Piazza is a tool designed for medium to large enrollment courses to facilitate question-and-answer discussions. 

Benefits of using Piazza

Students can ask questions anonymously, answer each other’s questions, and bring attention to pertinent questions for teaching assistants and faculty to answer. Faculty can endorse correct student answers, extrapolate on common misunderstandings, and facilitate transparent course-wide communication. Piazza can help students find answers more quickly and assist faculty in checking for comprehension. 

Student Privacy

Brown has worked with Piazza to ensure that the platform is FERPA compliant. A full disclosure about Piazza and Student Privacy can be found here. If you plan on using Piazza import the Piazza and Student Privacy page to your Canvas site.  The page describes how students can disable Piazza's data sharing program.  To import the page follow the steps for importing Canvas Commons resources.

Getting started

Faculty using Canvas:

• Log in to canvas.brown.edu
• Navigate to your course site.
• Click the Settings tool on the bottom left.
• From the top of the page, select the Navigation tab.
• Scroll to the bottom of the page to locate Piazza.
• Drag and Drop the Piazza tool from the bottom list of course tools to the top list of tools.
• Click Save.

Faculty not using Canvas:

• Navigate to https://piazza.com/instructors/school-search
• In the School Search field, type and then select Brown University.
• Enter your class name.
• Click the + Create a new Class button.
• Enter your course information and confirm you are affiliated with Brown University.
• Click Create Class.
• Follow the prompts to add students, TAs, and share the Piazza link with students.

Information for Students

Sign up for Piazza using your @brown.edu email address. Set a different password for Piazza than your Brown University Shibboleth password.

Access Piazza

If your professor is using Canvas, access Piazza in your course navigation once you've logged into canvas.brown.edu.

If your professor is not using Canvas, access Piazza at www.piazza.com

Download the Mobile App

Faculty and students can use Piazza from their mobile devices. Download the mobile app for your device at http://support.piazza.com/

Technical Requirements

Piazza should work on all browsers, platforms and mobile devices. Use the Support link on the lower right corner of any Piazza course to submit any technical issues.

Accessibility

Students using screenreaders should use https://piazza.com/lite for a better experience.