Academic Policies & Procedures
Standards of Academic Integrity and University Code of Conduct
All City Vision University students must comply with the
Standards of Academic Integrity and
University Code of Conduct. The consequences for violating these standards are described on the linked pages.
Credit Hour Policy
City Vision follows the Carnegie Unit requirement of “one credit is equivalent to 45 hours of student work”. Thus, a three (3)-credit course incorporates approximately 135 hours of student work. Reading is 25 pages per hour for standard books and 20 for dense textbooks. Where needed we use much more detailed guidelines provided by Penn State University – Hours of Instructional Activity (HIA) Equivalents at:
http://weblearning.psu.edu/resources/penn-state-online-resources/HIA/
Requirements for Good Standing & Academic Probation
The academic policy of City Vision University is designed to meet ultimately the graduation requirement of a “C” average (2.00 GPA) on all work taken through the university, including credits accepted via transfer from other institutions.
To remain in good standing, a student must maintain a minimum cumulative grade point average according to the number of credits completed at City Vision University, or accepted via transfer. The unit of credit is the semester hour.
The following minimum grade point averages apply to certificate students:
- Up to 9 credits 1.70 GPA
- 9-16 credits 2.00 GPA
The following minimum grade point averages apply to associate’s degree students:
- Up to 15 credits 1.50 GPA
- 16-30 credits 1.70 GPA
- 31 credits and above 2.00 GPA
The following minimum grade point averages apply to bachelor’s degree students:
- Up to 30 credits 1.50 GPA
- 31 through 59 credits 1.70 GPA
- 60 through 89 credits 1.85 GPA
- 90 credits and above 2.00 GPA
Graduate students must maintain at least a 2.0 GPA throughout the course of their studies.
To review City Vision University’ Satisfactory Academic Progress policy, which applies this standard specifically to students receiving financial aid, click the link below:
https://www.cityvision.edu/city-vision-university-satisfactory-academic-progress
Academic Probation
Students who fail to earn the grade point average indicated above will be placed on Academic Probation for the next 6 credits of study. Students who are on Academic Probation and whose term achievements show substantial improvement but whose cumulative GPA is still just below the appropriate GPA for their Credits Completed level and thus would be subject to Academic Dismissal may instead be placed on Probation Continued status at the discretion of the Academic Oversight staff (Dean, Department Chair, or President).
Policy on Repeated Course Withdrawals for New Students
If a new student (who has not passed any City Vision courses) has withdrawn from six or more City Vision courses, they must either wait a year or complete a course at another school before they can sign up for courses again. This includes withdrawals in the add/drop period (first two weeks of each term).
Grades and Grade Point Averages
Each course is given a final grade with the number of quality points per credit hour assigned as follows:
|
Grade
|
Significance
|
Quality Points
|
Percentage
|
|
A
|
Excellent
|
4.0
|
95-100
|
|
A-
|
|
3.67
|
90-94.99
|
|
B+
|
Good
|
3.33
|
87-89.99
|
|
B
|
|
3.00
|
84-86.99
|
|
B-
|
|
2.67
|
80-83.99
|
|
C+
|
Average
|
2.33
|
77-79.99
|
|
C
|
|
2.00
|
74-76.99
|
|
C-
|
|
1.67
|
70-73.99
|
|
D+
|
|
1.33
|
67-69.99
|
|
D
|
|
1.00
|
64-66.99
|
|
D-
|
Passing
|
0.67
|
60-63.99
|
|
F
|
Failure
|
0.00
|
<59.99
|
Students may repeat courses in order to earn a higher grade and more quality points.The credits will be counted only once, and the grade earned the second time will supersede the earlier grade. The record of the earlier grade will remain on the transcript, although it will not enter into the computation of the grade point average.
For more details on how the GPA is calculated, see
here.
See the
“Dropping Courses and Grading” policy for information on incomplete courses.
Academic Honors
Graduation honors are awarded for academic work performed by the student during his undergraduate program. Honors will be conferred as follows:
- Summa cum Laude 3.90 or above
- Magna cum Laude 3.75 to 3.89
- Cum Laude 3.60 to 3.74
The grade point calculation is made on all credits earned from City Vision University and transfer credits.
Course Registration Deadline
Students must register for courses before or on the first day of classes. Students may request an exception to register for courses after the first day of the term during the first week. Later course registrations are allowed only in exceptional circumstances, but not beyond the second week.
Dropping Courses and Grading
Our preferred method is that students should drop courses using the
official drop request form, but they may communicate their intent to drop to City Vision by any method including calling the university office at (816) 960-2008 or emailing
support@cityvision.edu or discontinuing participation in the course. Students that no longer participate in courses may be administratively dropped for lack of attendance (see date of last attendance policy below).
0 to 2 weeks. Courses that are dropped by the end of the second week of classes do not appear on the official transcript and are listed as a “W (unofficial)”.
2 to 5 weeks. Students have until the end of the 5th week of the term to drop courses (34 days after the first day of courses) and receive a mark of “W” for the course. The drop date for a course will be counted as the date on which the student last submitted any graded assignment or forum, based on the date of when the assignment was submitted (not when it was due).
If a student stops participating in a class or the class forum before completing the fifth week and does not present a withdrawal request, then they will be marked as having withdrawn on the last day they submitted a graded assignment such as a paper, class forum, or quiz.
“W (unofficial)” grades will not count toward pace requirement when calculating Satisfactory Academic Progress. Courses dropped before completing the 5th week, but after the end of the second week, result in a mark of “W”, and will not count toward GPA calculations, but will count toward pace requirement when calculating Satisfactory Academic Progress.
After 5th week. If a student stops working on a course after the 5th week, they will receive credit for all work already submitted. If their current grade result at that point would be a failing grade, it will be recorded as failing as a “WF” and if it is passing it will be entered as a “WP”. WP grades will not figure into GPA calculations. If they would have passed the course at the end with their current work counting all grades, it will be recorded as the appropriate passing letter grade. This grade will appear on the transcript and figure into the overall GPA.
Also note that a student may not withdraw without penalty from a course in which they have committed an academic integrity violation – if the student chooses to withdraw, he/she will receive a “WF” for the course.
Attendance Policy
Students’ attendance in City Vision University courses will be evaluated at least every 14 calendar days. Because this is an online program, attendance is based exclusively on the date of submission of coursework which would receive a grade, such as a written assignment, class forum post, or quiz. Simply logging into the online classroom is not counted as attendance; neither is simply sending a message to a professor.
If a student has not attended a course, by the definition above, within the past 14 calendar days, it will be determined whether the student should be withdrawn from that course. For the purpose of this policy, dates will be determined based on the student’s local time zone.
If a student could not submit gradable work in the past 14 days, this determination will be made on the following basis:
1. Communication with the instructor or staff and/or
2. A review of their course progress and grade by Student Services staff assessing the student’s ability to successfully pass the course.
3. How late the student’s current assignments are, based on their due dates.
Students may be notified weekly by City Vision if they are late in submitting assignments. Students that have a 14 day gap in submitting items for grading are administratively dropped unless they are granted an extension by their instructor or academic administration. Students with a 14 day gap in submitting items will not be dropped if they have participated on or past the first day of week 6 of the term.
The instructor or academic administration may grant an extension either through a documented email or by continuing to grade the late assignments. As of the 18-19 academic year, all extensions must be documented by email.
Last Date of Attendance Policy
The Last Date of Attendance is defined as the last date on which course work is submitted (such as a graded written assignment, class forum post, or quiz).
If a student fills out an official form to withdraw from the institution, his or her Date of Determination of Withdrawal (as used in the R2T4 calculation) will be the date of submission of that form. If he or she does not fill out a withdrawal form, the Date of Determination will be no greater than 14 days after their Last Date of Attendance, as stated above, unless the student completes one term but does not continue attending in the following term. In that case, the Date of Determination will be the end of the add/drop period in the next term.
Appeals Policy for Students Dropped Due to Non-Attendance
A student who is dropped from a course due to non-attendance may submit an appeal to support@cityvision.edu. An appeal must be based on a compelling personal circumstance that seriously impacted academic performance. Examples are: serious illness, severe injury, death of a family member, and other similar situations. The appeal should include a description of the personal circumstance, as well as what has changed in the student’s circumstances so he or she will be able to complete the course.
Appeals will be reviewed by the academic administration. Simply submitting an appeal does not guarantee that the student will be reinstated in the course. All decisions on appeals are final.
Note: Course extensions will only be granted to students who have completed at least half of the assignments in a course. Students who do not submit any graded items within the first two weeks of the course will be dropped without exception.
Late Assignment Policy
Students will be assigned late assignment deductions according to the following policy. For the purposes of determining lateness, all times are in Central Time.
- Late but less than 1 week late: lose half a letter grade. For students with documented disabilities, this becomes “less than 1 week late, no penalty”.
- More than 1 week late less than 2 (after the following Sunday): lose 1 letter grade. i.e. “A” becomes a “B”. Students with documented disabilities will lose only half a letter grade.
- More than 2 weeks late will receive a zero unless the student has been granted an extension by City Vision’s Academic Administration. Extensions are typically granted only for exceptional circumstances, such as an illness that would prevent you from doing course work at this time, or the death of a family member. For students with documented disabilities, we cannot extend this further except for in rare cases, since extremely late assignment submissions make it difficult to meet US Department of Education requirements for regular student participation.
- Students not submitting anything for grading in the first two weeks will be dropped.
Week Eight is the last class session with assignments posted. All course work must be completed by the student and submitted to the instructor by the end of the week after the course ends (the ninth week since the start of the course). No credit will be given for work submitted after this date, unless the student is granted an extension on the course, as described below. This policy applies to weekly assignments, as well as examinations and final projects, unless the exams specifically give students until the 9th week to complete it. Faculty and Academic Administration may place additional timeliness requirements on individual students that have shown a history of submitting late assignments.
Course Extension Policy
- Students may submit assignments or exams without an extension until the end of the 9th week after the beginning of the term (but, as of the 18-19 year, grading penalties listed in the Late Assignment Policy apply).
- Applications for extension should be submitted via the online extension request form.
- Applications for extension cannot be submitted after the course ends.
- Extensions are typically granted only for exceptional circumstances, such as an illness that would prevent you from doing course work at this time or the death of a family member.
- Course extensions will only be granted if you have completed at least half of the assignments in a course.
- While working to complete a course for which an extension has been granted, the student can only take a maximum of one additional course.
- In order for a course extension to be approved, the student and the approver of the extension must agree upon a date by which he/she will have completed all the remaining assignments in the course.
- Course extension requests may be reviewed by the student’s professor and the Academic Oversight (Dean, Department Chair or President) for the student’s department. No course extension may be granted beyond the start of the next term unless approved by City Vision’s President.
Incomplete Grades Policy
Incomplete grades are assigned at the discretion of the instructor, with consultation from the Academic Oversight staff (Dean, Department Chair or President) overseeing the course in question, and other academic staff as needed. When incomplete grades are issued, the student will be informed as to how they may be resolved and the timeframe for resolution. This timeframe will be reasonable in length, and shall never exceed one academic term after the course was initially to have been completed. If the student does not meet the agreed upon timeframe, the grade will be converted to whatever grade the student would have received based on the work completed up to that point.
Proctor Requirement
As specified by the City Vision
Standards of Admission, all City Vision students must comply with the
Proctor Requirement policy.
Leave of Absence
Students may not request an official Leave of Absence from City Vision University, for financial aid purposes (to defer student loan payments). Their financial aid status, as reported to NSLDS for Enrollment Reporting and used in R2T4 calculations, is always either enrolled or withdrawn. This policy supersedes any previous policies of City Vision pertaining to Leaves of Absence.
Class Levels by Credits
- Freshman: 0-30 credits
- Sophomore: 31-60 credits
- Junior: 61-90 credits
- Senior: 91-120 credits
Applications for extension must be submitted via the
online extension request form no later than two days before the course ends.
