Technical Requirements

Telecourses:

Students taking any technology enhanced course will be accessing course information via the UM course management system, eCourseware (see below). In addition, students enrolled in telecourses (public broadcast or video tape) and/or teleweb courses must have access to the video programming for their particular course. They must be able to receive the programs broadcast on Comcast Cable, be able to play them on a VCR or DVD player (home rental), or view online (Internet streaming). The programs will not be available through any satellite dish provider.

WEB / Online courses:

The University of Memphis utilizes eCourseware for UM online courses and eLearn for RODP online courses. The new courseware is easy to navigate with many features. We strongly recommend all online students review this new software before the semester starts.  Go to our Getting Started Checklist for UM online courses, and go to our Tutorial Web Page for RODP online courses.

Minimum Hardware and Software Requirements -- The following is a list of the basic minimum requirements for Online Courses. Some courses will have more advanced requirements. Information on advanced requirements may be found in each course syllabus.

PC users:

• Processor: Pentium III 500 MHz recommended
• Operating System: Windows XP or higher
• Ram: 256MB or higher recommended
• Free disk space: minimum of 100MB recommended
• Internet connection: DSL or Broadband
• And a dependable internet service provider (ISP). Any provider will do as long as you get an email account, have World Wide Web access, and don't have serious problems connecting.
• Browser: Internet Explorer version 6.0 SP2 or higher (or comparable system)
• Audio: Sound Card and Speakers (to listen to audio embedded into PowerPoint or flash files)
• Input Device: CD-ROM (CD/DVD recommended)

Mac users:

• Minimum system requirements for Mac users are G4 or G5 processor.
• Operating System: Mac OS X or higher.
• Ram: 256MB or higher recommended.
• Free disk space: minimum of 100MB recommended
• Internet connection: DSL or Broadband
• And a dependable internet service provider (ISP). Any provider will do as long as you get an email account, have World Wide Web access, and don't have serious problems connecting.
• Browser: Internet Explorer version 6.0 SP2 or higher, Safari 2.0, or higher (or comparable system)
• Audio: Sound Card and Speakers (to listen to audio embedded into PowerPoint or flash files)
• Input Device: CD-ROM (CD/DVD recommended)

Remember! The above specifications are minimal, and you'll get by with them, but more sophisticated systems are better.

Other:

• JavaScript must be enabled.
• Cookies must be enabled.
• Java must be enabled in courses which use the Whiteboard and/or Chat tools.
• WebCT maintains a browser tune-up page with complete directions on making your browser work well with WebCT.

General Software/Plug-in Recommendations

Adobe Acrobat Reader 8.0   

Flash Player 

JAVA  

RealOne Player

Quicktime 

PowerPoint Player

Instructors generally recommend that students use "Microsoft Word" for papers and assignments. This program offers the greatest common denominator in terms of sending documents across different platforms. Sometimes, specific courses will have specific recommendations about software. See your course syllabus for specifics about required software. Even if you don't have the most recent release of Microsoft Word, there are add-ins that will enhance the performance of your program. For instance, as the World Wide Web becomes more commonly accessible, instructors are beginning to require students to create their own web pages, or to put their pages into html (hypertext markup language). This is not a mind-boggling request, since the recent releases of most word-processing programs offer html as one of the ways to save a document.

Need help? Visit the ITD Helpdesk.