Enhancing the student learning experience with a slice of Piazza Oliver Haslam and Adam Sheppard

MSc Urban and Rural Planning Consortium of 4 universities, led by UWE Bristol A new distance programme, replacing a legacy blended programme

The challenges Respond to loss of software Respond to loss of ICT resourcing Respond to lack of student interaction with provided activities / passive learning Respond to need to reduce overheads Respond to lack of programme development Need to create more flexibility Need to create a modern learning environment Need to grow / internationalisation (content and consumption) Opportunities for student interaction …while being mindful of the wider distance learning challenges

The context ‘Providing online activities has particular challenges, including difficulty of encouraging participation (Gibson et al., 2001), anxiety of students (Hughes and Daykin, 2002), difficulty of creating successful critical/analytical dialogue (Hughes and Daykin, 2002), potential for mistaken beliefs to be generated and shared (Weller, 2002), difficulty of tutor facilitation of online debate (Hughes and Daykin, 2002) and ability of the tutor to answer queries promptly.’ (Croft et al, 2011) ‘Passive provision of materials on the Internet is inadequate to enable learning: the technology needs to be used’ (Chee, 2002) Provision of materials is time and resource demanding, must consider copyright, and requires updating (Willis, 1994) Need for materials and delivery to respond to different student learning requirements and preferences (Rogers, 2001) Isolation and the need for effective interaction a key factor (Croft et al, 2011)

Passive learning space Three-strand delivery response Active learning space Passive learning space Social space

Piazza – the active space Structured learning activities in a virtual classroom Providing opportunities for interaction with tutors and peers Shared space, shared ownership Cross module space A space to exist in, not just interact with

Piazza

Piazza

Piazza isn’t… Piazza is… The answer Part of the answer sometimes Self-supporting An opportunity for DL, blended and contact programs Appropriate for all programmes necessarily: selection/number of software packages needs consideration A way to create a space where students can interact, relate and create – it is a place to go Without resource implications Easy to use, easy to integrate, easy to adapt Without a cultural change implication

FAQ: Why not just use Blackboard? Interface experience Separation of role by package Blackboard Piazza Facebook Shared ownership of space supports organic growth and diversity of interactions

Moving forward Exploring the potential Maintaining momentum Finding the right role in different contexts Finding the role in different combinations

Taste test… In a moment you will have a taste of Piazza yourself…

But first a v quick overview of how to use Piazza. New Post button is most important. Navigation on the left. Answers on the right NB revisions. NB edit buttons.

Log in at Piazza.com with the account details you have. Respond (briefly) to the questions, notes and polls. Enter your own questions, check for answers, follow up and keep going. We don’t have much time… ‘Fast and frenzied’ 10 mins of activity will produce content for us to look at and reflect on.

What Instructors see on Q&A page

1 2 How to set a Piazza class up to integrate with Blackboard. In a Content Area select Build Content > Web Link. Enter the exact URL (including the ‘s’ of https) and tick ‘This Link is a Tool Provider’. Click Submit. 3 4

Create a new piazza class OR link to an existing piazza class. On JDLC each ‘year group’ has a single Piazza class (on the BB Programme site) and we put a link in each of the module sites to the same single class – so each Year group has a single Piazza class to use, which is good for continuity and usability. As long as students are attached to the Programme site they have access, so students not being attached to module sites by start of the course does not cause a problem.

Here’s what Piazza say about themselves