Student Computer Requirements

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In order to be able to take advantage of all the resources available for these program, all candidates will have to have access to a computer, preferably a laptop, with these minimum characteristics:

- Operating system: Windows XP or MacOS X 10.5.x

- Video capabilities with either a built in or an external, compatible WebCam

- Audio capabilities with appropriate combination headset/microphone (external speakers are not acceptable as they tend to cause feedback noise)

Internet access

Candidates must also have access to High speed Internet, preferably at home as schools tend to have firewalls that can block many feature of these courses such as the videoconferencing.

Basic Software requirements

- MS Office or OpenOffice
       - Word;
       - Excel; and
       - PowerPoint;
- Web Browser
       - Internet Explorer;
       - Firefox; or
       - Safari

Additional software

A set of basic software packages will be made available online for use by the students, free of charge, and each course instructor will also supply any additional information as to course specific software that might be required. Although most will be free for the students, it is highly probable that some software may need to be purchase by the students. In all these cases, the purchasing would be done online by the student, from well-known and trusted sources identified by the professors. The cost of these would never represent more that the average normal cost of books associated with such studies.

Required computer skills

Given that all courses will make use of many of these resources, it is implied that ALL candidates will be required to possess a minimum technical skill set allowing them to use the necessary technology. This means that before start of classes, all students should be comfortable with the use of their computer as with the use of the basic software listed above.