VirtualSC PD Policy & Procedures

Expectations

VirtualSC PD’s policies and procedures serve to remind all participants of our expectations. All participants need to remember that this is a course for credit, and needs to be treated as you expect your own students within your class to treat your subject matter. When in doubt, feel free to ask your facilitator. VirtualSC PD has in place rigorous, clearly defined content, assignments and assessments for our courses. As a student, you are responsible for review of the course syllabus and any rubrics or marking guides provided. If you are unclear on any requirements, please seek clarification using the Help Forum in the course, or directly emailing the facilitator. If you need clarification on how an assignment has been assessed, contact the facilitator directly. All communication in the course forums, in assignments, and in emails or messages to facilitators needs to be conveyed in a respectful and professional manner, or a participant risks being administratively dropped. Our facilitators have the final say on grades for assignments, and there is not an appeals process.

Academic Integrity

When you signed up to take a VirtualSC PD course, you agreed to abide by our Academic Integrity Policy. Academic integrity means being honest. In other words, every assignment you submit is your own work. It is not copied from anywhere or anyone. You take all of your own tests. You never allow anyone to copy any of your work. VirtualSC PD expects a full commitment to academic integrity from each course participant. Your registration and payment for any course is your commitment to academic integrity as a participant in our courses. Academic integrity means:

Your work on each assignment will be completely your own.
Your collaboration with another classmate on any assignment will be pre-approved by your instructor.
You will not practice plagiarism in any form.
You will not allow others to copy your work.
You will not misuse content from the Internet.

Plagiarism is defined as copying or using ideas or words (from another person, an online classmate, or an Internet or print source) and presenting them as your own. Please be aware that all VirtualSC PD facilitators utilize a myriad of technologies to check work for authenticity, including the use of TurnItIn.com. If an instructor confirms that a student has plagiarized work in any manner, the student will be subject to consequences determined by VirtualSC PD administration and may be removed from the course with a failing grade.

Professionalism is the conduct, behavior, and attitude of someone in a work or business environment. VirtualSC PD requires all participants to practice a high level of professional behavior, this would include all written and verbal communication with adjuncts and administrative staff. VirtualSC PD has in place rigorous, clearly defined content, assignments and assessments for our courses. As a student you are responsible for review of the course syllabus and any rubrics or marking guides provided. If you are unclear on any requirements, please seek clarification using the Help Forum in the course, or directly emailing the facilitator. If you need clarification on how an assignment has been assessed, contact the facilitator directly.

Grading

Gradebook Portfolio

The Gradebook feature in Moodle, accessed by the user from within the course, will serve as the participant’s portfolio and provide assessment feedback. It will be used to provide participants with weekly grades of assignments and discussion. Participants will be assessed throughout this ourse in various ways, including assignments, initial discussion posts and replies, quizzes, and/or projects.

Additional Grade Weight Details

The VirtualSC PD syllabus for this course, supplied in the blue Course Resources folder at the top of the course front page, provides a table of all graded activities for the course and how they contribute to the overall weighted calculated average. Please take the time to review this table now, and ask any questions you may have about it before beginning your work in the course.You may reference this table while completing individual activities throughout the course.

Course Participation Grade

All VirtualSC PD courses contain a Participation Grade. The Participation Grade is equal to 5points and is worth 5% of your total course grade. In order to earn the Participation Grade points, you must make an appropriate submission for every graded item in the course. This means that if you choose not to make a submission for any graded item in the course, the maximum possible grade you will be able to earn in the course will automatically drop from a 100%, to a 95%.

Earning Your Credits or Hours

In order to receive your certificate of completion and the associated renewal credits, or your transcript from The College of Charleston, you must earn a minimum course grade of 80%.Since graded items in the course are all weighted differently, this does not equal 80% of the total course points.

Course Credit

Credit is awarded if the following three criteria are met:

All assignments and forums are submitted on time.
A minimum score of 80% is earned as the total in the online grade book.
All course fees are paid in full. Course fees not received by the end of the course will result in an Incomplete, which will eventually be converted to an “F”.

To receive credit, all assignments must have a submit date/time of no later than midnight of the end date of each session unless permission has been granted by the facilitator. Successful completion of all course work will result in the appropriate credit awarded for the course.

Graduate Credit courses will be awarded 3 graduate units/credits as identified on the course syllabus.
Renewal Credit courses will be awarded 20 to 60 renewal credits as identified on the course syllabus.
Facilitated sessions begin on Mondays and end on Sundays with assignments due the last day of the session.
Credit for late assignments must be confirmed in writing by the facilitator prior to the date due. Otherwise, late assignments will not be accepted. No assignments or forums will be accepted or graded after the last day of class.

To receive credit, all assignments must have a submit date/time of no later than midnight of the end date of each session unless permission has been granted by the facilitator.

Course Drops

Continuous communication and consistent work are critical to a participant success in an online course. To ensure both, participants must maintain consistent and reliable high-speed computer access. Computer/Internet problems will not be accepted as reasons for not communicating with facilitators or delays in meeting deadlines. In addition, participants must stay on pace to be successful in completing courses in the required time.

Participants will be administratively dropped from a VirtualSC PD course and will not receive a refund for any of the following reasons:

Participant has not logged into course.
Participant has not completed or attempted the Orientation Course.
Participant has been inactive in a course for seven (7) consecutive days.*
Participant has not had any communication with facilitator within seven (7) days from the first day of class.*

*If participants begin a course and are inactive for seven (7) consecutive days they will be dropped, unless prior arrangements with the facilitator have been made. Facilitators will use email and/or an automated telephone call to notify participants that they are being dropped. For this reason, it is important that all participants frequently check their email and phone messages. (*applies only to facilitated courses)Participants who are unable to complete a VirtualSC PD course will need to complete the drop form by clicking on the link below. Please understand that all drops are final once you complete the course Drop Form. In addition to completing the form, participants are to notify their facilitator as soon as possible. If a participant decides to drop a course, SCDE does not provide refunds for any fees that have been paid for the course.

The SCDE may provide exemptions for extenuating circumstances such as an illness, death, or other serious issues. Such exemptions would allow for a participant to receive an incomplete and allow the participant to retake the course at a later time. Participants are to contact their facilitator to find out if they qualify for an incomplete. Participants taking a graduate credit course through The College of Charleston will need to complete additional documentation on top of the Drop Form.

Accessibility

VirtualSC PD is committed to continually enhancing the accessibility of our courses. Our courses are regularly monitored by internal staff to check for accessibility risks. We are working to ensure that all required videos in our courses contain captions and/or transcripts. The program strives to ensure that all newly developed and revised courses include structural styling to indicate headings, lists, and tables to assist in page comprehension for screen readers. The program continues to strive to format our courses to be compliant with the recommendations on the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0.

Acceptable Use

General

The South Carolina Department of Education encourages the use of its VirtualSC PD resources, including but not limited to Moodle and Blackboard Collaborate Ultra, as a way to create and share information and knowledge in support of students, teachers, and administrators. ThisAcceptable Use Policy summarizes, and where applicable, outlines SCDE specific rules and procedures for appropriate use of all VirtualSC PD resources. All users, students, teachers, administrators and facilitators, will be held to the terms and conditions outlined in this policy.

Use of VirtualSC PD Resources

Users agree to use VirtualSC PD resources in accordance with this policy and all applicable laws. Users agree that they will not use any VirtualSC PD resources to transmit or post the following content:

Content that does not clearly identify the author or defames or threatens others;
Bigoted statements concerning the race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, or sexual orientation of others;
Content that discusses illegal activities with the intent to commit them;
Content that infringes upon another’s intellectual property, including but not limited to, copyrights, trademarks or trade secrets;
Material that contains vulgar or obscene language or images or links;
Advertising or any form of commercial solicitation;
Content related to partisan political activities;
Excessive or unsolicited electronic mail;
Copyrighted material, including without limitation software, graphics, text, photographs, sound, video and musical recordings without the express permission of the owner of the copyright in the material, or other legal entitlement to use the material.

Additionally, users further agree that they will not (a) access or attempt to access any other user’s account/information without permission of the user, or misrepresent or attempt to misrepresent their identity while using VirtualSC PD resource, (b) engage in the disproportionate use of VirtualSC PD resources that creates a debilitating effect on these resources available to other users, or (c) places any material or file in any VirtualSC PD a resource which contains a virus or provides access to any other materials elsewhere which the user knows or has reason to believe contains a virus.

Limitation of Use

Users may use VirtualSC PD resources for appropriate legal purposes only. Furthermore, users agree that, if a third party claims that any material posted by a user is unlawful, that the user will bear the burden of establishing that the material complies with all applicable laws. User will hold the SCDE harmless and agrees to indemnify the SCDE for any content user adds that is in violation if this policy.

Enforcement

South Carolina Department of Education reserves the right, at its sole discretion and without prior notice, to revoke users account, change or remove content, block access or take other action with respect to any material that violates this policy. Users should immediately contact course facilitators and the Office of Technology at 803-734-0794 to report violations of this procedure.All reported violations will be investigated immediately and may result in temporary/permanent denial of access to VirtualSC PD resources, or referral for criminal prosecution.