List of Software and Services

This page attempts to document the different software and services used at the University of Waterloo. This page is incomplete. You can help by adding to it.

Account Management

CS-GENERAL

Your CS-GENERAL account is used to access the linux.cs.uwaterloo.ca system, as well as some services like NextCloud. See here for (re)setting your password.

Duo

The University of Waterloo uses Duo for two-factor authentication. See Duo2FA for more info.

Odyssey

Odyssey is where you can see your teaching assistant (TA) assignments.

Portal

Portal is probably used for something.

Quest

Quest is the University of Waterloo's student information system. This is where you can register for classes, manage your finances, etc.

WatCard

Your WatCard is your student ID. You can use this to ride public transit and pay for some things. Visit https://uwaterloo.ca/watcard/ to manage your WatCard online.

WatIAM

WatIAM is the University of Waterloo's system for account and identity management. You can, for example, indicate your chosen/preferred first name here.

Workday

The University of Waterloo uses Workday as its Human Resources system. If you are an employee of the school (such as a graduate student), you will need to input your information here.

Note, this is on a third-party domain.

File Storage

NextCloud

The CS department has a NextCloud instance accessible at https://vault.cs.uwaterloo.ca/. Students get 500GB of file storage by default. Use your CS-GENERAL password to log in. See Vault for more info.

Information about Your Courses

This section lists sites which you might use in your classes.

Class Pages

Agendas, assignments, and reading materials can often be found on the professor's own page for the class. There is not a consistent location for class pages. You'll have to find your professor's site and your class page from there.

LEARN

LEARN

Piazza

Piazza is used like a forum/social platform for classes. Your professor may use it to make announcements. You may use it to ask (private or public) questions about the course.

Tip: Piazza really wants you to use it to network with companies. If you find this obnoxious, you can hide this part of the site with, for example, uBlock Origin filters:

piazza.com###search-companies
piazza.com###network-at-glance
piazza.com##[aria-label$="Network at a Glance"]
piazza.com##[aria-label$="Network Preferences Info"]

Note, this is on a third-party domain.

Messaging

Hometown (Mastodon)

CrySP has a Hometown instance at https://ftp.crysp.org/. Hometown is a fork of Mastodon, an ActivityPub-based federated Microblogging platform.

IRC

CrySP has an Internet Relay Chat server. Some IRC rooms are also bridged to Matrix. See LabOrganization for more info.

Matrix

CrySP has a (non-federating) Matrix server. Some Matrix rooms are also bridged to IRC. See LabOrganization for more info.

Microsoft Office 365 Email

UWaterloo.ca emails use Microsoft Office 365 Education. See UWaterlooEmail for more info.

Video Meetings

There are several video platforms used at the University of Waterloo.

BigBlueButton

CrySP has a BigBlueButton instance at https://bbb.crysp.org/. BBB is a free and open source virtual classroom web app. CrySP meetings happen over BBB.

Bongo

LEARN's virtual classroom feature is powered by Bongo. To participate in the virtual classroom, go to your class page on LEARN, then go to Connect > Virtual Classroom.

Microsoft Teams

WebEx

See https://uwaterloo.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/ISTKB/pages/287048945/WebEx+for+Students+Get+Started

Zoom