Piazza Reviews

Pros

Piazza is a popular online learning management platform that is designed to facilitate communication and collaboration between students and instructors in academic settings. Some potential benefits of using Piazza software include:Improved communication: Piazza allows students and instructors to ask and answer questions, share resources, and engage in discussions in real-time, which can improve communication and facilitate a more collaborative learning environment.Increased engagement: By providing a platform for students to ask questions, contribute to discussions, and interact with their peers and instructors, Piazza can help increase student engagement and participation in the learning process.Greater accessibility: Piazza is web-based and can be accessed from any device with an internet connection, which makes it easier for students to stay connected to their course materials and communicate with their classmates and instructors.Enhanced organization: Piazza allows instructors to create and organize course materials, assignments, and discussions in a single, easily accessible location, which can help students stay organized and on top of their coursework.Time-saving: Piazza can help save time for both students and instructors by providing a centralized location for communication and resources, which can reduce the need for emails and in-person meetings.

Cons

While Piazza can be a useful tool for promoting communication and collaboration in academic settings, there are also some potential drawbacks to consider. Some potential negative aspects of using Piazza software include:Information overload: With Piazza, students and instructors may receive a large volume of notifications, which can be overwhelming and lead to information overload.Lack of privacy: Piazza is a public platform, which means that any information shared on the platform is visible to other users. This lack of privacy may discourage some students from asking questions or participating in discussions.Difficulty moderating content: Piazza allows users to ask and answer questions, which means that there is the potential for inappropriate or off-topic content to be shared. This can be difficult for instructors to moderate and may require additional time and effort.Limited control over content: Piazza is a third-party platform, which means that instructors have limited control over the content that is shared on the platform. This may make it difficult for instructors to ensure that students have access to the resources and information they need.Dependence on technology: Piazza is a web-based platform that requires an internet connection to access, which means that students and instructors may be unable to access course materials or communicate with each other if there are technical issues or if internet access is unavailable.

Pros

Piazza has an interactive discussion system like many popular website such as stack overflow. Anyone in the course can post a question to everyone or a subset of participating people and start a discussion where others can easily answer and continue the thread.

Cons

I find Piazza lack of many features that some other platforms offer. For instance, grading and its statistics, course calendar, online quiz, etc.

Pros

Piazza has roles for people involved in a classroom, such as: instructor, teaching assistant, student etc. Users of their specific roles can create posts, polls, archive classrooms, create assignments and what not. Piazza offers an amazing way to communicate with the appropriate instructor/teaching assistant, rather than create a post for the whole class.

Cons

The UI! The UI of Piazza is not at par with the industry standards is a major letdown for me. I had to struggle through the UI for hours to understand a simple aspect. The mobile application is also not as good as compared to other modern learning management systems.

Pros

The most important features was the grouping of lectures, homework and assignments.

Cons

I found that I cannot make a quiz and take from students online.
I cannot take video class.

Alternatives Considered

Google Classroom and Schoology

Reasons for Switching to Piazza

I did not use any other software before pizza. It was my first product. Due to quiz I shifted to Google classroom but due to limited space for Google classroom sharing by 15 Gb for Gmail, I preferred piazza for sharing materials with students.

Pros

Easy to use. Provides an amazing platform to share knowledge and information. Best discussion board to date. See to track student/course progress and communication methods provided are extremely easy to use.

Cons

Should have assignment submission/plagiarism detection options

Pros

I have used this software in its free version and it was excellent to have a private discussion with the students without needing to know their identities. The students open up more.. Editing formulae is extremely easy with the LaTex editor included.

Cons

It has become very expensive to use: we would continue if the pricing was more modest. Unfortunately we will have to abandon it.

Pros

As an instructor I have used Piazza across countries since its inception. One feature that attracted me to Piazza was the ability to connect to with students on an almost real time basis giving the students the option to interact with instructors anonymously. Piazza has fostered groups in many courses I have taught from the undergraduate to the Masters/PhD level. The integration of LaTeX support was of great utility to instructors like me who teach course that involve lots of mathematical equations.

Cons

There is no option to set up a timed quiz and there is no integration with cloud storage options such as Google Drive, OneDrive, and Dropbox. Also, integration of short screen-recordings of instructor/student posts would add great value to discussions.

Pros

It let us talk to any of our professors and classmates which would have been otherwise hard given the current remote situation.

Cons

It had a few bugs. It wouldn't let me upload pictures from my mobile.

Pros

This forum is best used for a virtual learning environment where a community can help answer any questions.

Cons

The UI is a bit jumbled and it's hard to find what you are looking for. The search algorithm could use some refinement.