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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 for Sept. 13, 2016 – Fall Edition V
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 Calendar Check |
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2016
Start Dates
Early Calendar: Aug. 15
Traditional Calendar: Aug. 29
Day 3 No-Show Report
Early Calendar: Aug. 18
Traditional Calendar: Sept. 1
*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: Aug. 24
Traditional Calendar: Sept. 8
*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: Aug. 26
Traditional Calendar: Sept.12
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.
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NCVPS 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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Connect with us on Twitter!Find us here. Tweet to us on Twitter at @ncvps or with the hashtag #ncvps. |
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Tonight is our last NCFE webinar. See registration information below.
Be sure to check out our current enrollment options below.
Here’s all the NCVPS news:
Updated This Week
Important From Last Week!
In addition, be sure to check out all of our tips and reminders in this week’s e-lert.
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| Support Center Tickets Responses (Updated Message) |
 We sent a direct email message last Friday about schools that are not receiving email responses to their help desk tickets. A number of districts are reporting that our help desk tickets are hitting district spam filters. Please be sure that your district or charter school has both of these domains on the whitelist to bypass content filtering:
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| NCVPS Shared Courses |
The North Carolina Virtual Public School (NCVPS) is currently working on a process to share the courses designated as shared courses through the NC Canvas Commons and Home Base. While we work on this process, we are enacting a moratorium on sharing of these courses. Once the course content is available through the NC Canvas Commons and Home Base, an update will be communicated through multiple channels, including this e-lert.
For information on which courses will be available, see the shared course list below. We anticipate these courses being available through either NC Canvas Commons, Home Base, or both by the Spring of 2017. We thank you for interest in incorporating digital content into your practice and your patience while we streamline this process.
Career and Technical Courses
- Accounting I
- Biotechnology & Agriscience Research I
- Biotechnology & Agriscience Research II
- Career Management
- Computer Programming I
- eCommerce 1 Honors
- Entrepreneurship I (BE/ME)
- Personal Finance
- Principles of Business and Finance (BE/ME)
- Strategic Marketing
Core Courses
- American History 1 and 2
- Biology
- Chemistry Honors
- Civics and Economics
- English 1, 2, 3, and 4
- World History
Critical Language Courses
- AP Mandarin Chinese
- Arabic 1 & 2
- Japanese 1 & 2
- Mandarin Chinese Language and Culture 1, 2, 3 & 4
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| NCFE Webinar |
The North Carolina Virtual Public School will host one more webinar to discuss changes in the North Carolina Final Exams (NCFE) as they pertain to NCVPS courses.
Starting with the 2016-17 school year, all students enrolled in NCVPS courses that administer the NCFE must take the NCFE at their local school. This includes NCVPS Occupational Course of Study courses that are taught jointly between the LEA and NCVPS.
These twenty-eight courses have NCFEs:
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English 1, 3, 4
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American History: Civics, World History, American History 1 and 2
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Physical Science, Earth/Environmental Science, Chemistry, Physics
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Math 2, Math 3, Advanced Functions and Modeling, Pre-Calculus
Please forward this message and registration to the EVAAS and/or data personnel in your district.
Join NCVPS and Division of Educator Human Capital Policy and Research to discuss this update and answer questions.
Follow this link to register:
Please forward this message to the EVAAS and/or data personnel in your district or charter.
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| Fall 2016 Updates |
Registration Details
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. Enrollment Options
Our Fall 2016 enrollment has closed. However, we still have a number of options for schools.
Credit Recovery: Credit recovery enrollment will remain open until November 23, 2016. 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. 12.
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: After Sept. 12, 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 23, 2016.
Mastery Learning for First-Time Credit: Our new mastery learning courses 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 mastery learning enrollment.
Semester Success Your students are registered, now what? Check out our Semester Success with NCVPS web page for the basic support details that will assist your students throughout the semester.
Grade Reporting Updates
Fall Report Cards Update
NCVPS is transitioning all of its courses to the Canvas learning management system. Currently, Canvas does not have the functionality to let schools calculate weighted marking period grades.
Starting in Fall 2016, NCVPS will post grades in the NCVPS registration system following our new process:
- Cumulative progress reports every two weeks.
- Final class average at the end of term (75%), along with the final exam grade (25%), and final grade.
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For EOC, CTE, NCFE courses, we report the final classwork grade (75%), and schools calculate in the exam grades (25%). Districts can adjust those percentages based on their percentage weight for final exams.
The cumulative progress reports are a very accurate indicator of exactly how a student is performing in the course. They are not weighted grades however, so they would not be grades that you would add to PowerSchool report card grades. Many schools will send home a separate NCVPS progress report when they send home report cards throughout the semester. They will record the final NCVPS grade in PowerSchool at the end of the term. It is a local decision, however, on how to do this.
NC Final Exams
Prior to Fall 2016, NCVPS students were not required to take NC Final Exams (NCFE) since NCVPS teachers are contractors with no Standard 6 in their evaluations. While NCVPS did not take NCFEs in the 28 NCFE math, science, English, and social studies subjects, students did complete a final project and/or take an NCVPS Final Exam.
Now, student growth is no longer affiliated with teacher evaluations – a decision by the SBE this Spring. For this reason, all NCVPS students will take the NCFEs as administered by their schools beginning with the Fall 2016*. NCVPS will report the final course work grade, and just like EOCs, school districts will administer NCFEs and calculate final averages.
What Grades Are Currently Posted? September 8: We posted the first Early Calendar progress report in the NCVPS registration system. Look for the report titled “Fall 2016 Early Calendar Progress Report Due Tuesday, Sept 6th.”
What’s Next on the Schedule?
September 22: Progress reports for both Early Calendar and Traditional Calendar courses.
Reporting Overview
Parent Observer Access in Canvas NCVPS is excited to announce that parents and guardians can now view their students’ progress in our Canvas courses. Observers have limited permissions that allow them to view what is happening in a course without interrupting the flow of daily course communication. You can also download the Canvas Parent App in the iTunes and Android app stores.
Important Note: Parents will need their students’ login information to create their observer access. NCVPS will not be able to supply this information. Parents will need to get these details either from the local school or from their students. For more details, view our Observer Access web page here.
Catalog Updates
Our full catalogs are posted here. We have additional updated catalog information below. Leadership Development
In NCVPS’s Leadership Development course, students learn all of the skills and values associated with leadership. They will explore group dynamics, project planning, collaboration, and relationship skills. They will also investigate leadership qualities of present-day and historical leaders by identifying and analyzing leadership examples. This course has real-world applications, too. Students will develop personal leadership profiles and plans and leave the course as emerging leaders.
AP Art History AP Calculus AB and BC
We are happy to announce that we are offering the AP Calculus AB and BC courses as block courses this year. We will offer AP Calculus AB in the Fall ’16 semester and AP Calculus BC in the Spring ’17 semester. We do have a yearlong version of the AB course, but we do not have a yearlong version of the BC course. We are revising the BC course to meet the new College Board standards, and it will be ready in the spring.
Please note that AP Calculus AB is a prerequisite for AP Calculus BC. Ensure students enrolled in the BC course have met the prerequisite. If your students are meeting that prerequisite with us in the fall, be sure they are enrolled in the fall block AB course.
Also consider that an AB subscore is provided when students take the AP Calculus BC exam. If students choose to take the AP exam, then they will want to register for the AP Calculus BC exam only.
Math 1, 2, and 3 New Standards
We are in the process of revising our standard and credit recovery Math 1, 2, and 3 courses to reflect the change in standards. The 2016 – 2017 courses will follow the new curriculum. We recognize that the next year will be a transition year. Our teachers will work closely with our district partners to ensure that the transition is complete.
AP Computer Science Principles – New Course Offering
AP Physics Lab Materials To align with revised College Board requirements for AP Physics 1 and 2, we are revising the labs in these courses for the 2016-2017 school year. Students will require materials for these hands-on labs. We will post a list of required materials on our course description page later this summer. Physical Education
We have recently added a Spanish language version to the page. We hope this helps!
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| NCVPS Student Quick Start Template |
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This template is a guide to give to students before classes begin. It has a place for all the essential details to help students get started with their NCVPS courses.
You will need to fill in some of the details or you can have students come to you and complete the details themselves. You can print the template for students, or you can copy and paste it into an email that you send to students.
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Chromebook 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. 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”.
Course Issues
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
Opening a Ticket with the Virtual Support Center
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.
Student Email Confirmations in Canvas and Blackboard
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.
JAVA and Flash Updates
Please update your Java to Version Java 8, Update 91.
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 22.0.0.209
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.
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 Blackboard. Please have students and lab facilitators bookmark the following pages:
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:
Tech Requirements
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 NCVPS Courses NCVPS offers over 150 different courses, including advanced placement, electives, traditional, honors, core, STEM, occupational course of study, and credit recovery courses.
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)
Courses – Vendor
AP Language & Composition – Edgenuity
AP Literature & Composition – Edgenuity
AP Psychology – Edgenuity
AP US HistoryEdgenuity
AP Spanish Language & Culture – Edgenuity
NC History – Edgenuity
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North Carolina Virtual Public School
1017 Main Campus Drive, Partners I Bldg.,
SUITE 3900, Raleigh, NC 27606
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STAY CONNECTED
 
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We have noticed a pattern in student login issues. A number of students have been attempting to log in to their district’s or school’s Canvas login site. A district’s Canvas login site will not work for NCVPS courses.
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).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:
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