Course Procedures

Drops

Students will be dropped from a course when a student has not become active in a course within 3 weeks of registering. Evidence of activity includes dated examples of student work, assessment data, and teacher gradebook or other tracking system entries. These entries reflect student engagement in a significant portion of the program.

Withdrawals

If a student has fallen behind or not completed enough of their course to be successful a teacher will attempt to re-engage the student 3 times.  If unsuccessful, students will be withdrawn from the course.

Carryovers 

Students will not be permitted to carryover courses in the summer – they will need to either complete by the end of the school year or withdraw from the course.  If they withdraw, they are not able to re-register in a DL course until 2 funding periods have passed.

Testing 

If you are a student enrolled in a grade 8-12 course, it is likely that you will need to write a test for your course. It is expected that tests/exams in Grade 10-12 courses will be invigilated to maintain the integrity of our program. We have resumed face-to-face testing wherever possible for grade 10-12 courses. Cross-enrolled students should make arrangements to complete their tests/exams with the DL teacher at their home school.

Please note that it is mandatory for students to contact their subject teacher in order to arrange for approval test invigilation (both for site and supervision) and for test passwords to be sent to the supervisor.

Challenging Courses 

Credits can be earned from prior learning by challenging a course that has been approved by the Ministry or Education or is a Board Approved Authorized Course.

A student can challenge to receive credit for Ministry-Authorized, Board/Authority Authorized or Locally Developed Grade 10, 11 or 12 courses if s/he: 1.1 Is currently enrolled or registered as a home school student in the District. 1.2 Has not completed the course or its equivalent learning outcomes through previous enrollment. 1.3 Can give compelling evidence that s/he will succeed in the challenge prior to starting the Challenge Process – home school Administrators must:

• Review documentation of prior learning;
• Documentation for a pre-challenge equivalency review;
• Students must demonstrate their readiness to challenge a course based on factors such as a recommendation from a previous teacher, or from evidence that relevant learning has been acquired outside the regular classroom setting;
• Challenge process must assess students on the Big Ideas, Curricular Competencies, and content of courses;
• Assessment strategies that could be used in a challenge process include such things as hands-on demonstrations, oral performances, interviews, written examinations, or presentations of a collection of work;
• Reporting and transcript purposes, schools must assign a letter grade and percentage to all credits awarded through challenge processes;
• Principals must document the challenge assessment delivered to each student, including a pre-Challenge Equivalency review, and the documentation must be made available to Ministry auditors if requested. Examples of assessment strategies that could be used in a challenge process include such things as hands-on demonstrations, oral performances, interviews, written examinations, or presentations of a collection of work.

International Students

• Approval for an International student to take a course through vLearn must have prior approval from International Principal.
• The cost for one course is billed to International.

Student Learning Plans / Graduation Plans

For full-time students in Grades K-9 
It is required to have a student learning plan on record, signed and dated by the teacher and parent (and by the student, if old enough to understand the plan), referring to these elements:

• curriculum learning standards and outcomes for the program or course(s) or both;
• required areas of study for the program or course(s);
• the teacher’s plan for providing learning activities.

For full-time students in Grades 10-12 
It is required to have a student learning plan on record, signed and dated by the teacher and by the parent and/or the student, referring to these elements:

• course selection listed that meeting the Required Areas of Study or Graduation Program Order;
• the teacher’s plan for providing learning activities;
• links to the course plans that include learning standards and outcomes.