English Composition 1
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Orientation: Computer Requirements
Students can complete all assignments for English Composition 1 Online from a home or office computer, with no special software to purchase, or assignments may be completed on college computers. You can use just about any word-processing program for the course, and the conferencing and quizzing software that we use is web-based, installed on the college's server and accessible if you have an Internet connection and a web browser.
While most students in English Composition 1 Online use home computers, you can use college computers to complete all assignments in the course.
At Illinois Valley Community College, computers for student use are available in Learning Resource Center D (LRC-D), the large open computer lab in D building. This lab is staffed by lab assistants and an Assistant to Instruction who should be able to answer any questions you may have.
If you are taking this course from a distance and need to use a college computer, your local college should provide you with computer access.
Just about any computer should be just fine to use for the course, but this page explains the computer and software requirements. Links to the most recent downloadable versions of computer programs required for the course appear below. (All the programs linked below are free.)
Please contact the instructor at Randy_Rambo@ivcc.edu if you have any questions about the hardware or software requirements for the course.
General Computer Requirements
To complete course assignments on a home or office computer, that computer must include the following:
- an Internet connection from an Internet provider
- a recent version of a web browser (Netscape, Internet Explorer, Opera, etc.), which you can download for free.
- a media player
- a recent version of a word-processing program that allows files to be saved in Rich Text Format (RTF)
An Internet Connection
You must have an Internet connection from a reliable Internet service provider. The college does not provide this service. The course Web pages are designed to load quickly, so even a slow connection should work fine.
A Web Browser
Any version of Netscape or Internet Explorer (or other web browsers) allows access to the course web pages, but recent versions of web browsers generally work better than earlier versions.
A Media Player
Some of the assignment units for the course include audio files with information about writing. The information in the audio files is also transcribed on Web pages so that you can read or print the material. However, to listen to the audio files, you will need to have a media player installed on your computer. Each audio file for the course is presented both in Windows Media Players and Real Player format. You might experiment with the two media players to determine which one you prefer to use for the course.
A Word Processor
All essays for the course must be prepared on a word processor that allows files to be saved in Rich Text Format (RTF), which include recent versions of Microsoft Works, Microsoft Word, Microsoft WordPad, and Corel WordPerfect. Files must be saved in Rich Text Format to ensure that we can open and read each other's documents.
Questions?
Please contact me at 815-224-0338 or Randy_Rambo@ivcc.edu if you have any questions about the computer requirements for the course.