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Computer and Communication Skills needed for Online College Success
Attending an online college can be a great experience, but you must learn to obtain the most out of all the resources your chosen online college has to offer.
You should begin by reading all the information your college has provided you with. Once you have accomplished that task, you need to take time to become very familiar with your college's web site. It is imperative that you know where everything is located so you do not waste time searching for important resources once your online classes begin.
Most online colleges will communicate through email, instant messaging and news groups. You should familiarize yourself with these communication methods so you are ready when your classes begin.
There are certain software programs that you will be required to use for your online class. Your college and/or professor will provide you with information on which programs you will need to successfully complete your courses.
Be sure to have these programs installed and functioning properly. Also take a few minutes to familiarize yourself with the programs required by your online college.
Software Programs Required –
Many of these programs will already be installed on your system. You will need to check your system and verify that you have these programs and check to see if the program has any additional updates you should obtain.
It is also important that you make sure your operating system is up-to-date and that you have all the most recent security patches installed on your system. You can check your system to find out which updates you need for your operating system by going to the Microsoft Update site.
Basics
- Adobe Acrobat Reader
- Microsoft Office
- Internet Explorer
- Java Runtime Environment
- WinZip
Communication
- Email
- Usually provided by your school
- You may want to use a gmail/hotmail account as well
- Instant Messengers
- Yahoo
- AOL
- MSN (Windows Live Messenger)
- Trillian (Runs all 3 messengers from one program)
Multimedia
- Quicktime
- Real Player
- Flash Player
Security
- Antivirus - AVG / Avast
- Firewall - Zone Alarm
- Spyware - Spybot Search & Destroy / Ad Aware
Hardware Required –
- Obtain DSL/Cable
- USB flash drive or external hard drive to create backups of assignments
Skills Required –
- Know how to upload/download a file
- Be able to use MS Office
- Newgroups are often used in place of the classroom
- Most news groups are proprietary to the online school
- Learn to navigate and post to your newsgroup
- Be able to locate and search your colleges online Library
- Know how to send and receive email
- Be able to communicate through instant messaging
- Familiarize yourself with navigating the student website
- This is the most important aspect of your online classes
- Familiarize yourself with the web site interface
- Contact 24/7 support if needed
- Be familiar with how to pay your tuition online
- Check the site's maintenance account to be sure it does not conflict with assignments you have due
- Be able to upload your paper for grammar and spelling check services offered through your college
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