DVC maintains over 40 computer labs throughout the Pleasant Hill campus and the San Ramon campus. Most labs have late-model, Windows XP computers with the standard software base of Microsoft Office and Internet Explorer. They are protected by industry-standard Norton Antivirus software, and maintained by Deep Freeze disk imaging software.
Some labs are "open labs", where students can use the computers for class-related work outside of class time. Sometimes open labs are reserved for scheduled classes, during which time the computers are all reserved for class.
Other labs are for regularly-scheduled class use only. The computers in those labs are all reserved for class use. Check the individual lab's policy for use by students other than those enrolled in the class.
Many academic or vocational programs require a particular computer configuration. For example, the art and multimedia department labs have Apple Computers and software programs like Adobe CS3 Master Suite, Final Cut Pro, Cubase Studio 4, Maya 8.5, Sound Forge 8.0, Audacity, Toast, Adobe Acrobat, Premiere Pro, DVD Studio Pro, iMovie HD, iDVD, Garage Band, Peak 4 Fetch. The engineering and technology program has Multisim V10, EWB, A+ Exam, Solar Pathfinder, SLC500 RSLogix, National Instruments Circuit Design Suite, Cisco Hardware Lab, Engineering CAD & MATEC CAD/CAM department software, AutoCAD 2008, Solid Works, MatLab, Google Earth, Google SketchUp, MS Project, MS Visual C++, Epson GT-15000 Scanner and Adobe CS3. The labs used by computer science have Microsoft Visual Studio, Borland JBuilder, SQLServer, MASM, and Oracle.
Many other programs, such as GIS/GPS, chemistry, music technology, business, etc., have specialized applications. The disability support services office ensures that computer labs throughout the college have technologies that serve disabled students, including the High Technology Center with Kurzweil 3000 & 1000, Jaws, Zoomtext, Inspiration, Dragon Naturally Speaking and Typing Tutor.
Instructors: look on the U: drive in the website/computer-labs folder for the guide PDFs for using labs. They tell everything an instructor needs to know about using a lab.
