The Online School for Girls mainly uses web-based software for its courses.  Thus, in general, a student who has regular access to a computer that is less than five years old should have no trouble completing the course work at the OSG.  If students have questions about the computer hardware they use, they can address questions to the OSG office at help@onlineschoolforgirls.org or 301.842.4674

Students should also have high-speed internet access, a webcam and a microphone. In addition, the Online School for Girls makes extensive use of the Adobe Flash Player which can be installed on all supported browsers.

System Requirements

PCs
Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7
Minimum 1GB of memory (RAM)
At least a 1 GHz processor

Apple Computers
Mac OSX (Version 10.4 or higher)
Minimum 1GB of memory (RAM)
Intel, PowerPC G5 or G4 processor or faster

At this point, an iPad or Android tablet will not suffice as a device for courses with OSG.  Most work can be done using these devices, however, there may be times when a student needs to use a full computer to complete her course work.

Browsers used should include Flash support.  We have found that students tend to have the easiest time using a Firefox browser, though IE, Chrome, and Safari are also supported.

Student Accounts

Students will be given access to our learning management system on the day that Orientation begins. OSG and its teachers may ask students to subscribe to programs and systems available on the Internet as part of the study for this course.  If students, schools, or families have questions about programs that students are asked to create accounts for, they should direct questions to both the teacher of the course and the OSG Director.  Some courses will have additional software that students need to download to their computer in order to complete course work.  And, some courses will require paid subscriptions or paid software for work.  Any paid subscriptions or software will be listed on the Textbook list for courses.  In many courses, students will have the option to purchase an e-textbook instead of a paper copy.  We encourage students to purchase the e-textbook for two reasons: the e-textbook often has up-to-the-minute information and often has additional resources (video, etc) that is not available in paper form; and, we aim to be the greenest school in the country, and thus try to use paper as much as possible.

Responsible Use of Technology

Responsible use of web materials is vital to the health of the school, and violation of any of the following policies may result in dismissal from the program.

• Copyright laws applying to software, papers, reports, and all written messages need to be observed carefully. Users must cite the source of any text, photos, or video that is not their own.
• Users shall not intentionally seek or provide information on, obtain copies of, or modify data files, programs, or passwords on the OSG systems.
• Users agree to respect the privacy of other users. Attempting to gain unauthorized access to private information is a breach of ethical standards.
• Students must not share their account or password with others and must not attempt to gain access to other users’ accounts. A user name and password may be used only by the person to whom it is assigned, and that individual is responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of her password.
• It is unlawful for a user to represent herself as another user in any form of computing activity, including all forms of electronic communications.
• Users shall not receive or transmit material of a harassing, threatening, hazing, or pornographic nature. Files transmitted over the school system may not contain foul, abusive, or offensive language or descriptive situations that would not be heard or seen in public.