Piazza (Q&A tool)

Piazza is a question and answer discussion board accessed through a Blackboard course. It facilitates collaborative interaction among students and is designed to model face-to-face group discussions allowing for the creation of complex questions and answers.

Students can collaborate on answers in a wiki-like environment to create a single response to any question. Questions can be posed by both students and instructors, and answers can generate additional follow-up questions and answers, adding clarity and depth to the original post.

Available features include:

  • Real-time updates. Users can see answers develop as they are edited
  • Anonymous posting
  • Supports formatting equations (LaTeX equations editor)
  • Support for the editing of computer code
  • Real-time polling
  • Free downloadable iOS and Android mobile apps allowing users access to their question and answer discussions remotely

Set up Piazza in your Blackboard course

To add a Piazza class to your Blackboard course and create a Piazza user account, complete the following steps:

  1. Go to Blackboard, enter your Imperial College username and password and select Login
  2. Select the course that you would like to add Piazza to from the My Courses list
  3. Navigate to the appropriate Content Area of the course and ensure that Edit Mode is switched On
  4. From the Tools menu, select Piazza.
  5. Enter a Name and select Submit and Launch to deploy a Piazza class to the course. You do not need to change the default settings. If you have groups on your course, you can specify which of these can Piazza access under Groups.
  6. Piazza will now open within Blackboard allowing you to set up your Piazza class. If you are using Piazza for the first time you will need to create a user account. Enter your name and password, confirm that you agree to the Terms of Use and select Continue.
  7. You will now be able to create your new class. Enter your Estimated Enrollment, change the Term if necessary and select Create New Piazza Class. Piazza will now launch your new class. From here you can enrol students, monitor questions and adjust your account settings. For more information about setting up your Piazza class please refer to the supplier's Piazza quick start guide (897kb PDF).

Staff Support

For further help and support in using Piazza, please visit the help materials provided by the developer.

Alternatively, if you have any questions on or problems relating to Piazza, contact the ICT Service Desk.

Student Support

Your Course Leader will advise you on how and when to access Piazza.

If required, there is an alternate interface for Piazza that is more accessible to screen readers and other assistive technologies. You can enable these features by following the instructions to enable Piazza Lite.  If you have accessibility needs that cannot be accommodated by this technology, please discuss this with your Course Leader or Departmental Contact.