Help
This page lists frequently asked questions (FAQ) addressing some technical issues you may encounter while using this web site.
For questions of a non-technical nature, please see the "About" section of the project site.
Technical Support FAQ
- Why can't I play the videos on the site?
- Why does my video stream look choppy or keep pausing?
- Why can't I see the images projected on the screen during the lecture videos?
- The audio file of the lecture is not playing. What can I do?
- Why can't I open some of the resources?
- Why did I get the error message "File not found" or "This page cannot be found"?
- Why doesn't the project site work properly in my browser?
- I've downloaded a course, but why can't I open the file?
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Why can't I play the videos on the site?
Open Yale Courses offers three formats for lecture videos. Two of these require Apple's QuickTime player (version 7.2), and the third requires Adobe's Flash Player. These three formats are best suited to different internet connection speeds (bandwidth), as noted on the course session pages.
Clicking the link for a video will launch a new popup window. Please disable popup blockers in your browser settings before attempting to play the video files.
Choosing one of the higher bandwidth video files will allow you to view higher quality videos. The higher the quality, the larger the file size will be. After you launch the video popup window, the video file will begin downloading to your computer and you may experience a delay before the video player controls will respond.
To view the QuickTime files, you must have the QuickTime player version 7.2 or iTunes installed. Both are available at no charge through Apple at http://www.apple.com/downloads/.
The Flash Player is a standard plug-in for most recent browsers. To check if you have it installed, visit http://www.macromedia.com/software/flash/about. If necessary, you may download or upgrade the Flash Player from the Player Download Center linked from that page.
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Why does my video stream look choppy or keep pausing?
The quality of your viewing experience will be affected by your internet connection speed. Connection speed can vary at different times of the day; you may have better performance if you avoid high-traffic periods in your time zone. For optimal viewing of video files, you should use a high-speed connection such as DSL, cable modem or an on-campus connection.
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Why can't I see the images projected on the screen during the lecture videos?
In some cases, third-party materials incorporated into Yale College lectures have been excluded from Open Yale Courses because of strict copyright licensing terms that prevent us from reproducing or displaying the content freely. The amount of protected material in some courses has been significant enough to prevent us from capturing on video all presentations projected during the class lectures. In other courses, protected material has been edited out of the media files and transcripts. We hope to be able to capture and display more of this content in future courses.
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The audio file of the lecture is not playing. What can I do?
When you click on a link to an audio file, a new popup window will launch: please check that your browser is not blocking popups.
Audio files on Open Yale Courses are offered in .mp3 format. If you have QuickTime installed, the audio file should begin downloading immediately. Depending on your connection speed, you may experience a slight delay once the audio popup launches, while the file begins to download.
If you do not have QuickTime installed, your browser may download the audio file to your computer and ask you to choose an application to open the file.
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Why can't I open some of the resources?
Supplementary resources are offered in several formats, some of which may require an application not currently installed on your computer. Free applications are available for each format.
PDF documents may be opened with the Adobe Reader plug-in. Visit http://www.adobe.com and click on the "Get Adobe Reader" button to download and install the application. There are many other applications that can also open PDF files (e.g., Preview, which comes standard with recent versions of the Macintosh operating system). Your computer may ask you to select from a number of recommended applications to open a downloaded PDF.
Text documents in .rtf or .doc format can be opened with various applications. Windows users who do not have Microsoft Word may download Word Viewer. Other users may wish to try Sun Microsystem's Open Office, which can be downloaded free of charge at http://download.openoffice.org/index.html; or Google Docs & Spreadsheets, which allows you to read and edit .doc and .rtf files without installing special software.
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Why did I get the error message "File not found" or "This page cannot be found"?
These error messages indicate a faulty link to a file or page. Please contact us specifying where the error occurs, and it will be fixed promptly.
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Why doesn't the project site work properly in my browser?
Open Yale Courses is best viewed using the following browsers:
Operating system Recommended browsers Windows Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer (version 6 and above) Macintosh Mozilla Firefox, Safari Unix, Linux Mozilla Firefox Although many of the project materials will be viewable in other browsers (Netscape, Opera) or older versions than we recommend, we cannot take responsibility for display or functional inconsistencies you may encounter.
I've downloaded a course, but why can't I open the file?
If you save a copy of the course materials through "Download this course," all of the web pages of the course are compiled in a single .zip file. To open the file, you will need an application that can uncompress .zip files. Windows XP and Macintosh OSX come with decompression applications installed. UNIX/Linux users can use the "unzip" command. Older versions of Windows (Windows 98 and earlier) may not have this type of application installed, but there are numerous third-party programs available at no charge, such as ZipWiz and ZipGenius.
If you have not found an answer to your question, please email us. Be sure to provide detailed information on the nature of your problem so that we can help you resolve the issue as efficiently as possible. We will make every effort to reply to support requests within 72 hours.
