Online Requirements

• Self-evaluation for potential candidates
• Computer Requirements: Hardware and Software
• Frequently Asked Questions
• E-mail Contacts

Self-evaluation for Potential Candidates

You need to have basic technology skills and access to an Internet connection to take an online course.

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 web sites 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.

Self-Evaluation Skill Test

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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 95, 98, 2000 or XP or MacOSX(10)
128 MB of RAM is highly recommended and is essential for using MS Office XP
1 Gigabyte of free disk space
Microsoft Office including
Word, PPT, Excel and Outlook can be purchased at the academic price of about $130 at Staples or Best Buy. Not all Staples stock academic version. Also, some courses require Microsoft Access which may also be purchased separately at an academic price.

Adobe Acrobat Reader: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html (free download) - Needed to view .pdf files.

Internet Explorer (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/ie/default.mspx)
(free download) version 5.5 or higher or
Mozilla Firefox (http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/)
(free download) version 4.78 or higher

56K or faster modem

Virus protection

• Buy a copy of Norton SystemWorks
  http://www.symantec.com/home_homeoffice/products/overview.jsp?pcid=sp&pvid=nsw or
• Download Grisoft free anti-virus software
  http://free.grisoft.com/doc/downloads-products/us/frt/0?prd=aff
• Set to update virus definitions automatically

It is 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 PowerPoint (PPT) on your home computer, download the PPT viewer from http://www.microsoft.com.

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