Students can:

• Ask questions anonymously or with their name,
• Answer one another’s questions,
• Collaborate on resolving questions,
• Bring attention to questions for instructor/TA response,
• Search and find answers to questions that have been addressed,
• Get help at various times of day - not limited to instructor/TA email schedule and
• Share their understanding of course content or problem-solving processes.

Faculty or TAs can: 

• Respond to questions,
• Check for uniformity and common language among teaching team responses,
• Review student responses, check comprehension, and offer clarifications on misunderstandings,
• Endorse correct student answers, 
• Search for students who respond to classmates,
• Facilitate course-wide communication and
• Save time by reducing the number of student questions by email.

• Set up Piazza for your course before the semester starts 
• Develop and communicate your course policy regarding student communication with you and/or TAs. Examples: 
  • No homework questions by email — use Piazza.
  • No email, except for emergency or confidential communications — use Piazza.
  • Offer demonstrations of Piazza use, or give a low-stakes assignment to practice use by creating and responding to introductory posts.
  • Develop monitoring practices, such as:
    • Assign Piazza monitoring hours to TAs.
    • Set standards for expectations of TA responses.
    • Don't answer questions right away; give students time to respond.
    • Require students to search first before asking their questions.
    • Consider offering extra credit to students who post the correct responses to classmates’ questions.
    • Consider developing an FAQ or posts of resources in Piazza, such as practice exams, as a backup to the course.