Students can participate in class discussions anonymously only if the professor hasn’t disallowed that function on the course site. And students can trust answers to class questions because each instructor can endorse correct answers.
Sankar, 31, dubbed the website a “social Q&A” platform that will appeal to Facebook and Twitter-savvy college students accustomed to instant collaboration.
Educators hesitant to endorse a website that could lead to cheating between students finishing homework assignments, for example, should remember that interactions on Piazza.com are among the least secretive students can have via the web.
“Some professors are concerned, and I understand that,” Sankar said. “But this is actually much more open than other forms of [electronic] communication, like IM or eMail. That’s just two-way communication that the professor never sees.”
The demand for Piazza class sites can be seen in a YouTube video in which a Stanford professor concedes to students’ request for a Piazza course platform at the start of the spring 2011 semester.
Sankar said that when Piazza was new on the Stanford campus, she would watch class groups grow and eMail professors and teaching assistants to tell them how many students had begun their question-and-answer sessions on the site.
“A lot of times, within minutes, the professor would join,” she said.
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