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Technical requirements for taking online courses

Hardware and software required for taking online or hybrid courses.

As online courses will be conducted 100%, and hybrid courses over 30% online, you will need these hardware and software applications:

  • a computer. 
  • a broadband internet connection.
  • a web browser such as FireFox, Chrome in the latest version. You can download them for free: FireFox, Chrome.
  • a CUNYfirst/Blackboard account. You can activate your CUNYfirst account if you haven't done so.
  • a York College email which is part of the Office 365.
  • a word processing software such as MS-Word. As a CUNY student, you can download Word, Powerpoint, Excel from Office 365 for free.  You can also use  LibreOffice which includes a word processing application for free. The files created by LibreOffice can be saved in a Word format.
  • other hardware or software required by your course instructor such as a headset, a spreadsheet application (e.g. MS-Excel). See your course syllabus for detailed technical requirements for your course.

Online/Hybrid Course Information

Blackboard for Students main page

Center for Teaching, Learning and Educational Technologies (CTLET) home page