Required Hardware and Software

Students can complete all assignments for Film, Art, and Literature from a home or office computer, with no "special" software to purchase, in conjunction with use of a TV and VCR or DVD player. You can use just about any word-processing program for the course, and the conferencing and quizzing software that we use is web-based, installed on the college's server, and accessible if you have an Internet connection and a web browser.

If you want to complete assignments from a home or office computer, that computer must include the following:

an Internet connection from an Internet provider
a recent version of a web browser (Netscape, Internet Explorer, Opera, etc.), which you can download for free (see The Course Web Pages for more information)
a recent version of a word-processing program that allows files to be saved in Rich Text Format, or RTF (which includes recent versions of Microsoft Works, Microsoft Word, Microsoft WordPad, and Corel WordPerfect)
a recent version of PowerPoint so that you can read and download "lecture" material
a recent version of Adobe Acrobat Reader
a recent version of Windows Media Player or RealPlayer
a minimum 24,400 baud modem is recommended. A slower modem could be used, but a slower modem will increase download time for course web pages.

Helena Bonham Carter as Ophelia in Zeffirelli's Hamlet (1990)

W. G. Simmonds's The Drowning of Ophelia (1910)

The computers in the student computer labs at Illinois Valley Community College are available for use by students enrolled in this course. If you use the student computer labs for some or all of your assignments, the best lab to use is LRC-D. This lab is staffed by lab assistants and an Assistant to Instruction who should be able to answer any questions you may have.

Except for the word processor and PowerPoint, all software used in the course is web-based, and you can access this software at no cost with a web browser.