Technical Requirements

Taking an online course means that each student needs to have a computer that is capable of connecting to and interacting in a Blackboard online class. This requirement is easy to meet provided students have the following available:

Hardware

A computer that can connect to the Internet by high-speed access (DSL, Cable, FIOS).
Your monitor resolution set no lower than 800x600. However, we recommend a minimum of 1024x768 resolution for best results.
Computer that has a 1GHz processor speed with at least 256MB RAM.
Sound card and speakers (optional).

Software

Windows OS (XP, Vista, 7) or Mac OSX (Tiger, Leopard, Lion)
Internet browser (Internet Explorer 7+, Firefox 3.0+, Safari 3.0+). Using AOL or Opera web browsers are strongly discouraged as they do not work well with Blackboard.
A word processing program that can save files in an html or web page format. Microsoft Word, Microsoft Works, or Word Perfect are examples of programs that will do this. A free alternative is found at OpenOffice.org.
Adobe Acrobat Reader
Java and Javascript enabled in your Internet browser.
Quicktime
Flash Player
Windows Media Player