Overview

Piazza is a Q&A platform integrated with Bruin Learn, encouraging instructor and student engagement. All questions and answers are contained in one community space, thereby eliminating redundant emails from students. Students can post a question in Piazza to the entire class or the instructor only. Students also have the option to post anonymously. Instructors have access to the Piazza Class at a Glance Dashboard that displays a snapshot of any unresolved posts and unanswered questions from students. 

Piazza enables instructors and students to collaboratively edit a solution to a problem using a wiki-style format, creating one high-quality answer and avoiding dozens of disconnected comments.

Piazza is an ideal Q&A platform for courses that include many math or programming questions, as it incorporates a LaTeX editor for writing equations and a Markdown editor that supports writing code blocks with syntax highlighting.

Primary Benefits

For Instructors and TAs

• Instructors can easily communicate with students and provide announcements and clarification on course material within a centralized space.
• Piazza features a Rich Text Editor with a robust LaTeX and Markdown editor.
• Instructors and students can use the Rich Text Editor to upload images, add links, and share videos to enhance discussion.
• Posts from students are highlighted and easy to find.
• Instructors can endorse questions and comments from students.
• Instructors can create and post polls to the class. The Piazza polling feature includes the option for anonymous responses.
• Instructors can review analytics on student usage. This data can help instructors review the level of participation in Piazza discussions.

For Students

• Students receive a notification once their question is answered.
• Students have the option to post anonymously to discussions.
• Students can edit their questions and answers using a user-friendly wiki-style editor, enabling easy revisions and improvements.
• The Class at a Glance dashboard displays a link to unread posts and answers to questions, providing students with a simple way to navigate to any posts needing attention.

Pricing

Piazza is paid for by the University. It is available to instructors and students at no cost.