Grading Policy

Grades are assigned by letters and calculated by the grade point values listed below:

Academic term grades are assigned to regular students. If a regular student takes more than one course and/or enrolls for more than one academic term, the Registrar will retain the student’s Grade Point Average (GPA) which is a weighted average calculated as sum of (grade point x credit hours) / (sum of credit hours). No letter grades are assigned to auditors. An auditor receives a Pass or Fail grade upon the completion of the minimum requirements as defined by the Online Instructor. 

• Please be aware that there is a subtle distinction between the online environments of Moodle and the AVC app. Specific features, such as weekly assignments and exams, are exclusively accessible within the Moodle environment.
• Kindly be aware that students are prohibited from completing and submitting all assignments in the last week of the academic term. However, throughout the term, they have the flexibility to delay the submission of weekly assignments by informing their Online Instructor in advance on a weekly basis.
• Please take note that students classified as regular participants will be transferred to the Asynchronous Self-Study program if there is a lack of active participation during the initial 4 weeks of the academic term.

Academic Honesty

AVC policy of academic honesty requires that all assignments, quizzes and exams are a result of the student’s own academic effort. Any course assignment produced and presented to the online instructor which is not the result of the student’s own academic efforts will be regarded as academic dishonesty. The following are considered to be cases of academic dishonesty:

Cheating

• communicating/sharing exam answers with another student during an examination or after an examination in case of differently timed examinations;
• using unauthorized material and prewritten notes during the examination;
• taking an examination for another student;
• having someone else take the examination for oneself;
• presenting another student’s work as one’s own;
• covering up for a passive student during a group project.

Plagiarism

• stealing someone else’s ideas and/or words as one’s own;
• using someone else’s creative production without proper and complete credit to the original source.

Cases of academic dishonesty as defined above will be dealt with harshly. Each case will be referred to the Academic Board of AVC. If the student is found to have been dishonest, she/he will be expelled from AVC with a special grade of XF indicating that the failure is due to academic dishonesty. Students caught indulging in behavior which is suggestive of academic dishonesty, at a minimum, will be warned, and in the case of continued misbehavior will be expelled with XF grade. Any student who intentionally and knowingly helps another student perform any of the above acts of academic dishonesty will be guilty of collusion, and hence, be subjected to the same sanction of academic dishonesty. If you are unsure whether or not a certain act can be regarded as “academic dishonesty,” please consult your online instructor for further guidelines.

Late Enrollment, Drop and Withdrawal Policy

The enrollment period for each AVC term is open for a limited time window. All interested individuals are to apply for enrollment for a single or multiple courses during the enrollment period.

Late Enrollment

Late enrollment applications may be considered within two weeks after the start day of the academic term. An applicant's request for late enrollment may be honored based on availability, ie. if the virtual class size has not reached its maximum limit. All requests for late enrollment must be made to the Registrar at registrar@avc-agbu.org. If the late enrollment request is met, the student must complete the assignments of the missed week(s) according to the schedule set up by the Online Instructor.

Drop

Drop refers to cases when a student enrolled in more than one course, decides to drop one of them. Drop period is open in Week 0 and Week 1. All requests must be made to the Registrar at registrar@avc-agbu.org. All applications to drop made within the mentioned weeks but no later than the start of Week 2 will be met and 80% of paid tuition fee will be refunded.

Withdrawal

Withdrawal refers to cases when:

• a student enrolled in more than one course wants to quit her/his participation after the drop period has ended;
• a student enrolled in a single course wants to quit her/his participation in the program at any time during the academic term.

Tuition refunds will be considered according to the schedule below:

Student Status Change

A student may decide to change her/his status from regular to auditor or visa-versa. Applications to change status must be made no later than prior to the start of Week 3. No tuition fee adjustments will be made for students who wish to change their status from regular to auditor. However, rate adjustments are applicable if a student wants to change her/his status from auditor to regular. All requests to change status must be made to the Registrar at registrar@avc-agbu.org:

Suspension

Suspension Armenian Virtual College classes are interactive classes that require e-learner participation. The online instructor of a class may suspend a student for the following reasons:

• failure to maintain required participation and complete assignments;
• failure to respect AVC policy on Academic Honesty.

Note: If an e-learner's inactivity is due to illness or other legitimate reason, notify the Online Instructor immediately to prevent the possibility of suspension.

Assessment of Education Effectiveness

AVC approach is based on the principle that online learning is fundamentally about learning, not technology. AVC educational and administrative strategies are therefore based on the needs and demands of students and the quality of their experience. The two key principles that underpin this approach are:

  1. high quality teaching measured by the

         a. content of offered courses;

         b. efficient usage of technology and technical capabilities;

         c. pedagogical, methodological efficiency;

   2. high quality learning measured by the degree to which

         a. courses and curricula impart knowledge to students;

         b. the program objectives are aligned with learning outcomes.

Note: To make the learning process more effective the AVC Online Instructor may record and post on the course page online lesson practice meetings.