Online Course Requirements and Brightspace

System Requirements for Online Courses

If you are taking one of our online courses, the basic system requirements are generally as follows. Depending on your course, hardware and software requirements may vary, your department co-ordinator and/or teacher will provide details by the start date or during the first class.

Hardware
  • A computer that runs on Windows 10 or the latest macOS, has the latest updates applied, and has up-to-date virus protection software
    Note that courses and assignments may use specialized software available only to a Windows environment. If it is not specified in the course title or description, check with the department co-ordinator to find out if the course/software can be run natively on the Macintosh operating system. If the course/software cannot be run natively on a Macintosh, you must choose to set up a Windows environment on your Macintosh environment – such as through Apple's Boot Camp Assistant, Parallels Desktop, VMware Desktop Hypervisor (Fusion for Mac), VirtualBox or another option – and you must be comfortable using this new environment before starting the course.
  • 8 GB RAM or greater and 6 GB hard disk space
  • High-speed Internet connection (50 Mbps or greater)
  • Headphones or speaker
  • Webcam and microphone (for teacher-led online sessions or student collaboration)
Software
  • Specific to your course (as covered in the first class)
    Note that courses and assignments may use specialized software and have additional operating system requirements. Software access is normally provided but, if you need additional resources, keep in mind that a free Microsoft Office 365 account and free software through AppsAnywhere are available.
Other
  • Email account

Learning Management Systems (LMSs)

Most George Brown College Continuing Education online courses use a learning management system (LMS) such as Brightspace. These are online learning environments that allow most of your course content, assignments, resources, discussions, and more to be housed in one place. You will be notified by your department co-ordinator what LMS your course will be using by email before the course start date.

Brightspace (D2L)
  • New Brightspace account set-up takes about 24 hours. However, keep in mind that you will not have access to your course until the first day of class. If you have not received your access in time for the first day of class, contact the department co-ordinator for your course.
  • Visit the college-wide Student Brightspace Support web page for details.
OntarioLearn
  • Register early for OntarioLearn courses to ensure course access is in place for the start of your course. New OntarioLearn account set-up takes a minimum of one business day (but longer for late registrations). However, keep in mind that you will not have access to your course until the first day of class. If you have not received your access in time for the first day of class, contact the department co-ordinator for your course.
  • Refer to the OntarioLearn Help Center web page for computer and technical requirements. For more information, contact the Continuing Education OntarioLearn department co-ordinator at online_learning@georgebrown.ca or 416-415-5000, ext. 6543.

For more information, contact the department co-ordinator for your course. Contact information can be found on the course web page. (You can get to the course web page quickly by adding the course code to the end of our website URL – for example, coned.georgebrown.ca/COMM1008.)