Frequently Asked Questions

Students sign up for a term with a start and end date. Their IVSA teacher helps them navigate the online content, grades assignments, and is available for help during office hours. Students participate in discussions with other Illinois students who are taking the same course about particular topics. All courses have quizzes, tests and final exams or projects labs and group work.

Most IVSA courses do not require extra materials. Math courses require calculators, language courses require earbuds and microphones and and AP courses require books, as required by the College Board, and English courses require novels, many of which can be rented or checked out the library. Students are responsible for procuring their own materials. 

Yes. The course is taught entirely online. An iPad or your phone can work for reading and watching videos but for taking quizzes and working on documents, a computer is recommended. Some courses like Programming require a computer which allows for downloads.

Chromebooks work with all IVSA courses except Programming courses which require downloads. If you don’t have access to a word processing program like Word, you can use GoogleDocs to open documents and upload your work to a dropbox. 

No, students will be given a Pace Chart and Assignment List detailing what work is due each week. Students can work on their IVSA course at any time during the week, according to their schedule. Instructor-student meetings may be scheduled at their mutual convenience.

Yes. Students can take IVSA courses anywhere they have access to a computer and the Internet.

IVSA courses follow guidelines to offer Carnegie credits (90 hours for semester courses). That averages to 4-5 hours per week for a regular course, 5-6 hours for an Honors or AP course. For shortened terms, such as those offered in the summer, more time per week is necessary. These amounts are averages only; real required time is different for every student as it is dependent on things like reading level, learning style and motivation.Yes. Students can take IVSA courses anywhere they have access to a computer and the Internet.

No. While students in the same class will have the same readings and videos, the tests and quizzes will be different. Anything written for assignments is run through TurnitIn.com to ensure original work is submitted. IVSA courses are designed to be taken individually.

No. Parents have access to student progress and grades, but they cannot get to the individual lessons.

All IVSA Partner Schools are required to provide a student Mentor who has access that schools’ students so they can review who is working toward completion and who is behind. IVSA works closely with mentors to provide students with a greater level of support.

Yes. IVSA works with the local school to provided accommodations.

Students register in the IVSA system by following the directionson the IVSA website. Students request the course they wish to take; their local school enrolls them, and they are set to start. Home schoolstudents are enrolled by IVSA. Students can be enrolled into a class up to two weeks past the course start date. Students should check with the local school for approval to request the course.

 $300 for a one semester, original credit course; $190 for a one semester credit recovery.  

When you request your courses, you may request both the first and second semester of a course in the summer term. Your instructor will pace you to complete the first semester during the first half of the term and the second during the last half of the term. You will need to work at a faster pace to complete this amount of work. $300 for a one semester, original credit course; $190 for a one semester credit recovery.  

Payment arrangements are decided by the local school. There is an option with IVSA for students to be billed directly from IVSA. Check with your local school to find out how payment is handled.

 Parents receive an emailed invoice from the IVSA system. They can pay by credit card, e-check or by mailing a check to IVSA. 

Yes, students can drop a class at any time. However, the official drop period is two weeks from the class start date. For the first two weeks of class, students can drop without penalty and get a refund if they have paid. IVSA will refund the student if they have paid IVSA directly. After two weeks students can still drop but there is no refund.

 IVSA reports percentage grades. The local school then applies their own grading scale to determine A, B, C, etc. It is up to the local school how the grade and credit are applied to the local school transcript 

Illinois Virtual offers a flexible enrollment calendar with new sessions beginning monthly. To allow students to finish the course prior to beginning the next school year, the May and June sessions are shorter in duration.

Students have access to their course on the term start date or 24-48 hours after being enrolled. Students must have completed the IVSA Student Orientation and a System Check prior to starting a course to ensure they are technically set up. On the date of access, the ‘Launch Course’ button on the student’s dashboard will be active. Clicking the Launch Course button will open the IVSA course in a new window – which is why pop-ups must be enabled on the device a student is using. The Launch Course button will take students to their IVSA Courses Dashboard on Canvas or directly to their online course if they are only taking one course. From here students can check their class Announcements and start on course content via the ‘Modules’ link in the course.

 Our teachers communicate the same way that students do – email, IM, texting, and phone calls, plus hold live discussions and tutoring sessions over the Internet. Our teachers also work closely with local school contacts and parents to foster student success.

 Students can access grades and feedback through their online course under ‘Grades.’ Parents and schools can see grades only via the student information system.

No. IVSA courses require students to read, watch videos, communicate through message

boards, write papers, and do projects. Time management is very important in an IVSA course.

For technical issues (something not working or opening) contact the IVSA Helpdesk at tsd@accelschools.com. For content issues (clarification on directions, question on an assignment) contact your teacher. In most cases if students contact their IVSA teacher first, the teacher can either solve the problem or assist the student in obtaining help.

IVSA welcomes your support and partnership in helping your student succeed. We encourage

parents to help your student:

· find a comfortable and organized space to work that is free from distraction

· establish a consistent work routine and periodically check-in with them to ensure they are

staying on pace to complete their course

· consider asking your student to share with you their work, or teach you something they learned. 

We join you in modeling high expectations for your student and reinforcing with them the importance of approaching online studies like face-to-face learning.