June 11th, 2010 
Michelle Conner
It’s pretty much accepted that in order to advance in these tough economic times, one has to advance one’s education. Another thing that’s growing in leaps and bounds is a way to hold down a job, continue one’s education and still have some kind of life – enrolling at an online college. Still, there are those who balk at the idea of taking virtual classes. They remember the days of chalkboards and notebooks, sitting with several hundred fellow students at a brick-and-mortar campus. The idea of learning online scares them.
A lot of this is they don’t know if they have the right kind of computer, much less how to effectively navigate the web or understand the software they have to use. The end result is they don’t have the confidence for distance learning. There is an abundance of information about online college degree programs on the web.
For starters, online colleges have now been at it for several decades. Over this time they’ve learned how to make accessing their resources as easy as possible for their students, and are more than willing to help. One of the ways they do this is by simplifying their procedures and how class work is done. This includes one’s hardware and software.
For starters, whether you use a desktop, laptop or iPad, your modem should have DSL or Wi-Fi. Any computer, even a refurbished one, has Internet access. Online colleges also design their websites to be as easily accessible as possible. So you can access it through Explorer, Firefox or whatever you use for your browser. It also doesn’t matter if you use PC or Mac.
What will probably give the online freshmen the most difficulty is what they do when they do get to their school’s web site. Their websites use what’s called “course management systems” such as Blackboard, eCollege and Moodle. Actually, these systems are quite intuitive, but most colleges have personnel who will help if there is a need.
The other key thing is almost all lessons are written in either Microsoft Word or Adobe. All PC’s come with Word. As for Adobe, if you don’t have it, it’s free to download. Both of these software’s are also easy to learn, as both have also been around for decades. Although, believe it or not, there will be times when you do have to crack open a real book. Even the founder of Microsoft, Bill Gates, admits he still reads them! There is an abundance of information about distance learning education on the web.
Where e-learning has it all over on campus schools is its utilization of video and audio streaming. This is where DSL or Wi-Fi is critical. They can handle the data load with a speed that allows you to watch the videos as often as you like, without them constantly pausing to reload. Once you get the hang of this though, you’ll wonder why you didn’t go online sooner.
Maybe online schools seems something completely alien to a person who never studied at home. At the same time, these institutions have made the software and hardware of distance learning degree programs so easy anyone who now goes on Facebook should have no problem picking it all up.
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