Piazza: Discussions and Polls
Discussions and Polls in Piazza
Piazza is a web application used for question-and-answer discussions on assignments or other course topics. It is an external application that can be integrated with Canvas.
Piazza data is stored on servers outside of Canada therefore it is not FIPPA compliant. To protect your identity, UBC obfuscates personal data when accessing Piazza. Students are asked to use an alternate email and pseudonym on the system to protect their privacy.
You can create three types of Posts in the Q&A section of Piazza: Question, Note or Poll. A Note is similar to a Canvas Announcement and will not be covered here. This guide covers the following topics:
- Start a discussion
- Start a poll
Start a Discussion
- At the top of the Piazza page, click Q & A.
- The discussion tool page opens. In the left panel, click New Post.
- A new posting form appears at right. Next to Post Type, click Question.
- Beside Post to, you have the option of Entire Class, or Individual students/instructors. For a basic discussion, click Entire Class.
- Beside Select Folder(s) are the folders corresponding to discussions that you previously set up in Manage Course. Click the folder for which this discussion belongs.
Note: If the folders are incorrect, click Manage and reorder folders which takes you to Manage Course. - At right of Summary, enter a title or one-line summary.
- Beside Details you are offered three types of text editors. For standard discussion posts, leave Rich text editor selected.
- In the text editor box, enter your post details and description.
- (Optional) Beside Posting Options, selective if you want to send an email notification immediately (bypassing students’ preferences), or add the post to the student reading lists.
- When finished, at bottom, click Post My Question.
To learn more about Piazza, contact ctl.helpdesk@ubc.ca.
UBC Okanagan Centre for Teaching and Learning Piazza Directory
Updated July 2021