students first & last name ID number (This will help to insure we have the correct student) Course name – including specific section ex: CourseSec01Spring15. Replying to a Support Center Ticket   Reply back to a ticket by clicking on the link provided at the bottom of a help reply email will keep all students information secure and will attach your information directly to the ticket. See image: http://screencast.com/t/ZdciZ55coU4 Blackboard Instant Messaging (BBIM)   Students will need to click on the BBIM link in their class and create an ID and password that they will remember. NCVPS does not issue BBIM logins nor do we store this information. Student Email Confirmations in Moodle and Blackboard   If a student’s e-mail is missing or shows pleaseadd@ncvps – the student will not receive important e-mails from their teachers. Please have students confirm/update their email information by following these steps: 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  Bookmark NCVPS Login Pages   Many students visit our homepage to log in to their courses. It is a best practice to bookmark the actual login pages for both Moodle and and Blackboard. Please have students and lab facilitators bookmark the following pages:   Moodle: http://moodle.ncvps.org/   Blackboard:  https://ncvps.blackboard.com/   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:   Registration System: http://registration.ncvps.org/ncvps/user/login/   Virtual Support Center: http://www.help.ncvps.org/   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 in your email account to access the new password or click “Forgot Password” on the Moodle or Blackboard login pages. 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) English 1  –   Odysseyware English 2  –   Odysseyware NCVPS Professional Learning Shattering the Myths of Online and Blended Learning, a 6 Week, facilitator-led, professional learning course, is now available through North Carolina Virtual Public School. Have you ever questioned the relevance and rigor of online and blended courses in comparison to brick-and-mortar courses? Do you believe that online courses create an environment where learners simply read content and click “next”? Do you believe that online courses produce an environment where relationships cannot be developed and connected to the learning?  Then, you will not want to miss out on this learning experience.   Join North Carolina Virtual Public School as we shatter nine myths of online and blended learning, in this newly launched 6-week professional learning course.   The cost is $165.00/individual.   For registration details, visit http://www.ncvps.org/index.php/ncvps-professional-learning/.   Contact Don Lourcey for questions or comments: don.lourcey@ncpublicschools.gov Middle School Art Adventures NCVPS is pleased to announce that it will offer an arts course specifically designed for middle school students in the Spring 2015 semester. Please check out our Middle School Art Adventures course below! (click image for larger view) See more details about the Middle School Art Adventures course here.   View our full course catalog here. 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  | http://www.ncvps.org STAY CONNECTED

Adam Renfro
Outreach and Support Coordinator
North Carolina Virtual Public School
910.644.0757

North Carolina Virtual Public School | 1017 Main Campus Drive, Partners I Bldg., 

SUITE 3900 | Raleigh | NC | 27606
adam.renfro@ncpublicschools.gov
NCVPS Virtual Support Center:  http://www.help.ncvps.org/