Iowa State University
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College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Distance Education

Got a question?

Questions about College of Agriculture & Life Sciences Distance Education courses and programs can be directed to (800)747-4478 or by E-mail. For a list of all courses and programs available from Iowa State University, call 515-294-1889 or visit www.distance.iastate.edu.

Computer Requirements

 

Access to and on-going use of a computer will be required for all students completing distance education courses. Class assignments will require the use of a computer, printer, a reliable high speed Internet connection, an ISU email account, and appropriate software.

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Distance Education courses require a computer that meets the Recommended Requirements to avoid slow speeds at which more complicated web pages or interactive lessons will display. An older/slower computer system may take minutes to display video content and may play it back at a choppy rate. A system closer to the Recommended Requirements will provide a more enjoyable and educationally valuable experience. Dialup connections are not suitable for streaming video. Windows 98, ME, NT are no longer supported.

 

Recommended Computer Requirements

PC Users

  • Pentium® 4 at 2.0 GHz or higher
  • 1 Gigabyte of RAM or higher
  • 80 GB hard drive or larger
  • Broadband internet connection (256 Kbps DSL / Cable Modem)
  • Full Duplex sound card and speakers
  • 65,000 color video display card (1024x768)
  • DVD-ROM/CDRW drive
  • Windows® XP with Service Pack 2 & current patches
  • Supported Browsers
    • Internet Explorer 6 or later
    • AOL 9
    • Firefox 2.0 or later
    • Mozilla 1.7 or later
    • Netscape 7.2 or later
  • Acrobat Reader 8.0 or later
  • QuickTime 7.1.6 or later
  • RealPlayer 9.0 or later
  • Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint)

**WebCT provides limited support for Windows Vista and MS Office 2007

Macintosh Users

  • 600 G4 or greater
  • 512 MB RAM
  • 80 GB hard drive or larger
  • Broadband internet connection (256 Kbps DSL / Cable Modem)
  • Full Duplex sound card and speakers
  • 65,000-color video display card [set to display 1024x768] (video)
  • DVD/CD-ROM drive
  • OS 10.4
    • Internet Explorer 6 or later
    • Firefox 2.0 or later
    • Mozilla 1.7 or later
    • Netscape 7.2 or later
    • Safari 2.0 or later
  • Acrobat Reader 8.0 or later
  • QuickTime 7.1.6 or later
  • RealPlayer 9.0 or later
  • Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint)

 

Check your computer system

(run browser check on WebCT home page)