What You Will Need for this Course.

For your class you will need to have your own computer. Preferably you will lease/buy a College laptop. This has several advantages:

• The price is decent.
• You are assured of sufficient memory, CPU speed, virtualization support, and disk capacity.
• If you have any device driver issues, so will everyone else, so you won't be left behind.
• Since you don't technically own the computer until the end of your degree, if it breaks the Ridgewater IT has to provide a loaner until they can get it fixed/replaced.

If you choose to use your own existing computer, you will need to get permission from your instructor before the course begins. This is to ensure you have adequate RAM, CPU speed, and disk space for the course.

Internet Connection:

You will need a high speed (not dial up) Internet connection for this course. If you do not have one at home you will not be able to attend online and perform other course functions from home. However, if you come on campus regularly you will be able to get by without a high speed Internet Connection at home.

Desire To Learn Account (D2L)

When you register for this course, you are automatically assigned a D2L login account. You will need to login in to the D2L system in order to access certain components of this course, and information needed to download required software.

You may log in to the D2L system from https://ridgewater.ims.mnscu.edu/, or from the the link on www.ridgewater.edu.

If you need help with your D2L log on id, or you cannot get in, or you get in but this course does not show up, please contact the Ridgewater College Registration for assistance.

TextBook:

Most courses do not require a textbook. Courses which do require a textbook will state this on the home page for the course.

Some courses do require a student subscription to WWW.ACM.ORG, which costs $19 per year.

Computer Backup Procedure:

You will need some procedure for regularly backing up the work you do on your computer for this course. Your instructor will go over options for you. You will then need to actually follow your selected backup procdure througout the semester.

Help:

At times you will likely need help with your course work. You have the following options:

• Use Google or other search engine.
• Use a help file, if a relevant one exists.
• Ask your instructor during a class session.
• Ask a fellow student.
• Work together with other students on projects. Find a lab partner.
• Ask your instructor during his office hours.
• Ask a student workstudy/lab assistant, if one is assigned for this class. This usually is not done until the second or third week of class.

Here are some additional guidelines for communicating with your instructor:

• You do not need to inform your instructor beforehand if you will not be making it to a class session. Just take it upon yourself to watch the recorded class session later.
• You do not need to ask your instructor what was covered in a class you missed, or what is going to be covered in an upcoming class. If you are unable to attend a class, just watch the recorded class session.
• If you attended or watched a class session but do not understand something, by all means ask your instructor for clarification. If you look at his schedule you will see he has very little available time outside of class, so the best time to ask your instructor is during the class to which the question pertains.