"Perusall" is a social learning platform that enables students to engage with their peers and faculty while completing reading assignments in their eTextbooks or through other assignments. Students can collaborate, like when using a Google Doc, and engage with one another like popular social media platforms.
How do students use Perusall?
Below are outlined steps for using "Perusall" to complete assignments in your course.
STEP 1: Acess Perusall from Canvas and Read the Assignment Instructions
- In your Canvas course, go to the assignments page or to the desired assignment using the modules page.
- Click the link at the bottom of the page to be taken into Perusall, where your account will be auto-created for you.
- Every time you go to complete an assignment, please use the link within that assignment to access Perusall, or you may not see your scores pass back to the Canvas grade book. If you notice your score is not posted in Canvas, please notify your course faculty.
STEP 2: Starting an Assignment
- You can find a list of all the reading assignments and deadlines your instructor has assigned from the course homepage.
- To access the reading assignment, click on the link for that assignment.
- The textbooks provided in this course. If you receive a message asking you to pay, please contact the instructor.
STEP 3: Starting Conversations With Classmates (Completing your Assignment)
- In the textbook, you will see highlights representing comments you and other students have entered.
- Yellow highlights indicate comments or questions by you or other students;
- Blue highlights indicate comments from your instructor.
- To answer the discussion prompt, highlight the text and type your response in the panel on the right. Press Enter or Return to submit the comment.
- You can also upload an image, video, or audio clip.
- If you are having trouble highlighting text, see this page.
- When someone responds to your question or comment, you will receive a notification by email, and you can post a reply by either signing on or replying to the email.
- To add a peer response, click on the highlight in the text to open up the conversation panel, type your comment, and then press Enter.
- You can change which comments you see by clicking the filter dropdown at the top of the page (it says All comments by default).
STEP 4: Keeping Track of Your Scores
- The scoring is based on the quality of your comments, questions, and responses. See the syllabus for detailed discussion requirements.
- To see details of a particular score, click "My Scores," then click on that particular assignment's score in the score column.
- Once you press Enter/Return to submit a comment, it is saved and will automatically count toward your score for the corresponding assignment. There is no need to submit your assignment when you are done! Scores are generated automatically and passed back to the grade book in Canvas.
You are all set up with Perusall! Once you click on the link from your assignment page, you can easily complete the assignment in Perusall on a laptop, tablet, or phone. This versatile platform brings your eTextbook and discussions to your fingertips!
Perusall Support
- Self-help guides for a variety of topics can be accessed from the Perusall Site here: Student Support with Perusall
- Contact Perusall support directly by selecting the "get help" button next to your name in Perusall and clicking on the "contact Perusall support" button to create a ticket directly in the platform.
- You can also contact them directly via email at support@perusall.com