Piazza, a question-and the-answer platform, will be moving to a paid model  in August 2021. Top Hat may serve as a complementary tool, available at no cost for all Penn State faculty, staff and students, with features such as polls, discussions and assessments that seamlessly sync with the Canvas gradebook.

The Piazza vendor informed individuals at Penn State with Piazza accounts that they are reversing course on placing ads in its discussion platform as previously announced and will be shifting to a paid model. 

A free version of Piazza can be used, however, starting Aug. 1, 2021, but premium features such as polls, statistics, and class locking capabilities will only be available in the paid version.  

Without a paid license, instructors may choose to continue using Piazza after Aug. 1, but premium features will not be available. Piazza will also periodically prompt users to make an optional financial contribution. Users who make a contribution will not see these prompts again for the remainder of that term.  

To continue using Piazza without any changes to the experience, instructors may choose to purchase a paid license, and all students in the classes for that term are covered under the instructor’s paid license and do not need to pay.

To learn more about purchasing a paid license, check out this link for more details: Piazza’s shift to a paid model.  

Top Hat may serve as a complementary tool, available at no cost for all Penn State faculty, staff and students, with features such as polls, discussions, and assessments that seamlessly sync with the Canvas gradebook.

Penn State IT Learning and Development and Top Hat are offering summer training sessions to help instructors get acquainted with the tool. For more information and to register for a session, visit tophat.psu.edu.