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Educational Technology at Caltech  /  Tech & Tools  /  Perusall - interactive reading

Perusall

What is Perusall?

  • Perusall is a free social learning platform for engaging students in reading and video assignments before class. 
  • The platform incorporates a unique ebook reader with collaborative annotation tools to ensure that students read more, come to class prepared, and are more engaged in the learning experience. Automated reports document where students struggle the most to understand course content, allowing instructors to specifically address these issues in class.
  • Perusall works as an LTI tool in Canvas at Caltech. To activate Perusall in your Canvas course, go to course Settings (in the course navigation menu), choose the Navigation tab in settings, and move Perusall into your list of active course navigation items.

Notes - Canvas / Perusall Integration

  • If you would like Perusall grades to translate back into your Canvas gradebook, here are a few important tips:
    • When assigning work in Perusall from Canvas, make sure assignments in Canvas and Perusall have the same name and due date.
    • Have students navigate to Perusall from your Canvas course and from the specific assignment.
    • A Perusall assignment includes one document at a time (e.g., one article, one book or chapter); if you are assigning several sources for students to read, make a separate assignment for each one and scale points accordingly.
    • Experiment with Perusall grading and how it will fit into your overall grading scheme, as Perusall has some default grades (0, 1, 2, 3) that may not be the same as the percentages you would normally use.

Additional resources:

For Perusall support, visit https://support.perusall.com/hc/en-us