Important Notice to all VLN students

I have just received, from the VLN, students' second term report card. There are several pieces of important information that I need to point out to you. To illustrate the problem, I have taken the liberty of capturing a "typical" report card that shows my concern. To protect the privacy of the student, no student information nor instructor information is displayed below:
The VLN report card contains a term mark, followed by one or two comments from the instructor. Because VLN courses are self-paced, your term mark is determined ONLY from the work you have completed up until the time the report card is prepared; that is, there is no fixed deadline as to how much course work you have to complete by the term's end (though your instructor has probably given you a timeline as a reference).

As you can see from the above screen shot, this student has a percentage mark of 80% in Planning 10 (in the green rectangle). Had this been a regular report card issued at the school, this mark would indicate that the student has received a mark of 80% based on all the course materials from term 2. However, if you look at the teacher's comment on the right (circled in red), you can see that this student has only completed 5% of the course by finishing the orientation assignment. What this means is, this particular student, in reality, has gotten 80% on one assignment that is worth 5% of the course. It is similar to a student in my old science class receiving an 8/10 on the title page - it does NOT mean the student will be receiving 80% for a term, much less the course! Mathematically-speaking, it means the student actually has only gotten a mark of 4/100 in a course, with about 2 months of school remaining! Bottom line: you must look at both your term mark and your teacher's comments on a VLN report card to see where you are really at.

Many of you are taking a VLN course to upgrade a course you have previously taken. Some of you are taking a course online to fulfill graduation/post-secondary requirement. Not completing the course, particularly not completing a course that is required for graduation, bears some serious consequences. It may mean that you would not have a pre-requisite to register for the program of your choice at a post-secondary institution, or it may mean you would not have sufficient course credits to graduate! I am urging you to contact your VLN teacher immediately to see what you can do to rectify the situation. If you require any assistance, please see me immediately.