COLLEGE OF ARTS & SCIENCES ITC
Hardware & Software Requirements
- Minimum Pentium-level or Macintosh-equivalent computer.
- Minimum 28.8 modem (recommended 56K)
- Faxing capabilities
There are stand-alone
faxes or fax-modem combinations which allow you to fax at home. Or,
if need be, you can arrange a fax number with "virtual offices" such
as MailBox USA. If you need communications/fax software, CallCenter
is Y2K compliant and highly-rated. It's available for free download
at http://www.v3inc.com/
.
Note: Not all courses require you to send/receive faxes; check your course syllabus. - Local Internet (World Wide Web) provider. Your service should provide a browser equivalent or higher to Netscape Navigator 4.5 or Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0.
Download:
(min. 16M RAM (PC)/32M RAM (Macintosh) to use this software)
 Netscape Navigator/ Communicator |
 Internet Explorer |
-
Make sure that the browser you have is Java-enabled. Java, a Web scripting language, enables on-line checking of exercises and other interactive operations.
- Internet/e-mail address. All enrolled students will be communicating with the instructor via 1) e-mail, 2) "mailto" Weblinks, 3) "threaded discussion forums" and/or 4) mailing lists ("listservs").
- Multimedia. In some Webcourses you will need to play both audio (.WAV, .AU, .QT) and video (.MOV, .QT, .AVI) files. One program, available for both Windows and Macintosh platforms, that can play them all is QuickTime 3.0, developed by Apple.
- VCR, if videotaped format
- Audiotape player, if audiotaped format.
- Adobe Acrobat reader. (optional) Many Web documents now appear in "PDF" (Document Format) format. You may download this free reader from the Adobe Acrobat Web site.
E-mail: If
you do not have a regular mail service, you can obtain a free e-mail
account from http://www.uncg.edu/pipeline.
When you register for a web course, a UNCG username and Email account
will be created for you. Once assigned an e-mail address, you can
send/receive/archive mail at any computer with a Web connection.
Also: Learn how to configure
Netscape Messenger to use with your UNCG account.
On occasion, your instructor may require you to create a document using an application program (e.g. Microsoft Word) and attach this document to your e-mail message. If you do not know how to attach files, check your e-mail help facility under the keyword: attachments.
"Mailto" Weblinks:
All course syllabi have instructor e-mail addresses which, when clicked
within the Web document itself, display a "mail compose" form. To
send the message(s) you compose, you must first configure your browser
to tell it who you are and what your e-mail
address is. That is, you must supply the browser with identification
about you, the sender. Two documents which describe how to configure
your browser mail are:
1) Netscape
Communicator 4 (4.05, 4.06) Mail Configuration
2) Netscape
Communicator 4.5 Mail Configuration
Be sure to check out the Information
Technology Documentation for the latest on computing at UNCG.
Discussion forums:
Most courses will use threaded discussion groups, which
use the Web's hypertext capabilities to group messages by topic. If
your class has a discussion forum, you can connect to it from your
on-line course.
In addition, you may want to download RealPlayer, which plays live - " streaming" - on-demand RealAudio and RealVideo. (optional)
Download:
 QuickTime 3.0 |
 RealPlayer |
Download:
 Abode Acrobat reader |