This is great news. However, anyone who's used Piazza (the main "classroom" tool for OMSCS) knows that it's hardly ideal. I think a better collaboration/discussion tool is imperative to making the experience better for the "average" student.
Sure the top students in the program are going to do well, by definition, but there are plenty of more "middling" people like myself that can only be brought up to the next level with proper discussion/interaction with classmates. From my experience even PHPbb would be a more effective tool than Piazza.
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Suggestions (if Piazza folks are reading):
1. Allow one to delete follow-ups.
2. Allow students to create private "study group"-like
threads that aren't in the main feed.
3. Make it easier to upload pictures and other content.
4. Make things live. Normally this wouldn't be necessary, but anyone in the program knows many students post the same thing at the same time as a response to an event (like an email). By doing this you prevent redundant threads from being created.
5. Use some sort of up/down voting system that way the community can self-regulate.
There are plenty more things I'd improve, but for the sake of brevity those are some I just came up with on the spot.
Sure the top students in the program are going to do well, by definition, but there are plenty of more "middling" people like myself that can only be brought up to the next level with proper discussion/interaction with classmates. From my experience even PHPbb would be a more effective tool than Piazza.
---
Suggestions (if Piazza folks are reading):
1. Allow one to delete follow-ups.
2. Allow students to create private "study group"-like threads that aren't in the main feed.
3. Make it easier to upload pictures and other content.
4. Make things live. Normally this wouldn't be necessary, but anyone in the program knows many students post the same thing at the same time as a response to an event (like an email). By doing this you prevent redundant threads from being created.
5. Use some sort of up/down voting system that way the community can self-regulate.
There are plenty more things I'd improve, but for the sake of brevity those are some I just came up with on the spot.