1. On Campus Meetings - Some courses may require an on-campus meeting and/or on-campus or on-site labs and clinicals.  Any on-campus meeting will be listed in section notes of the course schedule.
    
2. Placement Testing - Students may be required to take JSRCC placement tests and complete all recommendations and prerequisites before enrolling in a distance learning course.
   
   
3. SmarterMeasure – Students should complete SmarterMeasure and review results with an adviser before taking distance learning classes.
   
   
4. Orientation to Online Learning (CDL 001) – Students should complete orientation to learning online before beginning a distance learning class.  This Blackboard experience provides all the skills needed for distance learning success! 
    
5. Proctored Testing - For many courses, students will be required to take proctored tests/exams at a JSRCC testing center or other approved site.
    
6. Online Attendance -  Distance Learning students are required to establish a study schedule and must communicate with their instructors on a regular basis.  Students must follow a schedule of assignments and testing established by their instructors.

Computer Literacy

Distance Learning courses are recommended for students with the computer knowledge and skills to:

• send and receive emails with attachments
• do Web searches
• download information from the Web to the desktop
• recognize and use hot links
• find, download, and install utilities and plug-ins
• do basic word processing, including cutting and pasting from or to varied sources
• navigate between two or more applications without closing and re-opening windows (multi-tasking)
• scan and remove computer viruses
• Successful completion of ITE 115 or CSC 155 is strongly recommended
   

Hardware/Software Requirements

Distance Learning courses are available on the Internet and you will need to access assignments, transmit completed work to the instructor, interact with other students, and receive graded work.  To take a distance learning course you must have:

• A computer with Windows 2000, XP or Vista, or Mac OSX (or later)
• Windows Pentium 2 processor or better (Pentium 3 recommended), or Macintosh G3 or higher
• 256 megabytes (MB) RAM or better (1 GB recommended)
• 800 x 600 screen resolution (1024 x 768 recommended)
• 1 gigabyte (GB) of hard drive space (40 GB recommended)
• An active Internet connection
• An updated browser (Internet Explorer 7.0 recommended) with cookies enabled
• Standard word processing software (Google Docs can be accessed by VCCS students)
• Current virus scanning software
• A VCCS student email account
• CD-Rom drive, sound card and speakers (may be needed for some courses)
• Additional plug-ins and software as required for your course.

You may also use computer labs at any of the JSRCC campuses.  If your PC ceases to work effectively during the course, you will be expected to use the college computer lab to complete course requirements.  Some courses may require additional software or readers.

All Academic Computing Centers are governed by the following policies:
VCCS Student/Patron Ethics Agreement
JSRCC Usage Of Computers And Computer Information Resources Policy 4-32