Reasons to Believe

Technical Requirements

Reasons Institute makes use of the latest technology in its distance-learning opportunities.

Reasons Institute online courses are taken exclusively over the Internet. There are no on-campus meetings. However, textbooks are required. All homework is submitted to your instructor online. Your "virtual classroom" is delivered over the web via the Moodle online learning platform.

Requirements

All students must have the following in order to participate in an online course:

  • regular, easy access to a computer and a private email account

  • high-speed internet connection (not dial-up)

  • ability to play .mp3 files on a computer (test your computer here)

  • ability to play streaming video files (test your computer on Vimeo & YouTube)

  • ability to play Flash video files (test your computer here)

  • ability to open and print PDF files (test your computer here)

  • ability to create .doc or .docx files using word processing software

  • ability to listen to audio CDs and DVDs

Tech Support

Students access course content (e.g. lectures, assignments, message boards) using the Moodle e-learning platform through their internet browser. Because Moodle is open-source software, there is no professional tech support available. The Reasons Institute staff does its best to conform course elements to standard internet protocols and we will try to help students do basic troubleshooting of their technical problems, but we have very limited resources and it is ultimately up to the student to properly configure his or her personal computer. Visit the "Troubleshooting" section of our FAQ page to view a list of the most common problems.

Internationals

In order to access all of the course elements, you'll need to be able to play Region 1 DVDs.The videos produced by Reasons To Believe and Sourceflix are Region 0 and should be accessible by all DVD players. Some of the commercially produced videos (such as PBS and the History Channel) are restricted to Region 1 DVD players. Some of these are playable on the computer, however, while others are not. We will do our best to make sure you have access to these programs, but cannot guarantee you'll be able to play every video.