Introducing Piazza
Tuesday, July 31st, 2018Piazza is a Sakai tool that can be used as an alternative to the Sakai Forums tool to easily manage Q&A with your students. Designed to simulate a live discussion, Piazza allows students to post and respond to one another’s questions and allows instructors to answer questions, endorse student answers, and edit any content.
Piazza is set up in the style of Wikipedia, making it easy to find content and contribute to a discussion in a meaningful way without having to scroll through long forum threads and hunt for a high-quality answer. Also like Wikipedia, responses to questions in Piazza are community-edited by instructors and students, leading to high-quality answers and a collaborative, community-building experience.
Piazza encourages all your students to engage in the discussion – even the shy ones. By providing your students with the option of anonymity, even the shyest students in your class can ask and answer questions. They can even be encouraged by your endorsement to speak up in person.
If you’re interested in using Piazza in your class or want to learn more, read through ITRS’s Piazza documentation, check out a sample class here (login with Loyola credentials), or stop by ITRS’s Drop-In hours.