Concordia is proud to be able to offer education beyond the traditional classroom setting through the use of technology.
In order to make this teaching method work best, students must be able to utilize files in certain formats. This Orientation area is to help students determine if they can use the audio, video, and document formats that may be used in their courses before the course begins, so students can correct any incompatibilities and not miss any class sessions.
If you have any problems or questions, please contact our help desk at 262.243.4357.
Minimum Computer Requirements
The minimum computer requirements that you will need are a computer with internet access, and is powerful enough to run the software listed below. Having a printer may be a benefit as a student, but is not required in every course. These are general requirements that will work for most courses, however some courses may have special needs. If you are not sure about extra software, please contact your Instructor.
1) WebCT: WebCT is a Course Management System used by Concordia to help instructors facilitate learning. WebCT is a powerful tool instructors can use to incorporate class materials, discussion boards, chat rooms, quizzes and more. WebCT is fairly simple to use and most students find it to be straight forward.
2) Sample Files: Concordia is currently offering Video files in the following formats. If you click the "Test this format" link for each format you will hear a short clip to verify if you can play the format.
Adobe Acrobat: This is the preferred document distibution type for Concordia. The Acrobat Reader is a free utility from www.adobe.com and is needed to view acrobat documents. The Acrobat Reader can be downloaded here.
Microsoft Office: Concordia uses Microsoft Office internally for our standard document type. Some materials may be presented in this format. Microsoft Office can be purchased at an educational discount through Concordia's Bookstore. An alternative to Microsoft Office would be Open Office available at http://www.openoffice.org. Open Office is an Open Source, freely available office package that is mostly compatible with Microsoft Office.
Sample Microsoft Word Document
Sample Microsoft Excel Document
Sample Microsoft PowerPoint Document
Multi Media:
Concordia uses Macromedia's Flash Communication Server for both live streaming of events and on-demand audio / video feeds. In order to view both audio and video feeds you must have the Macromedia Flash Player version 6.0 or higher. If you do not have the Macromedia Player, you can download it here.
Sample Macromedia Flash Video File
Please note that do to the time required to do file conversions not all content will be available in every supported format.
