Technical Requirements

General Requirements

Our courses require access to the Internet. A broadband cable connection is also recommended. If you are using a dial-up connection, please let a Giant Campus enrollment advisor know so that other arrangements can be made.

Browser Plug-Ins

  • Java® 1.4.2 JRE or higher
  • Java 3D™ 1.3 or higher (required in some courses)
  • Adobe® Flash® Player 9.0 or higher
  • Shockwave (operating system dependent)
  • Adobe Reader® 7.0.9 or higher
  • Computer Requirements

Course-Specific Requirements

3D Art I: Modeling

  • Blender and Python® software (free downloads provided)
  • A Microsoft® Windows® XP, Windows Vista®, or Mac OS® X 10.2 or higher operating system
  • A 300 MHz or faster processor
  • 512 MB of memory (RAM)
  • 64 MB of video RAM
  • An OpenGL graphics card with 16 MB RAM
  • A 3-button mouse
  • 1024 X 768 monitor resolution with 16 bit color
  • At least 2 GB of available hard drive space

3D Art II: Animation

  • Blender and Python® software (free downloads provided)
  • A Microsoft® Windows® XP, Windows Vista®, or Mac OS® X 10.2 or higher operating system
  • A 300 MHz or faster processor
  • 512 MB of memory (RAM)
  • 64 MB of video RAM
  • An OpenGL graphics card with 16 MB RAM
  • A 3-button mouse
  • 1024 X 768 monitor resolution with 16 bit color
  • At least 2 GB of available hard drive space

Audio Engineering

  • Audacity® software (free download provided)
  • A Microsoft® Windows® XP, Windows Vista®, Windows 7, or Mac OS® X 10.4 or higher operating system
  • For Windows XP and Vista Home Basic, a 1 GHz or faster processor; for Windows Vista Home Premium/Business/Ultimate and Windows 7, a 2 GHz or faster processor; for Mac OS X, a 300 MHz or faster processor
  • For XP, 512 MB of memory (RAM); for Vista Home Basic, 2 GB; for Vista Home Premium/Business/Ultimate and for Windows 7, 4 GB; for Mac OS X, 64 MB
  • At least 4 GB of available hard drive space

Computer-Aided Design (CAD)

  • A Microsoft® Windows® XP or Windows Vista® operating system. A Mac that runs these Windows operating systems is acceptable.
  • A 600 MHz or faster processor (1 GHz for Vista)
  • 512 MB of memory (RAM) (1 GB for Vista)
  • At least 2 GB of available hard drive space
  • 3D class Video Card with 128 MB of memory or higher (256 MB for Vista); the video card driver must support OpenGL version 1.5 or higher

Computer Literacy

  • OpenOffice.org software (free download provided)
  • A Microsoft® Windows® XP, Windows Vista®, Windows 7, or Mac OS® X 10.4 or higher operating system
  • For Windows, 256 MB of memory (RAM), 650 MB available hard drive space, and a 1024 x 768 or higher monitor resolution
  • For Mac OS X, an Intel® processor, 512 MB of memory (RAM), 400 MB available disk space, and a 1024 x 768 or higher monitor resolution
  • Mozilla Firefox®

Computer Science I

  • Python® software (free download provided)
  • A Microsoft® Windows® XP, Windows Vista®, Windows 7, or Mac OS® X 10.3+ operating system.
  • A 500 MHz or faster processor.
  • At least 1 GB of memory (RAM).
  • At least 100 MB of available hard drive space.
  • A word processing program such as Notepad or Microsoft Word® that can create .txt or .doc format files.

Computer Science II

  • Python® software (free download provided)
  • A Microsoft® Windows® XP, Windows Vista®, Windows 7, or Mac OS® X 10.3+ operating system.
  • A 500 MHz or faster processor.
  • At least 1 GB of memory (RAM).
  • At least 100 MB of available hard drive space.
  • A word processing program such as Notepad or Microsoft Word® that can create .txt or .doc format files.

Digital Arts I

  • Inkscape software (free download provided)
  • A Microsoft® Windows® XP, Windows Vista®, or Mac OS® X 10.3 or higher operating system
  • A 1 GHz or faster processor
  • At least 512 MB of memory (RAM)
  • At least 1 GB of available hard drive space
  • A word processing program such as Notepad or Microsoft Word® that can create .txt or .doc format files

Digital Arts II

  • Inkscape software (free download provided)
  • A Microsoft® Windows® XP, Windows Vista®, or Mac OS® X 10.3 or higher operating system
  • A 1 GHz or faster processor
  • At least 512 MB of memory (RAM)
  • At least 1 GB of available hard drive space
  • A word processing program such as Notepad or Microsoft Word® that can create .txt or .doc format files

Engineering Design I

  • CAD Standard Lite and Google™ SketchUp software (free downloads provided)
  • A Microsoft® Windows® XP or Windows Vista® operating system. A Mac that runs these Windows operating systems is acceptable.
  • A 600 MHz or faster processor (1 GHz for Vista)
  • 512 MB of memory (RAM) (1 GB for Vista)
  • At least 2 GB of available hard drive space
  • 3D class Video Card with 128 MB of memory or higher (256 MB for Vista); the video card driver must support OpenGL version 1.5 or higher
  • A common word processing program such as Notepad or Microsoft® Word. TIP: Ask your instructor which word processing programs are okay to use.

Engineering Design II

  • Creo™ Elements/Direct Modeling™ Personal Edition (free download provided)
  • A word processing program such as Notepad or Microsoft Word® that can create .txt or .doc format files
  • A Microsoft® Windows® XP Service Pack 2, Windows Vista®, or Windows 7 operating system.
  • 512 MB of memory (RAM).
  • An Intel® Pentium® (III, 4, M, or D), Intel Xeon®, Intel Celeron®, Intel Core™, AMD Athlon™, or AMD Opteron™ processor.
  • At least 1 GB of available hard drive space.
  • 3D-capable graphics card with OpenGL® support.
  • 1024 x 768 or higher monitor resolution.
  • An active Internet connection (required for software reactivation every 3 days).

Flash Animation

  • Adobe® Flash® CS4 (preferred), CS5 or CS5.5 software (registered copy)
  • A Microsoft® Windows® XP, Windows Vista®, or Mac® OS X operating system
  • A 1 GHz or faster processor (for Mac OS X, a PowerPC® G5 or multicore Intel® processor)
  • 1 GB of memory (RAM)
  • At least 2 GB of available hard drive space

Flash Game Development

  • Adobe® Flash® CS4 (preferred), CS5 or CS5.5 software (registered copy)
  • A Microsoft® Windows® XP, Windows Vista®, or Mac® OS X operating system
  • A 1 GHz or faster processor (for Mac OS X, a PowerPC® G5 or multicore Intel® processor)
  • 1 GB of memory (RAM)
  • At least 2 GB of available hard drive space

Game Design

  • Multimedia Fusion 2® Standard software (registered copy)
  • A Microsoft® Windows® XP or Windows Vista® operating system. A Mac that runs these Windows operating systems is acceptable.
  • A 1 GHz or faster processor
  • 256 MB of memory (RAM)
  • At least 2 GB of available hard drive space

Green Design and Technology

  • A word processing program such as Notepad or Microsoft Word® that can create .txt or .doc format files

Image Editing and Design

  • GIMP software (free download provided)
  • A Microsoft® Windows® XP, Windows Vista®, or Mac OS® X operating system
  • A 400 MHz or faster processor
  • 512 MB of memory (RAM)
  • At least 2 GB of available hard drive space

Introduction to C++ Programming

  • Microsoft® Visual C++® 2008 Express Edition software (free download provided)
  • A Microsoft® Windows® XP Service Pack 2 or Service Pack 3, Windows Vista® or Windows Vista SP1, or Windows 7 operating system. A Mac that runs these Windows operating systems is acceptable.
  • A 1 GHz or faster processor (1.6 GHz for Vista or Windows 7)
  • 192 MB of memory (RAM) (748 MB for Vista or Windows 7)
  • At least 1 GB of available hard drive space

Introduction to Entrepreneurship I

  • A word processing program such as Notepad or Microsoft Word® that can create .txt or .doc format files

Introduction to Entrepreneurship II

  • A word processing program such as Notepad or Microsoft Word® that can create .txt or .doc format files

Introduction to Marketing I

  • A word processing program such as Notepad or Microsoft Word® that can create .txt or .doc format files

Introduction to Marketing II

  • OpenOffice.org software (free download provided)
  • A Microsoft® Windows® XP, Windows Vista®, Windows 7, or Mac OS® X 10.4 or higher operating system
  • For Windows, 256 MB of memory (RAM), 650 MB available hard drive space, and a 1024 x 768 or higher monitor resolution
  • For Mac OS X, an Intel® processor, 512 MB of memory (RAM), 400 MB available disk space, and a 1024 x 768 or higher monitor resolution

Personal Finance

  • A word processing program such as Notepad or Microsoft Word® that can create .txt or .doc format files.

Web Design

  • GIMP and KompoZer software (free downloads provided)
  • A Microsoft® Windows® XP, Windows Vista®, or Mac® OS X operating system
  • A 400 MHz or faster processor (must have a PowerPC® processor for Mac OS X, not an Intel® processor)
  • 512 MB of memory (RAM)
  • At least 2 GB of available hard drive space