- UW Flow
UW Flow is a highly useful tool many students use to choose courses for the upcoming term and review classes and professors from any previous terms. Each course has a rating based on how easy and useful students felt it was, and the overall percentage of students who liked the course; many students also add reviews to share their positive and negative experiences with the course. In addition, students can also rate professors based on how clear and engaging they are.
UW Flow also provides information like the course description, instructors, and schedules. This, in combination with the collation of reviews and ratings, helps students optimise their course selection for the upcoming term. Personally, I’ve used UW Flow mostly to choose which professor’s sections I want to enroll in, and this is why I’ve been enjoying a lot of my classes this term!
- WaterlooWorks Azure
Co-op is an integral part of the UW university experience. We are very fortunate to have WaterlooWorks as a job board to apply to co-op positions. However, WaterlooWorks is a little hard to navigate for first-time users due to its user interface (UI). Nonetheless, the Azure Chrome extension can help make the UI more pleasing with multiple themes to choose from (including dark mode!), and there are also several features built within the extension to help save students time when shortlisting job postings such as the the modal previews and the ability to open postings in the current tab. This Chrome extension is a necessity when applying to co-ops on WaterlooWorks!
- Learn Darklight
For most courses, Waterloo uses Learn as a learning management system. Did you know that you can customize Learn, though? Learn Darklight is another Chrome extension that offers various themes. With this extension, I’ve customized the font and font size, the layout and content of my homepage, and even the course cover pictures! This truly enhances the experience of using Learn as a learning platform, and I highly recommend UW students try it out.
- Portal
Portal is Waterloo’s mobile app, which is integrated with Waterloo Quest. I use this app to see my Watcard funds, scheduled appointments, my class schedule, and open classrooms. I’ve found this most useful to check if I need to add more Flex dollars to my Watcard and to find empty classrooms to study in.