Getting In
Technical Requirements for Online Courses
- If there are technical problems with our systems, please contact the Student Help Desk for assistance.
- If there are technical problems with your computer or Internet connectivity, we are unable to assist you.
- Instructors are responsible for teaching course curriculum - not how to use your home computer.
- It is the student's responsibility to be technologically capable to take an online course, i.e. you should be computer literate and Internet experienced! Check to see if you're ready for online learning.
Since your course will be accessed through your computer and Internet connection, it is important that you have the proper computer configuration. Outlined below are the basic technical requirements (minimum and recommended) for participation in an online course.
Some online courses will have additional technical requirements - please check the individual course link (see course schedule) or contact the instructor for details.
PC Configuration |
Mac Configuration |
| 2 GHZ Processor (Dual Core) or better | 2 GHZ Processor (Dual Core) or better |
| 4 GB RAM (or more) |
4 GB RAM (or more) |
| Broadband (Cable or DSL) Prefer Ethernet (not Wireless) |
Broadband (Cable or DSL) Prefer Ethernet (not Wireless) |
| Windows XP, Vista, or 7 | Mac OS 10.6 (or better) |
Internet Explorer 8 or 9 (in Compatibility Mode)
|
Safari (V5.1 or better)
|
| Internet access with an E-mail Account | Internet access with an E-mail Account |
| Plugins: Latest Version of: Adobe Reader, Flash, and Java | Plugins: Latest Version of: Adobe Reader, Flash, and Java |
| Recommended Software: Microsoft Office 2007 or Office 2010 | Recommended Software: Microsoft Office Office 2011 |
| Course-specific plug-ins* | Course-specific plug-ins* |
| Course-specific software* | Course-specific software* |
| Course-specific hardware* | Course-specific hardware* |
* Some courses may have additional technical requirements. To find out if a course has additional technical requirements, view the course in the Online Course Schedule.
Blackboard Browser Requirements
Blackboard™ Learn Release 9.1 SP8 (9.1.82223.0) is tested with a variety of technologies. The following information comes from the Blackboard website.
Certified: fully tested and supported.
Compatible: partially tested but should function properly.
Provisional: future technologies considered supported by Blackboard Support.
Unsupported: either impossible or not tested.
Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
| Internet Explorer® 9 | Internet Explorer 8 | Firefox (Final Release Channel) | Firefox 3.6 | Chrome (Stable Channel ) | |
Windows® XP (32-bit) |
Unsupported | Compatible | Compatible | Compatible | Compatible |
Windows Vista® (32-bit) |
Certified | Compatible | Certified | Compatible | Compatible |
Windows Vista (64-bit) |
Compatible | Compatible | Compatible | Compatible | Compatible |
Windows 7 (32-bit) |
Certified | Compatible | Certified | Compatible | Certified |
Windows 7 (64-bit) |
Compatible | Compatible | Compatible | Compatible | Compatible |
Apple® Mac OS® Operating System
| Safari® 5.1 | Safari® 5.0 | Safari 4.0 | Firefox (Final Release Channel) | Firefox 3.6 | Chrome (Stable Channel) | |
Mac OSX 10.6 "Snow Leopard®" |
Compatible | Certified | Compatible | Certified | Compatible | Certified |
| Mac OSX 10.7 "Lion®" | Compatible | Unsupported | Unsupported | Compatible | Compatible | Compatible |
- Blackboard strives to make all its products as accessible as possible. JAWS for Windows 11 and 12 were used during accessibility testing.
- Blackboard Learn requires the latest version of Sun JRE 6. The JRE can be downloaded from http://java.sun.com/javase/downloads/index.jsp. JRE 7 is not supported.
- The following technologies are not supported:
- Internet Explorer 6 and Internet Explorer 7
- Firefox 1.x, 2.0, 3.0, and 3.5
- Safari 2.0, 3.x (or any version on Windows)
- Mac OSX 10.5 "Leopard", 10.4 "Tiger", or earlier
- Java 5
- Internet Explorer 8 and Internet Explorer 9 are tested in Standards Mode. Some known issues can be resolved by using Compatibility Mode (emulates IE7 behavior).
- Both Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox have moved to a rapid release cycle. At the time of testing, Chrome 16.0 and Firefox 9.0 were the latest available versions. Since then, new stable versions may have been released and widely adopted. Blackboard is supporting all newer stable versions of Chrome and Firefox.
