Element K FAQs

• Site Basic FAQ

• Getting Started FAQ

• Catalog FAQs

• Professional Development FAQ

• Search FAQ

• Downloading FAQ

• I've checked the FAQ and Help Center but I still have a question about the site, who can I ask?

  If you have a question that you need answered you'll find a variety of Customer/Technical Support options available. Click Help from any page, then click the Support Options link. You can search the glossary, by clicking the Glossary link, if it's terminology you need help with, or contact us using e-mail, Live Chat, or by phone.Use any of the support options listed to report a problem with site functionality. Click Help from any page, then click the Support Options link.

• I found a possible error with site functionality, is there a way I can report it?

  Use any of the support options listed to report a problem with site functionality. Click Help from any page, then click the Support Options link.

• How do I know if I'm ready to take a course, or if I'm fully prepared?

  To get more information on what the requirements are for a specific course, select the course link to display the Course Syllabus page. On this page you'll find information relating to prerequisites for the course, any textbooks or other materials that are required, a brief description for the specified course, and more.

• What are the minimum hardware and software requirements for taking courses?

  Minimum Hardware and Software Requirements for Element K

  Hardware/Software	Minimum Requirements
  Processor	Pentium III 500 MHz or better; or Macintosh PowerPC
  Platform	For Windows : 2000,NT 4.0,XP Home Edition, XP Professional,Vista . For MacOS : 10.1,10.3,10.4,10.5 .
  Browsers	For Windows: Mozilla Firefox 2.0, Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.x Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 For Mac: Internet Explorer 5.0, Safari 2.x and above. Firefox 2.0
  Screen Resolution	1024x768 or higher @256 colors

• What are cookies?

  Cookies are messages (files) written in your browser by your server. When you return to a Web page your browser sends the cookie information to the server. This information identifies you and your preferences. Element K cookies are temporarily written to your computer's memory (RAM). Only if you choose to save your username and password on the login page, will cookies be written to your hard drive.

• How do I edit my account information?

  To edit account information, go to the Account Information page. The Account Information page displays your personal information. To edit the information, enter the new information into the appropriate fields. Select Update to save the changes. To edit your preferences select the Preferences tab from the Account Information page. You can either select or deselect preferences by clicking the check box next to the preference. Select Update to save the changes.

• How can I find answers to my questions?

  There are a variety of support options available for you to use as a resource to get answers to your questions. Click Help from any page, then click the Support Options link. The Support Options page displays a listing of the Customer/Technical Support options that are available to you.

• I finished my course early, when can I print my certificate?

  To print a Course Completion Certificate go to the Account Information page. Select the Transcript tab to view a listing of all courses and additional course information. Locate the course and click the Certificate link. This link only displays next to courses that have been completed and whose closing date have passed. Follow the instructions for printing the certificate.

• How can I earn CEUs?

  CEU's, or Continuing Education Units, are associated with specific courses. To find out whether or not a particular course offers CEU's, go to the Course Syllabus page for that course and look under CEU Credits. If CEUs are offered, once the course has been completed, you'll be prompted as to whether or not you want to request or view CEU Credits for the course

• How do I know if I'm ready to take a course, or if I'm fully prepared?

  To get more information on what the requirements are for a specific course, select the course link to display the Course Syllabus page. On this page you'll find information relating to prerequisites for the course, any textbooks or other materials that are required, a brief description for the specified course, and more.

• What will I find in the Professional Development section of the site?

  Depending on your subscription, you may or may not see all professional development items. These items can used together with courses to help you gain knowledge for a specific job function or topic area. You can even select the areas where you would like to increase your skills and knowledge.

• Where can I view a summary of my professional development activities?

  A summary of your professional development activity is displayed on the My Professional Development page. You'll see a listing of your professional development activities. You can also bookmark to and remove professional development items from the My Professional Development page.

• What is a Credential?

  Credentials contain groupings of items to be accessed in fulfillment of specific training requirements set by a training provider or organization.

• What is a Certification Plan?

  Certification plans outline training that will help you prepare for vendor certification exams. Courses are mapped to vendor exams, providing you with a list of available courses covering content in the exam. There are different course types available so you can choose the format that best suits your learning style.

• What is a Development Path?

  A development path outlines courses and resources available to help you gain knowledge and skills for a specified job function or topic area. Development paths may be specific to your organization or may involve more general knowledge.

• What is a Brainbench exam?

  Element K offers certification testing through Brainbench, a leading provider of computer-based certifications. Brainbench allows you to access your skill level, prepare for exams, and become certified in a variety of IT categories. To access Brainbench exams, select the Brainbench Exams option from Professional Development.

• What are the basics of searching?

  Choosing Keywords

  For the best results, it's important that you choose the words your using wisely. Use specific words or phrases to find exactly what you're looking for. More general search terms will give a larger number of results, so you may want to narrow your search if you're looking for more specific results.

  For example:

  • Use "Excel Charts" instead of "Excel"
  • Use "mail merge" instead of "word"
  • Use "windows security" instead of "security"

  Phrase Searches

  The system ignores Boolean search operators such as: AND, OR, and NOT. When a phrase is entered in the search text box, an implied OR is used between the words.

  Capitalization

  Site searches are not case sensitive. All search terms, regardless of how they are entered, are recognized as lower case. For example, if you're searching "Microsoft Word", "microsoft word" and "MICROSOFT WORD" will all return the same results.

  Word Variations

  If you're not sure how to spell an entire word, or if you want to broaden your search, you may enter word variations as long as the variation entered is part of an actual word. If it's not part of an actual word, your results may vary.

  Search by Default

  On the Advanced Search page, you have the option of leaving the search term text box empty. If you chose not to enter search terms the search will return all results that meet the criteria for the content type chosen, along with any other criteria specified for training and resources. Note: The results for Online Instructor-led Courses and Classroom Courses that have open registration will be returned at the top of the results.

• How do I narrow my original searches?

  To narrow your search, select a Content Type from the drop-down list. This action will limit your results to this specific content type you've chosen. Once you have selected a content type, enter more specific keywords in the text box. For example, use "Excel Charts" instead of "Excel". In this case, the search results would return all records that match "Excel Charts" for the specific content type chosen.

• How do I revise my search after viewing the results?

  To revise your search, you can update your search terms in the Revise Search box on the Search Results page and perform the search again. You also have the options to search within the current results by checking Search within results or limit the search to title only by checking the Search title only option. If the word or phrase is found in the product title, it will be highlighted in the title on the search results page.

• How do I restrict my search?

  The Advanced Search page gives you the option of searching on Training and/or Resources and allows you to specify how you want to use the word or phrase you've entered for searching.

  For example if you wanted to find all Online Instructor-led courses and text books, in all languages, that relate to "An Introduction to Java", you would do the following:

  1. Enter "An Introduction to Java" in the word or phrase to search by field
  2. Select All of these words from the drop-down
  3. Select the check box next to Search title only
  4. Select the check box next to Self-paced Courses
  5. Select the check box next to All Languages
  6. Select Reference Materials under Resources

  You can obtain broader, more general search results by specifying fewer criteria, or perform a more detailed search by selecting more criteria.

• Why can't I find my foreign language content?

  A development path outlines courses and resources available to help you gain knowledge and skills for a specified job function or topic area. Development paths may be specific to your organization or may involve more general knowledge.

• What does Search title only mean?

  If the Search title only option is chosen, in the Revise Search section, the search criteria will be used to search the product title only. The search results will be displayed as highlighted in the product title.

• How are search results determined?

  The order of results is determined by a combination of several different factors, including the priority of the data that you're searching. Information such as Product Name and Keyword take a higher priority over Product Description.

  The Product Name, Product Description and Keyword are used when searching for all product types. However, each one of these is assigned a different priority. Additionally, Vendor Name, which is used when searching for all product types (except Online Technical Reference), is a lower priority than Product Name and Keyword.

  There are several other factors used when searching in addition to those listed above including: Topic Name, Course Objective, Author, Publisher, and others, depending on the product type you're searching.

• Is the content downloadable in all systems.

  The downloadable players does not work in Linux, but it will work in a Windows environment on a PC or a Mac.

• How do I download course content?

  The Course Content tab displays the structure of the course, including information on lessons and topics, and assessment information on a topic-by-topic basis.

  If you have already downloaded the KnowledgeHub Offline Player, you can download topics to play offline. Select the checkbox next to the topic to select the course topics for download. To select all topics within a lesson, choose the Select All checkbox next to the lesson. To select all topics for the course, choose the Select All checkbox for the course at the top of the column. Once your topics have been selected, click the Download Selected Items button at the bottom of the page. Note: If you do not have the player installed, you will be taken to the Help Center section on Downloading the KnowledgeHub Offline Player. for instructions on how to download the player.

  The estimated size of the download file and download times display beneath the button. Please review the course size listed and verify that your computer has enough disk space available to store the course. Courses must be downloaded with at least a 56k modem.

  Note: Many courses require plug-ins such as Flash to run. If you do not have the correct plug-in installed on your local machine, please go to "Setting Up your Computer" in the Help Center for information.

• How do I download assessments?

  If you have already downloaded the KnowledgeHub Offline Player, you can download assessments to take offline. If you do not have the player installed, you will be taken to the Help Center section on Downloading the KnowledgeHub Offline Player.

  To download an assessment click Download. When you click Download, assessments are downloaded to the Offline Player based on the following rules for assessment attempts.

  • For Unlimited attempts, 5 attempts are downloaded at a time, but there is no limit to the total number of attempts that can be downloaded.
  • For a limit of less than 5, you can download the number of available attempts up to the limit.
  • For a limit of 5 or higher, 5 attempts are downloaded at a time, up to the number of available attempts, up to the limit.

  Note:

  • If you do not have any available assessments attempts, a message will be displayed in the Download box.
  • You can only download and take an assessment if you have attempts available. Once you have downloaded all of the available attempts, you cannot download any more attempts for that course. However, if you still have attempts remaining, you can take them from the online site.
  • When downloading one or more assessment attempts, the topic progress bar is updated in the Offline Course Player to reflect the furthest progress of each topic whether it was completed online or offline.
  • If you are trying to download an assessment attempt and there is not enough disk space, an error message will display.

  If you've completed assessments offline using your KnowledgeHub Offline Player, you can synchronize your offline progress with your online progress by clicking the Synchronize Now link. To be sure your latest assessment information is up to date, we recommend that you synchronize your data upon finishing an assessment. (Note: Only finished assessments are synchronized. So any assessments that are suspended (paused) will not be synchronized. Once the suspended assessments are finished, the results will be sent to the online system upon your next synchronization.)

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