Piazza

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Piazza

Piazza supports these learning types (see definitions):

Piazza is a Q&A discussion platform for better student engagement. It provides a flexible approach to student-centered discourse—discussions can be instructor- or student-led, enabling peer-learning at scale. The tool is easily integrated with Canvas through the LTI Assignment type.

How-to guides

Add Piazza to your Canvas course menu from the Canvas course Settings > Navigation options.

Drag Piazza LTI 1.3 into the course menu, above the list of disabled items.

Click Save.

From the Piazza product team

Getting started with Piazza

From the University of Auckland

Removing staff from a Piazza discussion

Removing students and observers from a discussion

Tips for students to participate constructively
(Learning Essentials from the University of Auckland)

Advantages

Discussions can be anonymous, encouraging engagement from students who would otherwise shy away.
Reports show student participation while they answer each other’s questions.
Similar to how Wikipedia crowd sources content, answers can be edited by others, ‘evolving’ the content over time.
Still effective with larger numbers of students (>50).

Time management

Link students to related answers or flag content as a good question/answer (endorse) rather than replying in detail each time.
Pin important answers to the top of the forum to increase their visibility.
Tag questions, categorise them into folders, or ask students to tag or categorise their question themselves. This increases the chance other students can find the information.
Synchronise the Piazza class roster with the students in your Canvas course (requires Piazza LTI 1.3). This is an option when you create the Piazza discussion for the class.

Disadvantages

Allowing anonymous posts opens the possibility for improper or harmful use of the forum. Setting the expectations for engagement at the start may help to avoid misuse.
Students are able to sign up as an instructor in your Piazza discussion. To avoid this, disable the self-signup feature (under the Manage Class setting).
Students who are not part of your class are able to search for and sign up to your Piazza discussions. To avoid this, add an access code to the Piazza discussion (under the Manage Class setting). Either share the access code with your class or keep it secret and manually enrol each student.*

* This problem is solved with Piazza LTI 1.3.
When students create a new Piazza account, it prompts them to join the Piazza Network – a job-seeker network, primarily USA-based. We recommend that you inform students that the Piazza Network is optional and is not required to access Piazza.