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May 23, 2022
Greetings, everyone!
We have two big items this week: Final grades will be posted on May 26, and we have a new executive director! See all the details below.
Please forward this e-lert to any stakeholders who may need it. They can subscribe to the e-lert here.
And thank you for all your great support this year! |
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It’s a Wrap for 2021-2022
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Final Grades
We will report final grades for yearlong and spring block courses on May 26. Look for the grade report in our registration system on that day. If you need grades for graduating seniors before that date, contact our teachers directly.
Course Extensions
Standard start course extension end on May 23. If a longer extension is required, the teacher will work with the Instructional Director on a case-by-case basis.
Exam Exemptions
NCVirtual teachers are expected to give final exams or final projects in non-EOC courses and CTE courses that require teacher-made exams. If your district has a policy to exempt seniors (or others) from final exams, here is the NCVirtual process.
- Notify your students and the NCVirtual teachers that your students will not take the final exam based on your district’s or school’s policy.
- On the NCVirtual final grade report, we report three grades: Classwork (80%), Final Exam (20%), Final Grade. If schools notify our teachers about the exam exemptions, they will enter “EX” (exemption) for the exam grade. The classwork grade will then be used for the final grade.
- If you have students with exam exemptions and have not notified our teachers, only use the Classwork grade for the final grade. You will not record our Final Exam grade and the Final Grade for exempted students.
In addition, schools may recalculate the final overall grade by adjusting the weighting of the final exam/project to align with local policies.
State Testing
See all the details about how NCVirtual grades and the EOC and CTE state exams schools need to administer in our Grades and Testing Quick Reference Guide.
Required NCVirtual Teacher Break
State HR requires NCVirtual teachers to have a 31-day break. That break begins on May 27. If you have questions about a course grade after May 26, open a ticket with our Virtual Support Center. Include the student name, PowerSchool ID number, school name, course title, and teacher’s name. The help desk will escalate the ticket to the instructional director for that course.
Tips and Reminders
See our End of Semester Tips and Reminders for all the details. |
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Meet NCVirtual’s New Executive Director
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NCVirtual is pleased to announce Dr. Mia Murphy has been selected as its new executive director. Dr. Murphy has succeeded Dr. Eliz Colbert, who retired in April. Dr. Murphy was most recently NCVirtual’s Chief Operations Officer and has served as the organization’s Director of Outreach and Support.
Dr. Murphy is a veteran educator with over 25 years working in K-20 schools. Prior to joining NCVirtual, she served as the Director of Educational Technology and Learning Resources with Johnston Community College and as the Director of Special Projects and Instructional Technology with the North Carolina Department of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.
Dr. Murphy has many years of experience in instructional technology, online learning, and program development. Reared in rural eastern North Carolina, she is committed to ensuring all students have options and opportunities to meet their unique needs. She holds a bachelor’s degree from North Carolina A&T State University, MBA from UNC-Greensboro, a master’s in education-instructional technology from East Carolina University, and a doctorate in educational leadership from UNC-Chapel Hill.
Dr. Murphy resides in Knightdale with her family, Torrii, Landon, and Reed.
NCVirtual is the nation’s second-largest state-led virtual school with over 50,000 enrollments a year from all 115 school districts and many charter schools. |
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Summer Contact Information
NCVirtual must know who the summer e-learning advisor is for each school that registers students. You may elect to have just one contact for the entire district over the summer. Please complete our NCVirtual Summer 2022 ELA Contact Information form if you are registering students for summer with NCVirtual.
Presently, you may not have any students enrolled in NCVirtual summer courses, but if your district or charter does enroll students in the coming weeks for Summer 2022, we will need this information.
If you have your school-level ELA contact information in an Excel document, you can copy and paste that into the contact box below. |
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2022-2023 Registration Tips
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Registration for the 2022-2023 school year is open. Here are a few tips as you register:
- Make sure you’re enrolling in the correct semester. We have summer, fall, spring, yearlong, early standard, and standard start options.
- Use the search feature in our registration system to find the courses you are looking for. Similar to PowerSchool, Math is 1-4. World Languages and English are I-IV. Our OCS courses have “blended” in the course title, and our co-taught intervention courses have “co-teaching” in the course title.
- Understand our waitlist. Our instructional directors use the waitlist to determine if they need to open a new section of the course or increase the capacity of an already opened section.
- We will likely have a few courses end up on our course capacity list. Popular demand and teacher limitations drive this list. Students waitlisted for those courses may have a difficult time getting a seat in the course.
- Download an enrollment report each day that you register to keep up to date on enrollment status and to have students’ usernames and passwords ready.
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| Registration Details
The 2022-2023 academic year registration opened on Thursday, March 31, 2022.
Note that summer enrollment is included in the new 22-23 allotment projections.
Early Start vs. Standard Start
Our Early Start calendars for our fall and spring semesters begin and end about two weeks earlier than our Standard Start calendars. Which calendar should you choose? Here’s what you should do:
Determine when you need final grades and register students for that calendar (Early Start or Standard Start). In the past, we’ve had schools request early final grades late in the semester. We are moving away from that practice. Students need time to complete all the modules and objectives in their courses. Please guard that teaching and learning time for your online students. Work with your data managers and curriculum directors to help ensure this best practice.
Note that our Standard Start calendar has a more extensive selection of courses than Early Start. It’s easier for us to staff the Standard Start calendar. You may have students enrolled in both our Early Start and Standard Start calendars. That’s not unusual. However, if you must have a course on the Early Start schedule, you can make that request through our Virtual Support Center. We will try to accommodate that request.
One final note: The last day to register for Early Start classes has been extended to the last day to register for Standard Start classes. The last day to drop is still on the tenth day (you can withdraw throughout the semester).
2022-2023 Calendar
We have our 2022-2023 calendar ready to share. See the key dates posted on our Calendar page, along with a spreadsheet of all dates.
2022-2023 Catalog
Our 22-23 Catalog has been posted. We have one new course at this time—AP Chemistry. We have several courses nearing completion that we hope to add to the catalog soon.
Summer Session Guide
See our guide for the 2022 Summer Session. We also have a Summer Session Guide for Parents. Please share with any parents or students who are interested. Please note that parents of public school students cannot register directly with us. They must register through their local school. Enrollment costs cannot be passed on to public school families.
Summer Contact Information
NCVirtual must know who the summer e-learning advisor is for each school that registers students. You may elect to have just one contact for the entire district over the summer. Please complete our NCVirtual Summer 2022 ELA Contact Information form if you are registering students for summer with NCVirtual.
Presently, you may not have any students enrolled in NCVirtual summer courses, but if your district or charter does enroll students in the coming weeks for Summer 2022, we will need this information.
If you have your school-level ELA contact information in an Excel document, you can copy and paste that into the contact box below.
2022-2023 Academic Year Guide
See our full 22-23 Academic Year Guide for all the details to have a successful school year with NCVirtual. |
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What Grades Are Currently Posted?
May 12 – Final Grades for Early Start Classes Posted in the NCVirtual Registration System
May 12 – Progress Reports for Standard Start Classes Posted in the NCVirtual Registration System
What’s Next on the Schedule?
May 26 – Final Grades for Standard Start Classes Posted in the NCVirtual Registration System
Progress Report Action Steps
What should your action steps be with our progress reports? We’re glad you asked! Visit our Progress Report Action Steps page for all the details.
A Snapshot of NCVirtual Grading Guidelines
We recently published a Snapshot of NCVirtual Grading Guidelines. Please note that NCVirtual teachers must adhere to the NCVirtual grading guidelines, practices, and procedures which can be found in our Grading and Testing Quick Reference Guide. NCVirtual teachers cannot adjust their NCVirtual grading guidelines, practices, and procedures based on a local school’s or district’s policy.
Reporting Overview
See our Grades and Testing Quick Reference Guide for an overview of our reporting. We have details on our Student Status (No-Show) Reports, Progress Reports, Final Grade Reports, and how we calculate grades. |
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District and School Outreach
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| In our Digital Transition webinar series, we share best practices for supporting students in learning online. You will leave with a toolkit of resources to bring to your face-to-face classroom into the virtual world! |
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| Our Teacher Online Training course is a free professional development program for NC public and charter school teachers designed to prepare and support educators as they work in online and remote learning environments. |
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| Our E-learning Advisor Orientation course will help support you in the role of E-Learning Advisor to NC Virtual students. Learn about the funding formula, the registration process, our grading policy, our valuable resources, and how to best support your online students. |
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| The NCVirtual Office Hours meets each weekday, M-F from 12:00-12:30 p.m.
Teachers, administrators, parents, and students are welcome to drop in and have their questions answered. |
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Connecting with Students & Parents
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| As virtual learning has become a part of everyday learning for most families across North Carolina, many parents, guardians, and mentors continue to struggle with how to support their online learners in blended and online classes. To provide resources and strategies for how to support not only our NCVirtual students, but all online learners in North Carolina, NCVirtual has created two Supporting Online Students (SOS) video courses in Canvas. Both courses are free, open to the public, and do not require login credentials. Please share both links with your educational communities and parent networks. |
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| The first course, Supporting Online Students – All NC, is general in nature and is designed for parents, guardians, and mentors of any student who is participating in a blended or online course or is enrolled in a fully online program regardless of school or grade level. |
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| The second course, Supporting Online Students – NCVirtual, is specific to NC Virtual and includes specific examples, demonstrations, and resources for NC Virtual parents, guardians, and mentors. |
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| The IworkNCVirtual speaker series includes presentations about career paths by those working in the field. We are now providing a platform for our students to gain insight and exposure to potential career paths. Sessions focus on Prerequisites & Education, Getting the Job, Daily Responsibilities (Micro), Industry Environment (Macro) |
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| The Culture Café Café hosts hour-long lectures on various cultural topics in Spanish, French, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, Latin, and Arabic to broaden our students’ cultural and world views. Topics include cultural, culinary, historical, geographic and, architectural themes. See the Culture Cafe calendar for upcoming events! |
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| For students who have completed the first term of his/her second-year Japanese language course in middle/junior high or a senior high school and has maintained a 3.5 GPA in Japanese courses and an overall GPA of 3.0.
For more information, contact Ellen Hart or Revae Bostwick. |
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| An online simulation of the global capital markets that engages students in the world of economics, investing and personal finance and that has prepared nearly 20 million students for financially independent futures. The team will have virtual money to invest in the stock market game that is offered by SIFMA Foundation.
For more information, contact Ellen Hart. |
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| The Student Research Alliance is a unique opportunity for students to conduct original research on topics of interest. The goal is to provide a platform for innovation and to create resources for students to deepen their understanding of specific course content. For more information, contact Tiffany Grant. |
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| The NCVirtual Coding Club is open to any NC high school students who would like to join. Complete this Google Form if you would like to join. For questions about the Coding Club, contact
ellen.hart@ncpublicschools.gov or
toni.hall@ncpublicschools.gov |
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| NCVirtual has a mobile app, and Canvas has two mobile apps and a web portal. What does each one do? We’re glad you asked! Here you go:
NCVirtual App: Stay connected with what’s happening at NCVirtual. Think of these as “front office” notifications.
Canvas Apps and Web Portal: Connect with a student’s course, see grades, due dates, pacing guides, and message the teacher.
Check out the guide on our Mobile Apps page to see when and where it’s best to use each app or portal. |
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Thank you, everyone!
Your North Carolina students appreciate your dedication and hard work!
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12 Unique Blogs Are Written By Professors
Virtual School Meanderings 