Why should you use your college email?
Every George Brown student receives their own college email account. This is where you’ll receive important college notifications, so it’s important that you check your George Brown email frequently.
Your George Brown College account is the best way to:
- Ask your teachers questions
- Exchange study notes with a classmate
- Submit assignments
- Receive important information from the college on tuition, program status and transcripts
- Find out about class cancellations or schedule changes
- Keep track of important deadlines and key dates, like exams and intersession week
Access to the George Brown student email is available to currently registered students and up to one year after your last registered course.
Outlook calendar
Your account — offering 100MB of storage capacity — also gives you access to Microsoft Exchange calendar functions. The calendar will allow for coordination with your instructors and key college contacts regarding office hours, advising sessions, consultations and other important dates. You’ll also be able to easily send group emails to other students by program or course.
About your email address
You’ve been provided with an email address that consists of your first name and last name, and if necessary, a number. For example, John Doe’s email address would be John.Doe@georgebrown.ca and a second John Doe would be John.Doe1@georgebrown.ca. This address will remain active through your time at George Brown and for one year following completion of your program.
Setting up your email
Getting started
You can access your new account by going to https://outlook.office.com
- To sign in, enter your StudentID@georgebrown.ca as your username and the password you received with your registration package (unless you've reset it already).
- Once you’re in your inbox, you can discover your new personal email address by clicking on Options, near the top right-hand corner of the screen.
- Then click on Account, on the left-hand Options bar. The first item displayed: Mailbox owner, contains your email address.
It’s important that you do this as soon as possible because your teachers will be expecting you to use this address when you submit assignments throughout the semester.
Accessing email on your Android device
Be sure to back up the information on your mobile device before proceeding. The initialization process may wipe out existing information stored on your device.
Note: These instructions have been tested using an Android version 4.1 phone; you may find minor differences for your device. The essential parameters, such as Exchange server name, apply regardless of device/Android version. Consult your device manual for further instructions. A wealth of information is also available on the Internet.
- On your Android device, access the Settings menu.
- Under Accounts select Add Account.
- Select Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync.
- Enter your College email account: your assigned email prefix (e.g. jsmith@georgebrown.ca)
- Enter your password: the password you selected at https://outlook.office.com.
- Select Manual setup.
- Enter the Domain\user name: \gbc\student ID number (or employee #) (e.g. 123456789).
- The password field should automatically be populated. If not, enter it now.
- In the Exchange server field enter: https://outlook.office.com.
- Check the box labeled: Use secure connection (SSL).
- Uncheck the box labeled: Use client certificate.
- Select Next, and configure your personal preferences for the frequency and amount of data to synchronize.
- Select Next again, and name this account if you choose.
- Select Done. Your device is now set up to synchronize data with the College’s email system.
Please note that deleting an email message from your mobile device will now result in the simultaneous removal of the message from the College’s email system.
Accessing email on your Apple device
Be sure to back up the information on your mobile device before proceeding. The initialization process may wipe out existing information stored on your device.
Apple has published an ‘Exchange ActiveSync Account Quick Setup Guide’ for its iOS devices, outlining how to synchronize with email providers (e.g. GBC). The URL is: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2480.
The pertinent GBC parameters are:
- Email: your assigned email prefix (e.g. jsmith@georgebrown.ca)
- Server: https://outlook.office.com
- Domain: gbc
- Username: student ID number (or employee #)
- Password: your regular College password
- Use SSL: On
Please note that deleting an email message from your mobile device will now result in the simultaneous removal of the message from the College’s email system.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long will my account remain active?
For full-time students, one year after graduation. For other students, including Continuing Education students, one year after the last day of your last class.
Will Continuing Education students get email accounts?
Yes. E-mail accounts will be given to all continuing education students.
How much storage space do I have?
- Continuing Education students: 10 MB, the equivalent of up to several dozen messages.
- All other students: 100 MB, the equivalent of up to several hundred messages.
- Staff & Faculty:no limit.
The system is not intended for long-term mail archiving, though you may choose to forward mail to a personal e-mail account should you wish to retain messages longer.
Can I send attachments with an email?
Yes, attachments up to 10 MB in size can be transmitted along with your e mail message, subject to space availability for your account. Attachments commonly containing viruses (e.g. .exe, .zip) are blocked by the system. You will receive a message from the system if an attachment is blocked.
Is there a filter to weed out junk e mail?
Yes, the anti virus and anti spam automation blocks > 95% of mail, helping to reduce the number of junk mail messages you receive. You can still expect to receive the occasional junk mail message, because more stringent filtering would result in false positives, blocking some legitimate mail messages too. You do not need to report junk mail received; simply delete the message.
I'm having problems with email, who do I contact?
Help with OWA is available within the application. The College does not provide technical support for OWA.
You will find extensive online help for a variety of User ID and password issues at: Technical support page.
If you are unable to trouble shoot a User ID or password issue yourself, you can obtain support at the following locations and phone numbers: Technical support page.
Please note that the College cannot provide support for any other technical issues.
Which internet browser provides the best user experience for Outlook Web Access?
Outlook Web Access (OWA) is a Microsoft product and the full feature set is only available from Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE) browser. You may encounter errors and/or reduced functionality when accessing OWA from other browsers. A free copy of Internet Explorer may be downloaded directly from Microsoft: https://www.microsoft.com/en-ca/download/internet-explorer.aspx.
Mac users, users of browsers other than IE, and blind and low vision users should choose OWA Light rather than OWA. OWA Light is compliant with the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act.
Selecting the Use Outlook Web Access Lightcheckbox on the email login page will enable you to use a variety of browsers, but you will not have access to the full OWA feature set. The following link sets out compatible browsers/versions for OWA: http://technet.microsoft.com/en us/library/aa998931.aspx.
The following link outlines the feature differences between OWA and OWA Light: http://technet.microsoft.com/en us/library/aa997437.aspx.
The workstations in the Learning Resource Centres run an OWA compatible version of IE, and provides access to the full OWA feature set.
