Distance Learning - Technical Requirements

Make sure you and your computer are ready

Here are some technical requirements that you and your computer should meet to ensure that you are both ready for the distance learning challenge.

Personal Requirements

Make sure you know how to do the following so that you can have a successful learning experience:

Computer skills: You should have experience using a personal computer. You must know how to use a keyboard and a mouse, save and open files, navigate the file systems, install software and print documents.
Basic computer skills tutorial

Internet/Browser Basics: You should know how to open and close browsers, bookmark URLs; input URLs into the location/address bar; print from the Web, navigate the Web; download files from Web sites and install software.
Internet Explorer Tutorial
Firefox Tutorial

Email: You should know how to save and organize emails, as well as send and open attachments.
Email Tutorial

Hardware & Software Requirements

Hardware
A stable connection to the Internet.
A minimum screen resolution of 1024 x 768 (our courses are designed to be maximized at this resolution).

Software
A minimum of Windows XP or Macintosh OS X 10.1 operating system (or higher).
We strongly recommend you download the latest fully released version of a browser. Please check memory requirements for running each browser. Below are the listed browsers that we know are compatible with our Distance Learning Campus.
a) Mozilla Firefox 2.0 or higher
b) Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 or higher

AOL users: You will need to launch an external browser to use our site. To launch an external browser, simply log onto AOL, minimize the AOL program, and launch either Internet Explorer or Firefox.

Please avoid browsers that are in beta status, as this may cause system-wide complications. Keeping up with the latest released version of Internet browsers allows for multimedia elements like Flash to function and can help stabilize your Web experience.

Internet Connections and Email
An Internet access account.
You will need a current email account and address to take our online courses.

Still not sure?
Contact our Distance Learning Department staff at: jci@fnc.edu. Or call: (305) 226-9999 ext. 1047