When does NSO drop students?
We are required by law to drop students if they have not been “attending” for 15 days. For online programs, this generally means 15 days without any activity—login, email, phone contact or assignment submission. Activity may not always mean progress, but it is the primary means for tracking attendance.
Because some contact occurs outside of the online systems like Moodle, we cannot use online activity as the sole means of assessing participation. So we use the Progress grades to show at the most basic level whether a student is participating or not.
If a student is given an NR, this essentially means that they have been absent for the previous week—no Moodle activity, no communication with the teacher and no assignments submitted. If this grade is not changed, we assume that the student has still not become active and is still “truant.”
If a student is marked NR for two weeks in a row (NR2), we send a warning notice to the student, parent and counselor that the student is in danger of being dropped from the course. We hope this spurs the adults to talk with the student about becoming active. It is still important for the teacher to attempt to contact the student, and to check carefully to see if any additional work has been submitted. If the student becomes active, we do not follow through on the drop process.
If a student is marked NR for 3 weeks in a row (NR3), we then notify the student, parent and counselor that they are being withdrawn form the course. We remove the student from Moodle, and mark their grade as WD in Genius. If they do not choose to respond to the notice, WD becomes their final grade. It carries no credit, and schools may transfer it as they see fit—either as an F, a W or no indication at all.
If you have been administratively withdrawn from a course, you may request reinstatement.