Note: This document expands on the general
guideleins providied in the SHRP document Computer Support / Technology
Requirements & Recommendations for Students, available online at:
http://shrp.umdnj.edu/SHRPtech/documents/SHRP_Technology_Support_Services.pdf
Access to the following hardware is required of all students enrolled in the MS and PhD in Health Sciences:
*Currently Vista is not supported by UMDNJ (meaning that technical support is not provided). Apple MacIntosh computers running OS X or higher can be used for most functions; however, some software used in MSHS or PhD courses only runs under the Windows (IBM PC compatible) environment.
The following are the minimum software requirements for students enrolled in the MS and PhD in Health Sciences.
Rationale: Written papers and project require full-function compatible processor capable of HTML output. Some courses require spreadsheet and/or simple database functions (Excel). Presentations and/or poster creation requires presentation software (Powerpoint).
Required: Microsoft Office Student and Teacher Edition (Word, Excel, Powerpoint), Version 2003 or higher. Obtain academic discount pricing at JourneyEd or the AcademicSuperStore.
Note: If you are using Office/Word 2007, you download a free add-in that will allow you to save documents as Acrrobat PDF files. To obtain this useful add-in, go to:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=F1FC413C-6D89-4F15-991B-63B07BA5F2E5
Applicable Courses: All
Rationale: Web course management system (Angel), remote library access and Internet searching requires supported Web browser
Required: Currently Supported Web Browsers (one of the following):
Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.0
Mozilla FireFox 3.0
Note: Your browser should be set to 1) Accept Cookies, 2) Disable Pop-Up Blocking, and 3) Enable JavaScript. In addition, you should have JAVA installed and enabled. For a free download of Java please visit http://www.java.com
Applicable Courses: All
Rationale: Some courses require use of Web browser plug-in's and/or web multimedia players. New computers often come with these plug-in pre-installed and some are included when you install or upgrade your Web browser. So before installing any plug-ins, click here to test drive your browser and see if you are already properly “equipped.” If not, link to the following sites to download or upgrade your browser plug-ins:
Portable Document Format Reader (many documents, including the SHRP student handbook and in the near future all key Program documents and forms will be in the Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF), which requires the Adobe Acrobat Reader
Multimedia Players (unfortunately, there currently are five major multimedia formats, none of which are fully compatible with any one player, so you need all five)
Windows Media Player (included with Windows and/or Internet Explorer)
Applicable Courses: All (Acrobat Reader); Some (Multimedia Players)
Rationale: E-mail is the primary means for 1-on-1 communication with the Program administration, course instructors and other students. If you are a new student, you must activate your UMDNJ e-mail account. For instructions on activating your UMDNJ e-mail account go to http://shrp.umdnj.edu/NSO/7_Email.htm. All students are required to have and use their UMDNJ e-mail accounts for all electronic communications (except that occuring within online courses).
Required:Outlook Express (free; comes with Internet Explorer), Windows Mail (free, comes with Vista), or the UMDNJ Portal (my.UMDNJ.edu) e-mail feature (click on the e-mail icon on the home page). Make sure your browser doesn't have a pop-up blocker enabled when checking your mail.
Notes:
1. If you are using Outlook
Express, Windows Mail (or any e-mail client) from home to receive UMDNJ e-mail,
you will need to set up an additional account with the incoming mail
server name “mail.umdnj.edu” configured with your UMDNJ username and
password. Your home outgoing mail server name for this account should remain
the same as your regular ISP outgoing mail server.
2. If you use the UMDNJ Portal e-mail feature, you can automatically forward messages sent to your UMDNJ email address to an alternate address, such as a personal account. You are responsible for keeping the Email Forwarding settings up-to-date when there is a change to your target email address, such as when you stop using one personal account and begin using another. This is the most common reason students who use e-mail forwarding stop getting their UMDNJ e-mail messages. Another possibility is that your UMDNJ messages are being blocked by your personal e-mail service provider, by your e-mail program or by Internet security software on your computer.
Applicable Courses: All
Rationale: For any student writing a scholalry paper or dissertation.
Proofing Tool
ErrNET. ErrNET is a Web-based computerized proofreading tool that checks grammar, punctuation, style, spelling, and will help make your writing more accurate, clear, concise, and fluent. ErrNET works with all popular Web-browsers but currently requires that uploaded files for proofing be PDF documents. Cost is $0.50 per page. Avaialble online at: http://www.errnet.net/
Plagiarism Prevention Tool
WriteCheck. Your instructor may require that you submit your papers for review by the UMDNJ-licensed TurnItIn service. If not, you can check your own work for originality and proper citations at TurnItin's WriteCheck Web site, available online at: http://writecheck.turnitin.com. Cost for a single paper is $4.95, which includes one submission and resubmission.
Applicable Courses: All courses requiring submission of schoalrly papers or projects, including dissertation coursework
Rationale: Graduate School is a journey of a thousand… citations! With free access to tens of millions of citations via electronic databases, you don't want to be stuck with writing up and manually indexing a set of 3x5 reference cards! Personal bibliographic software can save you hundreds of hours of time in organizing your literature sources and creating bibliographies. Buy it, learn it, use it.
Recommended: End Note. A free download (PC or Mac) for those with UMDNJ Library accounts/EZProxy access. Click on the End Note link or go to:
http://www.umdnj.edu/librweb/access/EndNote.html
Other good bibliographic software (about $100 -150 for student versions):
Student/academic versions of the above three products are available directly via the vendor (Biblioscape) or through academic discounters such as JourneyEd or the AcademicSuperStore. Current faculty support is limited to End Note or Procite.
Applicable Courses: IDST5000, IDST6400, IDST7100 and all 8000 level courses
Rationale: To compress and easily move sets of files to and from the Web course management system (Angel), you will want to ‘zip’ them into a single file (or unzip them)
Recommended: Windows Folder Compression (free - comes with Windows). For instructions on how to use compressed (zipped) folders in Windows XP go to:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/306531/EN-US/
For instructions on how to use compressed (zipped) folders in Windows Vista go to:
http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-us/help/7050d809-c761-43d4-aae7-587550cd341a1033.mspx
Applicable Courses: All Angel courses requiring file uploads
Rationale: For any student conducting a project, thesis or dissertation requiring quantitative data analysis
Required (for applicable courses only): SPSS for Windows. Two versions are available: the Student Version (about $100) and the Grad Pack (about $200) Both are available at journeyed.com; proof of student status may be required). The student version of SPSS is adequate for MSHS students. PhD students and any student taking IDST6122 must purchase the current version of the SPSS Grad Pack.
Applicable Courses: IDST6121-6122, all Dissertation Seminar and Advisement courses involving quantitative data analysis (IDST8121, 8222, 8323, 8424, 8400) and IDST 6980/89 (Project) if project involves statistical analysis.
Rationale: Effective communication often involves more than just the written word. You will often want or need to incorporate images and/or audio in your presentations, posters or Web pages. To do so, you need a simple graphics editor and a basic audio player/recorder.
Recommended: IrfanView (free download). Before downloading IrfanView, check you system to see whether you already have a graphics editor available. Microsoft Photo Editor or Microsoft Office Picture Manager are installed with some versions of MS Office. Also, if you installed software for a scanner or digital, you likely have a graphics editor available, e.g., Adobe PhotoElements.
A Basic Audio Player/Recorder
Recommended: Windows Sound Recorder (comes free with Windows)
A Basic Digital Video/Slide Show Editor
Recommended: Windows MovieMaker - comes free with most versions of Vista; the XP version requires Windows XP Service Pack 2); can be downloaded for free at:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/updates/moviemaker2.mspx)
Applicable Courses: IDST5000, IDST5330