If you are like most of the people in the wolrd you are probably reading this blog post via Internet Explorer.  You probably did like you have always done and upgraded to the version 8 without much thought.  This is fine for most instances but when it comes to taking classes online there are a few additional factors to take into account.

The browser that you use will depend on the software platform that your school uses.  The two leaders in classroom software are Blackboard and WebCT.  During my time with Ashford University I used Blackboard.  When it came to browsers Firefox in all its versions worked fine for me.  There was one instance that Blackboard was being updated and there was a problem with Firefox requiring me to fall back on using IE to complete my assignments.  FYI: WebCT was purchased by Blackboard Inc. in 2006.  The name WebCT will soon be phased out and just the name blackboard will be used.

The browsers most used for online classwork:

1. Microsoft IE
2. Netscape
3. AOL
4. Firefox
5. Safari

When it comes to the version each school is different.  Most software is built with IE in mind but with Firefox and Safari becoming more popular among users online classrooms are being built or tweaked to support whatever browser students decide to use.  Regardless as to which browser you decide to use it is a good thing to have more than one browser installed on your computer to use in case of emergency.  During my two years at Ashford there were several times that Firefox would not pull up Blackboard on assignment day.  I had no problem with this because I had another browser to use and still get my assignments in on time.