Student Computing:

Requirements

Every class - in every delivery method - at Peirce College is supported by an accompanying website. For online classes, the course website is the classroom. On campus and on site classes have Class Companion Websites. These websites allow students and faculty to collaborate easily on projects, discuss relevant topics and receive feedback on submitted assignments between class sessions.

Minimum System Requirements
Internet Service Provider (ISP)
Email
AOL, Prodigy, and Compuserve
Browser Test


Minimum System Requirements

To take full advantage of the interactivity of the courses, the following minimum system profiles are REQUIRED:

PC

  • Microsoft Windows 2000 or XP
  • 64 MB RAM (128 MB recommended)
  • 28.8 kbps modem
    (56K recommended)
  • Sound card and speakers

One of the following java-capable browsers:

  • Internet Explorer 6.0
  • Netscape Communicator 7.1

Mac

  • MacOS 9.1 and OS X
  • 32 MB RAM
    (64 ecommended)
  • 28.8 kbps modem
    (56 K recommended)
  • Sound card and speakers

One of the following java-capable browsers:

  • Internet Explorer 5.1x or 5.2x (recommended)
  • Netscape Communicator 7.1 (recommended)
  • Safari 1.2 (supported)

If you are using a Macintosh computer to participate in PC programming courses or networking courses, please be sure you are using Virtual PC. The lastest version of Virutual PC requires Mac OS X v 10.2.8 or later.

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Internet Service Provider (ISP)

An ISP is a company that provides you with the software and access necessary for getting onto the Internet. You will need Internet access to take your courses.

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Email

Your email address is established when you sign up with an ISP. Check with your ISP if you do not know what your email address is. Special characters can cause problems with some systems that make it difficult to reach the intended mailbox. We suggest that you do not use special characters, for example, +, &, $, etc., in your email address.

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AOL, Prodigy and Compuserve Users

America Online (AOL), Prodigy, and CompuServe are Internet Service Providers (ISP). As part of their software they each provide an internal web browser that allows users to browse the web. Often, these web browsers are either customized and/or older versions of Internet Explorer (IE). Rarely do these internal web browsers include Netscape versions. This is true even when using the most recent version of the ISP.
CAUTION: Using the internal browsers may cause sporadic problems with an online course. To minimize the possibility of browser-related problems, we strongly recommend using an external browser when accessing our online courses and also when taking our Browser Test.
Most computers have an updated version of an external browser pre-installed.

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Browser Test

This test will review the components of your Internet browser, and will provide any necessary instructions for making the most of your browser's functionality and your online experience.

As you take the browser test, please keep in mind that this campus is optimized to work in a Microsoft Windows© environment. What does that mean? It means that our courses work best if you are using a Windows operating system (98 or newer) and a recent version of Microsoft Internet Explorer (5.0+). Take the browser test.

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