Author: MTDA Staff

Credit Recovery Announcement: End of Fall 2015 Semester Information

Written by MTDA Staff on January 12, 2016. Posted in School Portal.

Attention credit recovery site facilitators, local support, counselors and administrators:

Friday, January 15, 2016 is the end of the Fall 2015 Credit Recovery session. We have evolved our end of semester process to make it more school and student friendly, so, we’d like you to review our procedure document here: link.

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to put in a support ticket or give our staff a call at the MTDA offices in Missoula!

Please share with all staff that handles credit recovery students in your program!

High School Original Credit: Final Reminder on Proctoring!

Written by MTDA Staff on January 5, 2016. Posted in Student Portal.

ATTENTION MTDA High School Original Credit Students!!

As previously announced in your class and in the weekly grade report email:

MTDA Fall 2015 Original Credit Semester Finals will be administered January 11-13 2016. Final exams must be taken on one of these dates, without exception. Wednesday, January 13, 2016 is the last day of Fall 2015 semester. Semester finals should be complete by 5pm on Wednesday. The date of final exams cannot be changed.

Please locate your class(es) on this spreadsheet. If your course has a YES in the proctored final column, you will need to take your exam in the presence of a local proctor. That person will have the password for your exam and any other important exam instructions.

Arranging for a proctor and time to take your exam is your responsibility. The exam time arranged by you and your proctor must take place on January 11th, 12th, or 13th. Your proctor can be a school administrator, counselor, site facilitator, or other school personnel. It may not be a parent or another student. Start this process now, as it is not something you want to leave until the last minute! Make sure you know far ahead of time who your proctor will be and the best date/time to take your exam.

If your course has a NO in the proctored final column, you may still have a semester exam for your course, but a proctor is not required. See your course page and instructor for more information.

Happy Holidays from Montana Digital Academy!!

Written by MTDA Staff on December 18, 2015. Posted in School Portal, Student Portal.

We’d like to announce our holiday schedule. We will be running a limited schedule from December 19, 2015 to January 3, 2016.

During that time:

Teacher services will not be available. You are encouraged to email your teachers with any issues, however, you will likely not receive a response until January 4th.
The MTDA offices in Missoula are closed on December 25th and January 1st. We will observe our normal business hours on other week days, 8am-5pm.
Support desk services are available, but may be limited or delayed. Support tickets should be directed to support@montanadigitalacademy.org.

From all of our teachers and staff at MTDA, Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!

Happy Thanksgiving from MTDA!

Written by MTDA Staff on November 24, 2015. Posted in School Portal, Student Portal.

Hello from Montana Digital Academy!

Montana Digital Academy will be closed from 4pm, Wednesday, November 25, 2015 to 8am, Monday, November 20, 2015 for the Thanksgiving holiday.

During that time, our online classrooms will remain open, however, our offices and help desk will be closed. There will also be no teacher services available.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Spring Enrollment Information

Written by MTDA Staff on November 2, 2015. Posted in School Portal.

Update: Monday, November 16, 2015 (PM): We are open for Spring 2106 High School Credit Recovery!

Update: Monday, November 16, 2015 (AM): We received word over the weekend that rollout of the needed functionality is imminent. We’ll post here when you can start enrolling students in credit recovery.

Attention site facilitators:

Happy November from MTDA! As November is traditionally the start of our spring enrollment period, we wanted to make a few announcements related to the opening of enrollment across our program.

We are currently working with our SIS partner, GeniusSIS, to roll out new functionality related to gathering a correct grade level for students enrolling in courses to make sure our data is accurate for reporting and tracking student progress. As that work is not finished yet, we will modify our intended enrollment opening schedule.

High School Credit Recovery: Monday, November 16
High School Original Credit: Monday, November 23
Middle School Multi-Language Sampler: Monday, November 23

We will update this post with additional information should there be updates or changes.

If you have any questions, please contact Jason, MTDA’s Assistant Director/Curriculum Director, jason.neiffer (at) montanadigitalacademy.org or put in a support ticket, support (at) montanadigitalacademy.org.

Thank you for all of your work in supporting our shared students!

HS Original Credit Closed for Fall 2015

Written by MTDA Staff on September 11, 2015. Posted in School Portal.

Good morning from MTDA offices at the University of Montana in Missoula!

As of 6pm last night, high school original credit enrollment is closed to enrollments. Thank you for all of your hard work to get students enrolled and started!

As a reminder, the drop deadline for courses is September 22nd. Please assist us in putting drop requests into GeniusSIS for students that are no longer interested in taking their online course.

Please direct questions to our support desk, support@montanadigitalacademy.org.

Open Enrollment Ended; Most Classes Still Available

Written by MTDA Staff on September 1, 2015. Posted in School Portal.

Hello from the Montana Digital Academy offices in Missoula! As previously announced, open enrollment ended on our “Guaranteed Enrollment Deadline” on August 27th. However, we have added sections to as many courses as possible to keep enrollments open. A list of open classes appears at this link. The list is updated in real time. Enrollment in open courses is first come, first served. We are unable to reserve spots.

In addition, MTDA will be holding enrollment open until September 10th at 6pm for the fall program. We do want to caution you that students starting late in the program often experience trouble getting caught up to speed. We ask that you assist the student and MTDA teacher by pushing that student to get logged in right away and completing assignments.

If you have any questions, help is just an email (support@montanadigitalacademy.org) or phone call (406-203-1812) away!

Welcome to the Fall 2015 High School Original Credit Program from MTDA!

Written by MTDA Staff on August 31, 2015. Posted in Student Portal.

Hello and welcome to the Fall 2015 original credit program at Montana Digital Academy. We are thrilled that you are joining us for what we hope is a productive and engaging spring semester.

We’d like to direct your attention to some important information related to our program’s start and where you can go for more information and help.

Usernames and Passwords

As of today, all student usernames and passwords have been emailed to students. If you do not have your username and password, please contact the MTDA help desk at support@montanadigitalacademy.org. If you are a past enrollee at MTDA, a new username will NOT be emailed to you and you should use your existing login and password. If you don’t remember that login, please contact the help desk.

Program Dates

Our original credit Fall 2015 semester will start today, Monday, August 31, 2015. Classes will be open in the virtual classroom by 8am. It is important that you get up and started this week as there are assignments and expectations for you in the course right away! Students that are not logged in and up to pace by the early weeks of the program risk being dropped from the course.

The last day of the program is Wednesday, January 13, 2016 No assignments will be accepted after 5pm on that day.

Although the virtual classrooms are open for access and student work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, our classes are considered “in session” Monday–Friday, per our academic calendar located at http://montanadigitalacademy.org/programs/mtda-academic-calendars/. Please note that MTDA’s calendar may differ from your local school calendar and you are expected to follow the MTDA calendar for this course.

As part of your first day activities, you will sign a course contract that details the expectations of you in this program. Please read that carefully.

Remember that our online learning format requires an investment of time: we would expect students to take 4-7 hours per course per week to keep pace, so, be sure you are being careful to plan for enough time to be successful in this course

Orientation

MTDA has a brief orientation program for students and parents. You may access our orientation-on-demand program available by clicking here: link. Included in that video is how and where to login.

Need Help?

Throughout the semester, please don’t be afraid to contact your instructor for help as soon as you run into problems. Additionally, you may contact the MTDA help desk in Missoula at support@montanadigitalacademy.org for technical support or help contacting an instructor if you are not getting a response. We want you to be successful in online courses!

Have a GREAT semester! We want to help you be an online learning rock star!

MTDA Blast (Info) Sessions on Retooled Connect Credit Recovery Program

Written by MTDA Staff on August 11, 2015. Posted in School Portal.

MTDA will be offering a series of online “Blasts” designed to provide information to busy administrators during the 2015-16 school year.

What is a blast? It is a short, “bite sized”, concentrated online informational session on a topic which is completed in 20 minutes!

Knowing how busy school administrators are especially at this time of year MTDA is launching the first of several online informational “Blast “sessions to provide information on its significantly retooled Connect credit recovery program which is ready to launch in the fall of 2015. Blasts are designed to provide the opportunity for administrators (and members of their teams) to drop into an informational session and gain knowledge and understanding and even ask questions… all in just 20 minutes! Blasts are offered 3 times a day so that you can choose the time that best fits your schedule.

Among several key changes in the retooled Connect program is that it will no longer utilize the Plato Learning course content but will retain the mastery learning approach for students using MTDA created courses. The new Connect will feature the need for a more engaged role for the local support person at your school while at the same time significantly increasing the quantity and quality of reporting and communication between MTDA academic coaches and the local support person, students and parents.

The blasts on the retooled Connect program will be offered August 17, 19, 24 & 26 at 9:00 & 11:00 AM and 4:00 PM each day. Join the time that’s right for you and invite your key team members!

To sign up go to –

http://mtda.link/newcr

Announcements: AP Physics

Written by MTDA Staff on August 1, 2015. Posted in School Portal.

Attention site facilitators:

AP Physics will not be available this school year as we do not have a qualified teacher available. If you have any questions, please contact Jason Neiffer, MTDA’s Assistant Director/Curriculum Director, at jason.neiffer (at) montanadigitalacademy.org.