Last updated on October 26, 2023
Piazza is a student-driven question and answer service that some instructors use for their courses. Students can collaboratively work on answers by adding, modifying or deleting content. Instructors can view students’ questions and answers, post their own questions and answers, and endorse the best responses. The University of Wisconsin–Madison selected Piazza as an addition to the Learn@UW suite of teaching and learning technologies to complement existing tools in the Canvas learning management system (LMS).
More information about Piazza, updates, events and how to work with the Learn@UW–Madison learning technology consultants are available on the DoIT Academic Technology website.
Getting started
To access Piazza from your Canvas course, go to your course, then refer to the Learn@UW–Madison Piazza KnowledgeBase for helpful information on how to get started.
Pricing
Piazza is available at no cost.
Key features
- Simple and intuitive interface
- Class polling and discussion capabilities
- Wiki-style format allows for a single high-quality answer or discussion thread that users collectively build, so they can read one answer instead of combing through dozens of comments
- iOS and Android apps available
- Instructors can choose whether to enable anonymous posts
- Instructor endorsements of student questions and answers
- Student participation reports allow instructor to see who prefers to ask, answer, or just read
- Support for LaTeX
- Information and content is easily searchable
- Easily organized using topic “folders”
Support
Piazza support is provided by the vendor. For help please visit support.piazza.com. You can also contact their support team via email at team@piazza.com or phone at (800) 818-4124.
The Learn@UW–Madison team is also available to consult with instructors and instructional staff on selecting and using the right learning technology to improve student success. You request a consultation by contacting the DoIT Help Desk. In addition, the Learn@UW KnowledgeBase offers helpful documents for instructors, course owners and students.