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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. |
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NCVPS E-lert – Sept. 7, 2017 – Fall Edition III (Registration Deadline Approaching)
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Calendar Check
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2017 – 2018
Summer 2017 Dates
August 11: Last Day Summer Classes
August 17: Grades Posted
Fall 2017 Dates
August 14: Early Calendar Start
August 17: Early Calendar Day-3 No-Show Report Posted
August 23: Early Calendar Day 7 No-Show Report Posted
August 25: Last Day to Drop Early Calendar
August 28: Traditional Calendar Start
August 31: Traditional Calendar Day-3 No-Show Report Posted
Sept. 7: Traditional Calendar Day-7 No-Show Report Posted
Sept. 7: Early Calendar Progress Reports Posted Posted
September 11: Last Day to Drop Traditional Calendar
Sept. 21: Progress Reports Posted
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Connect with us on Twitter! Find us here. Tweet to us on Twitter at @ncvps or with the hashtag #ncvps. |
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Greetings, everyone!
We know most districts and schools are preparing for hurricane weather next week. Please see our Hurricane Irma message below for details on how we will operate in the event of school closings.
Additionally, Monday, Sept. 11, is our last day to enroll or drop students. We are prepared to adjust that date based on the school closings next week. Stay tuned for an updated message.
Our Day-7 No-Show Report has been posted in the registration system. This is the last update schools will get on student progress before Monday’s enroll and drop deadline. We know some students are just now getting enrolled, but please reach out to students who are a no-show. See if they need assistance.
Important Information
In addition, be sure to check out all of our tips and reminders in this week’s e-lert.
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| Hurricane and Inclement Weather Message |
NCVPS has an inclement weather plan and is making preparations for Hurricane Irma, which may impact students’ access to their online courses. NCVPS will do the following if the hurricane or inclement weather disrupts school operations:
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Notify NCVPS teachers of the storm’s impact on North Carolina schools and districts.
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Ensure that NCPVS teachers have flexible plans for students who cannot access their online courses. Teachers will monitor student logins, remain flexible, and communicate with students about progress and needs.
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Communicate to districts and students any interruption to services that NCVPS might experience (power outages, access issues, etc.). This information will be provided through our website, email, social media, and in Canvas (our learning management system).
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Communicate with teachers to determine which teachers have also been affected by any inclement weather.
Districts should be prepared to do the following:
Parents and students can do the following:
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Notify their NCVPS teachers, if possible, if access to courses have been affected due to inclement weather.
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Communicate with the NCVPS teacher regarding make-up work.
Note that if students have continued access to courses, they may continue working if their situation allows, even if their school is closed.
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| NCVPS Final Grade and Final Exam Update |
NCVPS is adjusting its percentages on final exam and final classwork weights. We surveyed school districts last spring to see how districts weighted their final exams, which includes EOCs, CTEs, NCFEs, and teacher-made final exams. Most districts weighted their final exams at 20%.
Effective Fall 2017, NCVPS will weight its teacher-made final exams or final projects at 20% rather than 25% to better align with our LEAs. Our final grade reports will have this grade information:
Non-EOC/CTE/NCFE Courses
Classwork Grade: 80%
Final Exam/Project: 20%
Final Grade: A final numerical grade will be entered here
EOC/CTE/NCFE Courses
Classwork Grade: 80%
Final Exam: Null (schools will administer)
Final Grade: Null (schools will calculate)
Please note that schools can adjust our final weights to match their district’s final weights. If schools do this, they will need to recalculate the final grade for the Non-EOC/CTE/NCFE courses.
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| Fall 2017 Updates |
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.
Waitlists and Course Capacity Issues Don’t panic if your students land the waitlist when you register them. Our instructional directors look at the waitlists daily to determine if a new section needs to be opened or if a current section needs to be expanded.
We do have a few courses operating at capacity, however. Visit our Course Capacity: 2017-2018 list for details. If a student is waitlisted in a course that is at capacity, the only way the student will move off the waistlist is if a student who is already enrolled drops the course. Enrollment Options after September 11
Registration for Fall 2017 will close on Monday, Sept. 11. However, we still have a number of options for schools.
Credit Recovery: Credit recovery enrollment will remain open until November 22, 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 OCS sections after Sept. 11.
1/2 Credit Health and 1/2 Credit PE Courses: Registration for our 2nd 9-week health courses will remain open until November 13, 2017.
Transfer Students: After Sept. 11, we will begin 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. We will have more details on this next week. We are able to accept transfer students through November 22, 2016.
Important Dates
Start Dates
Early Calendar: August 14
Traditional Calendar: August 28
Day 3 No-Show Report
Early Calendar: August 17
Traditional Calendar: August 31
*Find this document in the registration system. It will show which students have not logged in yet. Please contact those students.
Day 7 No-Show Report
Early Calendar: August 23
Traditional Calendar: September 7
*Find the Day 3 and Day 7 no-show reports in our registration system (click “Reports.”) These reports show which students have not logged in. Please contact them to see if they need help or if they need to be dropped.
Last Day to Drop and Add
Early Calendar: August 25
Traditional Calendar: September 11
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 the NCVPS Calendar Page for progress report dates. We post updates every two weeks throughout the semester. Semester Success with NCPVS
We have several processes that schools should follow throughout the semester to help students have greater success in NCVPS courses.
Program and Catalog Updates
Flex Enrollment Update
Fall enrollments for Flex will begin after the NCVPS Fall 2017 registration period ends, in mid-September.
The Flex option is not for schools that are on a different calendar than what NCVPS offers. It is for individual student situations for flex learning needs.
OCS Registration Process Update
Our tech crew has created a workaround for OCS registration. You no longer have to initially enroll in the Dynamic section or find your section for additional enrollments. Just like other course enrollments, you can now click on any section to enroll. Watch this short screencast for details.
CTE Courses for OCS Students
NCVPS has four CTE courses that have additional resources for OCS students. If you have OCS students who need NCVPS CTE courses, please enroll them in our Career Management, Personal Finance, Principles of Business, or Marketing courses. These courses are not part of our OCS program, but they do have supports in place for OCS students.
Arts Classes with NCVPS
NCVPS has a great arts program! If you are looking for electives for students or if you have students who wish to take higher-level art classes, please check out our section. See our Visual Arts page and check out the NCVPS Catalogfor a full listing of visual arts and musical arts.
Parental Permission form for Health and PE Classes
If you have students enrolled in HPE Health and Physical Education, Fitness-Physical Education, or Health Education, please see our NCVPS Health and Physical Education page to download the parental permission forms if your school does not have any. These forms should be kept on file at your school. This page also include prerequisites, strategies, and best practices to ensure your students complete these courses successfully.
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| Grade Report Updates |
What Grades Are Currently Posted?
September 7: Traditional Calendar Day-7 No-Show Report Posted in the Registration System.
September 7: Early Calendar Progress Report.
What’s Next on the Schedule?
September 14: Progress Reports for all Classes
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| Reporting Overview |
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
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| Student Login Issues |
We have received a number of help tickets from students who can’t login to their courses. Usually it has been one of two issues:
2. If you just registered a student, it takes about 24 hours before their username and password will work. Some students are trying to immediately log in. We are happy they are eager to start! But it is usually the next day before their passwords will work.
Here are all of our login troubleshooting steps:
Be sure that you have your correct username and password. Your school will issue you this login information. NCVPS does not issue usernames and passwords.
- NCVPS uses Canvas for its learning management system. Many schools and districts also use Canvas. NCVPS has its own Canvas login web address. Be sure you are logging in to your NCVPS courses at this link: https://ncvps.instructure.com/login/canvas/
- If this is your first time logging in, confirm with your e-learning advisor (ELA) that you are enrolled and not waitlisted.
- If you were just registered today, it will take 24 hours to get access.
- If you had an NCVPS class before in Canvas, and you changed your password, then that is the password that you will need to use.
- If you still cannot log in, open a ticket with our Virtual Support Center at this link. Be sure to include your name, PowerSchool ID number, school, and course that you’re trying to log in to.
- If your password has worked before, but you have forgotten it, use the “Forgot Password” feature on the Canvas login page. This will work if you have your correct email address identified in the course settings.
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| NCVPS OCS Courses and OCS Partner Teacher Access |
In order for OCS face-to-face (F2F) Classroom Teachers to receive access to their NCVPS OCS Courses, the OCS Classroom Teacher Designation Form must have been completed and submitted. Once this form has been submitted an NCVPS teacher will be assigned, and your teachers will get course access in 48 to 72 hours.
The links to the OCS Classroom Teacher Training Handbook and the OCS F2F Classroom Teacher Designation Form are below:
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| SAR Data for NCVPS Teachers |
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. The Virtual Teacher Identification Number (VTIN) will work in place of the SSN, as well.
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 reporting 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 a reporting error.
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| Canvas App for Parents |
Parents and facilitators can now download the Canvas Parent 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) or with the student.
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:
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| NCVPS Registration System Update |
NCVPS is making some upgrades to its registration system. These changes will be pushed out next week.
Here’s a preview . . . .
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| NCVPS 10-Year Anniversary Symposium |
The North Carolina Virtual Public School is turning 10! We are celebrating a decade in online teaching and learning and invite you to our 10-Year Anniversary Symposium. The Symposium will bring us together to connect, share, and learn about online and digital learning. We will commemorate the past ten years and look at the future of learning. Follow this link to register!
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| Tech Updates |
Help Desk Issues with Certain Emails We are experiencing issues sending help desk responses to the following email domains: AOL
BellSouth
Carolina.rr.com
Roadrunner.com When submitting a Help Desk ticket, please use an alternate email address other than one of the above domains. We are working to resolve the issue.
Chrome Update
If you’re using Chrome, please update your Chrome browser to the latest version Version 60.0.3112.78. To update Google Chrome, follow these steps:
- On your computer, open Chrome.
- At the top right, click More .
- Click Help
- Click About Chrome
- Relaunch
Opening a Ticket with the Virtual Support Center. The Virtual Support Center is our one-stop shop for resolving technical and other issues, including enrolling, course access, funding, withdrawals, advice, and special requests.
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.
Student Email Confirmations in Canvas
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.
Tech Requirements
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SUITE 3900, Raleigh, NC 27606
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