Tech Support

ANTI VIRUS SOFTWARE

Make sure that up-to-date virus protection software is installed on your computer. Students, and even professors, have inadvertently mailed out virus-infected files to others. Be careful! Please click here to learn more about virus protection.

HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS

The current standard file format for coursework is Microsoft Office 365 and above. Other file formats should be coordinated with your instructor. When sending document, it is a good idea to specify the file format in the text of your email if you are using a version other than Office 365. This will help the recipient in case of problems reading the document. Please click here to learn more about hardware requirement.

When sending attached files via email, the receiving students/faculty may use a variety of email clients. On occasion, some email clients will have difficulty opening files due to the file name rather than the file contents. If you change the default file extension on a file (e.g., .doc for MS Word documents), the email client may be unable to determine what application to use to open the file.

If your instructor does not give you a naming convention for files that you send, we recommend that you include the assignment number/name and your username or team number in the document name. This will enable the instructor to easily determine the nature of the file when looking at a listing of files in a folder. For example, assignment 1 for user tsmith might be submitted as MS Word document assign1tsmith.doc.

We recommend that you have multiple browsers installed on your computer. Chrome should be version 90 or above. Firefox should be version 90 or above, and Internet Explorer should be version 11 or above. Before installing any browser, you need to be sure it will not conflict with your ISP connection or with any other important configuration on your PC. To see your version, pull down the Help menu in Internet Explorer and select About. The reason that we recommend that students have both browsers is that on occasion one browser may be malfunctioning and the other browser will allow you to properly access the course pages. On occasion students (or programs installed by the students) have had security, Java, or network settings changed in one of their browsers that cause the browser to have persistent problems accessing our websites. Using the other browser usually allows access. At other times, a browser may just have a malfunction problem during a particular session. Rather than reboot, you may want to just try the other browser.

IT CONTACT INFORMATION

If you have a problem logging to Blackboard, please contact IT Help Desk at (310) 243-2500 or submit Help Desk Online request.