Technological Requirements

Because Atlantic University’s distance education takes place in an online learning environment, students are expected to have access to technology that is adequate for online courses and completing their required proctored exams*.

Computer Hardware Requirements

PC Users

Minimum requirements include Windows 10 or higher with 2GB of RAM or more and a ; 1.6 GHz or faster processor (2-core, 2 GHz or greater recommended); 4 GB of available disk space; 1280 x 768 screen resolution display (32-bit requires hardware acceleration for 4K and higher); graphics hardware acceleration requires DirectX 9 or later, with WDDM 2.0 or higher for Windows 10 (or WDDM 1.3 or higher for Windows 10 Fall Creators Update); Adobe Acrobat Reader; a webcam with 1280 x 768 video pixel resolution, a high-speed Internet connection with 1.5 MB per second download and 1.5 MB per second upload or better, and a web browser such as Google Chrome, Internet Explorer 9, Firefox 14.0.1, or Safari 4.

Note: It is recommended not to use older versions of operating systems that are out of support such as Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7.
Windows 11 Requirements: Minimum System Requirements: Processors/CPUs (Central Processing Units): 1 Ghz or faster with 2 or more cores and appearing on the Microsoft list of approved CPUs; 4 GB of RAM; 64 GB or larger storage device; System Firmware: UEFI (for Unified Extensible Firmware Interface, a modern version of the PC BIOS) and Secure Boot capable; Trusted Platform Module (TPM) version 2.0; graphics card compatible with DirectX 12 or later with WDDM 2.0 driver; high definition (720p) display that is greater than 9” diagonally, 8 bits per color channel; Windows 11 requires internet connectivity and a Microsoft Account to complete device setup on first use.

Apple Mac Users

Minimum requirements include one of the three most recent versions of macOS with an Intel processor and 4 GB RAM; 10 GB of available disk space; HFS+ hard disk format (also known as macOS Extended) or APFS (updates may require additional storage over time); 1280 x 800 screen resolution display; requires DirectX 9 or later, 128 MB graphics memory, and 32-bits-per-pixel-capable format; Adobe Acrobat Reader; a webcam with 1280 x 720 video pixel resolution, a high-speed Internet connection with 1.5 MB per second download and 1.5 MB per second upload or better, and a web browser such as Google Chrome, Firefox; or Safari. 

Test Your Computer

Students are encouraged to test their computer set-up by going to Google.com and typing in "Internet Speed Test". Clicking "Run Speed Test" will give you an idea of your upload and download speeds. To run the test, you'll be connected to Measurement Lab (M-Lab) and your IP address will be shared with them. M-Lab conducts the test and publishes all test results to promote internet research. Published information includes each device’s IP address, but doesn’t include information about you as an internet user. M-Lab is a consortium of research, industry and public-interest partners dedicated to providing an open, verifiable measurement platform for global network performance, hosting the largest open Internet performance data-set on the planet and creating visualizations and tools to help people make sense of Internet performance.

More information about Speed Test.

More information about M-Lab.

Special Considerations

Students are responsible for their own operating systems, speed of Internet connection, and any third-party software downloads. At present, the Moodle Mobile app is not supported. We recommend that on a mobile device you log in to Moodle using the web browser. We recommend using the most current build of any operating system or browser. Product functionality and feature availability may vary on older systems. 

*Proctored exams require a web camera. Atlantic University's proctor examinations do not support tablets, Chromebooks or Microsoft Surface RT. More information about Proctored examinations can be found upon admittance in the learning management system classrooms.