Plugins and Utilities
Plugins and Utilities
This page allows you to link directly to specific websites to download plugins and utility programs that might be required for your course. Be sure to install the program once it is downloaded.
(Click on the items below for information on downloading and installing the software.)
College of the North Atlantic utilizes software called Respondus LockDown Browser to increase exam security. The use of the Lockdown Browser is mandatory for students completing online theory-based exams.
The LockDown Browser is a customized browser that increases the security of online testing in Desire2Learn. When students use the LockDown Browser to access a quiz, they are unable to print, copy, go to another URL, access other applications, or close a quiz until it is submitted for grading. The LockDown Browser works much like a standard browser, such as Internet Explorer or Firefox, but some options have been removed or work differently.
Detailed instructions on the installation and use of the LockDown Browser can be found in the Quick Start Guides linked below:
- Student Guide to Online Exams - Lockdown Browser and Monitor
- Student Quick Start Guide
- Instructor Quick Start Guide
Chromebook Extension
A Chromebook extension for LockDown Browser is available for exams delivered in D2L Brightspace. This solution is for student-owned and also managed devices.
Limitations and/or known issues with LockDown Browser for Chromebook:
- Quiz passwords (specified via the "optional password" field in the LockDown Browser Dashboard) aren’t currently supported for exams that use only LockDown Browser. For exams requiring Respondus Monitor, the optional password field is supported.
- LockDown Browser’s Calculator and Spreadsheet features aren’t currently supported
- The extended keyboard functions (for adding symbols and special characters) is not currently available
- LockDown Browser’s “Help Center” is currently unavailable, and there is no Live Chat support for students taking exams that require Respondus Monitor.
- "Allow access to specific external web domains" option is currently not supported
- (Brightspace) Pop-ups need to be enabled in Chrome for the server otherwise the student gets stuck on the "Start Quiz" page.
Office 365 Education for Students is an Office 365 plan that is available for free to students who attend The College of the North Atlantic. Enrollment is automatic. This plan allows students to install Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, Publisher, Teams and Access on up to 5 PCs or Macs and Office apps on other mobile devices including Windows tablets and iPads®. The plan also includes 1TB of OneDrive storage, managed by the school, and students can edit and collaborate using Office Online, Yammer, and SharePoint sites.
NOTE: If you use a Windows computer or a Mac, Microsoft 365 is designed to work the same way on both systems. However, the apps available for Mac users and the specific features included may be different from those available for PC users.
Adobe Acrobat Reader software is the free, trusted global standard for viewing, printing, signing, sharing, and annotating PDFs. It's the only PDF viewer that can open and interact with all types of PDF content – including forms and multimedia. And now, it’s connected to Adobe Document Cloud services – so you can work with PDFs on any device, from anywhere.
Google Chrome browser is a free web browser used for accessing the internet and running web-based applications.
Google Chrome is the recommended browser for accessing your online course through D2L Brightspace.
Microsoft Edge is a web browser developed by Microsoft, designed to replace Internet Explorer.
Mozilla Firefox, or simply Firefox, is a free and open-source web browser mainly used for browsing the internet.
Azure Dev Tools for Teaching provides access to all Azure products that are expressly intended to support education or teaching, non-commercial research, or efforts to design, develop, test, and demonstrate software applications for these purposes.
College of the North Atlantic has an agreement with Microsoft to enroll college students in Azure Dev Tools for Teaching.
Products included with Azure:
- Access
- Agents for Visual Studio
- Azure DevOps Server
- Datazen Enterprise Server
- Machine Learning Server
- Microsoft R Client
- Microsoft R Server
- Microsoft Hyper-V
- Project Professional
- Remote Tools for Visual Studio
- SharePoint Server
- Skype for Business Server
- SQL Server Developer
- SQL Server Standard
- System Center
- Visio Professional
- Visual Studio Code
- Visual Studio Community
- Visual Studio Enterprise
- Visual Studio for Mac
- Windows 10
- Windows 11 Education
- Windows Server
Live Caption automatically captions speech on your device. You can use it on media like videos, podcasts, phone calls, video calls, and audio messages.
Live captioning is available in Google Chrome (recommended browser for online courses) and Windows 11, version 22H2 & later.
Boot Camp is a multi-boot utility included with Apple Inc.'s macOS that assists users in installing Microsoft Windows operating systems on Intel-based Macintosh computers.
If you are required to install (or download) SAGE 50 for Computerized Accounting courses, or Microsoft Access for Database Application courses, you will be required to have a computer with a Windows-based Operating system. SAGE 50 will not run on Apple IOS or Google Chromebook; Microsoft Access will not run on Apple IOS.
PC is recommended, however, if you opt to use an Apple (MacIntosh) computer, you may require Boot Camp installation with Windows 10 which enables your device to run in Windows mode. Windows 10 (Version 1809 or greater) is available for students at Azure for Education using your college credentials.
Java technology allows you to work and play in a secure computing environment. Upgrading to the latest Java version improves the security of your system, as older versions do not include the latest security updates. Java allows you to play online games, chat with people around the world, calculate your mortgage interest, and view images in 3D, just to name a few.
WinZip is a trialware software product used to archive, compress and encrypt files in a variety of archive formats for more efficient storage and distribution. With WinZip, users can compress files to reduce their size, making it easier to share them by email or other means. These files can also be encrypted for added security. WinZip can also be used to unpack some other archive file formats. Compatible with Windows, macOS, iOS and Android.
