Each course has its own software stack based on its own needs. Here are a selection of the common services useful to most courses.
Instructional Computing
The EECS Instructional Support Group (ISG, inst@eecs.berkeley.edu) hosts the public, static course websites including lecture notes, syllabi, assignments, practice problems, solutions. They operate the lab computers, login servers and WEB server (http://inst.eecs.berkeley.edu) that are available to EECS courses.
There is a permanent instructor account for each course. ISG sends accounts for the current teaching staff to the instructors before the start of the classes. That is done automatically for some classes, but ask inst@eecs.berkeley.edu for the accounts if you need them.
The instructional computers use their own password service (not CalNet). Students can obtain accounts for the semester by logging into UAW2865 WebAcct with their Calnet IDs. Students are pre-approved for accounts based on enrollment lists from the Registrar.
That leaves out the course teaching staff and the concurrent enrollment students, so the instructor or TAs should notify the instructional lab staff (ISG, inst@eecs.berkeley.edu) about those students. You can email spreadsheets containing their Student IDs, email addresses and 6-digit gold proxy numbers from the back of their Cal1Cards. ISG will add those students to WebAcct and request cardkey access for them.
The glookup system also runs on the instructional computers, under the instructor account (such as “cs61b”). ‘Glookup’ can be used to manage grades, though many courses have moved their workflow to Gradescope and their own systems. ISG also hosts Information for Instuctors.
CalCentral
For instructors, CalCentral shows the course enrollment and waitlist information and roster photos for assigned sections. At the end of the semester, final grades will be assigned through CalCentral. Grades usually show up the day after they’re posted to CalCentral.
Students can find webcast links here as well.
bCourses
Not viewable by the public, by default. Send announcements, create assignments for online submission, hold virtual office hours, student file submission, discussion forums, grades, polls, quizzes and surveys, student rosters, course schedules, manage course sections, analytics and rubrics, learning outcomes.
bCourses contains the course roster and roster photos. Instructors can also add other course staff to bCourses to view the roster. Some EECS courses also prefer to use bCourses as their primary courseware, though many prefer grading assignments with their own autograders or Gradescope, and hosting assignments on their own public course website.
SPA (Special Purpose Account)
Special Purpose Accounts are essentially additional CalNet IDs that can be provisioned for academic purposes. They also include an optional bConnected account, which makes available all of the standard Berkeley-branded Google services like bMail, bDrive, and bCal.
Course staffs use special purpose accounts for managing logistical concerns and accommodations to help organize requests in a central location and ensure communication is handled in a timely manner. SPA bMail accounts allow the TAs to respond anonymously to students and lets us deliver decisions on behalf of the entire course staff instead of any one individual staff member. (If you only need a staff email, and not the other uses, a bConnected list may be easier for your course).
To access the account, you will first need to request access from someone who is an account manager. The head TAs or the instructors should all have the ability to add a new member to the SPA via CalGroups.
Use SPAs for any resources “owned” by a course, whenever possible. For example if you’re creating a Google Developer Account, set the account email to be the SPA email. If you ever feel the need to share a single password with multiple course staff, you should use a SPA bMail account as the login.