Department of Dental Hygiene | Idaho State University

Master of Science in Dental Hygiene

Computer and Software Requirements

Most of the courses in this program are completely online over the Internet. As such, we have chosen software and operating platforms that best fit our department and make the online experience as easy and transparent as possible for our students. This may require the purchase of additional hardware and software. The following specifications are required for successfully completing your degree.

Required Software
Word Processing	Microsoft Word 2003 or newer All students are required to submit all electronic correspondence and assignments in Microsoft Office format unless stated otherwise by the instructor. Corel WordPerfect format will not be accepted or supported.
Presentation Software	Microsoft PowerPoint 2003 or newer Many courses will be delivering presentations in Microsoft PowerPoint format. Also, many courses will require students to develop and deliver their own PowerPoint presentations.
Operating System	Microsoft Windows XP or better
Email	Students will be required to use their ISU email account for any email correspondence. ISU assigns every student an email address upon payment of fees. The standard for the email is the first four of the last name and the first four of the first name (i.e. Robert Johnson would be johnrobe@isu.edu). This will be the only email address given to your instructors. Your instructor will ONLY use this email address to make contact or send material. If you are unfamiliar with how your email works, please contact the ISU Computer Center Help Desk at 208-282-4585 for assistance visit their email information page. This email is retrievable whereever Internet access is available. This email account can be set up to forward to another email address if students prefer. For information on forwarding email, click here.
Internet Connection	A broadband Internet connection, such as a cable or DSL connection, is highly recommended. Students may get by with a dialup connection over a 56K modem, but they will spend quite a bit of time accessing course materials.
Web Browser	Mozilla Firefox 2.0 or current version This is the recommended browser for the Moodle Learning Management System and for LiveText. Other browsers are known to have compatibility issues with Moodle (a program that we use to deliver course content). To ensure the best experience, it is recommended that the above browser be used. It can be downloaded by following the link below: Mozilla Firefox For information on setting up your browser to work with our online course delivery system (Moodle), click here
Your Computer
Windows	AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual‐Core 5000+ or equivalent Intel processor (Recommended 2.0 GHz or higher) 1GB of RAM 60GB hard drive space or better Sound card w/speakers DVD Burner
Macintosh	Mac OS X 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo or higher processor (Recommended 2.0 GHz or higher) 1GB of RAM 60GB hard drive space or better Sound card w/speakers DVD Burner
Browser Plugins
RealPlayer	For streaming video and audio. Be sure to download the FREE version. You do not need to purchase the full version. [test] You should hear audio if the player is installed correctly. Be sure to turn up your computer speakers!
Flash Player	For web animations. [test] This will display a small animation.
Adobe Acrobat	View, navigate, and print PDF files across all major computing platforms (required by department). [test] This will open a Adobe Acrobat document.
QuickTime	Play quicktime video clips and sounds. [test] This will Check to see if you have QuickTime.