Getting Started Online

Basics for Online Courses

You need to have basic technology skills and access to an Internet connection to take an online course. (High speed connection is recommended.)

Basic computer skills include the ability to:

Create and save documents
Manage and organize documents (files) and folders
Upload and download files
Send and receive email
Navigate to websites using web addresses
Perform basic Web searches

If you do not have basic computer skills, we recommend you take an introductory computer course before attempting fully online courses.

Would I be a good online student? (Self-evaluation)

Computer Requirements: Hardware and Software

Hardware and software required to use Blackboard, the Manchester Community College online learning platform.

MCC provides all students with a college email address. This email is used for all college communications and students are required to use their college account.

Windows 2000, XP, Vista, 7 or MacOSX(10)
128 MB of RAM would be the bare minimum, 1 GB or more is highly recommended
At least 1 GB of free disk space
Microsoft Office including Word, PowerPoint, and Excel. Some courses also require Microsoft Access.
Virus protection software
Adobe Acrobat Reader (needed to view PDF files)
A modern web browser: Mozilla Firefox (v3.0 or higher / free download), Internet Explorer (v6.0 or higher / free download)
56K or faster modem (a small investment to avoid big computer problems such as a crashing hard drive and loss of all your files)
If you do not have Microsoft PowerPoint on your computer, download the PowerPoint Viewer from Microsoft directly.