In light of the school year beginning, I would like to share a fabulous (and of course Free!) tool that you should start using in your classes.
As a college student, I can’t count the number of times I have had a question but was too intimidated to ask the professor, or wasn’t familiar enough with my peers to refer to them for help. Enter Piazza. Piazza is a tool that acknowledges the fact that not all college students are going to directly answer questions when they have them. When looking at a problem, they may spend so much time trying to figure out the little things that they may not even focus on what the question itself is getting at.
Piazza allows students to ask questions (even anonymously if they wish) and then get responses from professors and peers. Professors can endorse correct answers and/or responses made by other students, and give comments of their own. Additionally, utilizing a discussion forum as this will reduce the time spent replying to multiple students’ emails asking the same questions, and will reduce the number of those 2am emails you receive the night before an exam.
Piazza is a tool that I would almost consider essential to student success. It is easy to navigate, convenient to use, and gives students the ability to engage and communicate with their professors, teaching assistants, and other students, and receive the help they need whenever they may need it.
