Hardware/Software Requirements
Instructors teaching and students taking a distance learning course at PVCC should meet the following minimum technical requirements:
- Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7; MacOS X 10.5+
- PC with Pentium 3 or higher Processor (1GHz or faster recommended) or Macintosh G4 or higher
- Monitor with screen resolution of 800x600 (1024x768 or better recommended)
- 512 MB RAM (memory) or greater (Vista/Windows 7 require minimum 1 GB)
- 1 GB free hard drive space minimum
- An active Internet connection (dial-up is strongly discouraged)
- Updated virus scanning software
- A Web browser with JavaScript and cookies enabled.
- Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 or 9
- Firefox 3.6.x + (Firefox 4 recommended)
- Safari 4+
- Please do not use Google Chrome or Opera browsers, they are classified incompatible with Blackboard, not all features will function.
- Microsoft Word or another word processing application capable of saving files in Rich Text Format (Google Docs can be accessed online by VCCS students)
- Use of VCCS supplied student email account
Students should immediately review the course syllabus for specific technical requirements set by the instructor. For example, some courses may require students to have a CD or DVD drive/player or other courses may require that students have a DSL or faster Internet connection.
The PVCC Open Computer Lab (Room M832) is available for all PVCC Students.
NOTE: If you have a subscription to America Online (AOL) and use the AOL browser you may get an error message or have problems using Blackboard. Please use the AOL browser to log in to and connect to the Internet. Minimize the AOL browser and open Internet Explorer.
