Minimum Student Technology Skills

Students who take online courses must possess good computer and Internet skills to be successful. Students should have daily access to a computer (preferably at home) that meets the computer needs requirement. Skills specific to individual courses may also be required; for example, proficiency with a word processing software may be needed for an online English course. In general students need:

Basic Skills

  • Be familiar with the operating system of the computer being used for class
  • Understand terms such as mouse, drag, open, select, file, URL, post, hyperlink, upload, download, etc.
  • Know how to save, copy, and find files/folders on external storage and hard drives.
  • Download and upload files.

Email Skills

  • Send, open, reply to, and forward a message
  • Enter a message subject and body
  • Send an attachment
  • Open and/or save an attachment

Web Browser Skills

  • Go to a specific URL
  • Print a page
  • Follow a hypertext link
  • Conduct a basic search using a search engine

Word Processor Skills

  • Open a new or existing file
  • Save a file and rename a file
  • Print a document
  • Download and upload files

If any of these items are unfamiliar, do not take COMP 1000 online. It would be best to take this class on campus to get a firm foundation in your technology area before you progres with your other college classes.

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