Overview

Perusall is a free “social annotation” tool that helps students engage with course material in class groups. When integrated with HuskyCT, instructors can create reading or viewing assignments in which students create & share their own annotations and respond to each other’s comments and questions. Perusall informs instructors of the concepts that generate the most student questions & discussion, and Perusall can assist instructors score assignments quickly and efficiently. Perusall also reminds students of incomplete assignments, prompting higher rates of completion and preparedness.

Feature Highlights

For instructors

• Browse the catalog of thousands of eTextbook titles from major publishers that you can adopt using Perusall. (Students purchase Perusall eTextbooks through the UConn Bookstore.)
• Upload other digital materials to your Perusall course library (PDFs, websites, videos, etc.) at no cost. (Refer to Types of files that can be uploaded to Perusall.)
• Respond to student questions & comments about instructional material directly, in the material itself.
• Use learner analytics to analyze student performance and algorithmic tools to help you grade & provide feedback efficiently.
• Group students automatically, regardless of enrollment size.
• Generate “Student Confusion Report” to identify topics that prompt the most student annotations & questions.
• Monitor individual student engagement and progress with the materials.
• Sync Perusall with the HuskyCT Gradebook.
• Meet FERPA requirements.

For Students

• Engage with course reading material and videos as a social experience.
• Access all digital course materials in one place.
• Interact with classmates; make comments and ask & answer questions through annotations.
• Control assignment notifications (“Deadline approaching”).
• Tag (@name) classmates or the instructor to draw their attention to a post.
• Take Notes.
• “Upvote” your classmates’ comments and questions.

Why Use Perusall?

If instructors are concerned that their students are not getting the most out of their reading assignments, Perusall can help. Below is a snapshot of the impact of Perusall on student reading engagement:

• “90–95% of students completed all but a few of the reading assignments before class” (*Miller et al., 2018)
  • Compared to 20-40% otherwise; most of the literature reports that 60–80% of students do not read the textbook before coming to class (Cummings et al., 2002; Clump et al., 2004; Podolefsky and Finkelstein, 2006; Stelzer et al., 2009).
• “80% of students complete 100% of the reading assignment before class” (*Miller et al., 2018)
  • Compared to the average: 28% of the assigned reading completed before class. (Clump et al., 2004)
• Students read for a longer period of time (measured by Perusall) than what the research indicates as the average student reading time (student-reported) (*Miller et al., 2018)
• “Students using Perusall perform significantly better on in-class exams” compared to students using a different annotation tool (*Miller et al., 2018)
• “Perusall contributes to deep learning and … students who perform the annotation assignments as required obtain significantly higher examination marks” than their “average mark” in other courses. (Suhre et al., 2019)

Using Perusall and Support

Instructors

• Knowledge Base: Perusall: Social Annotation Tool
• Documentation from Perusall: Instructor Support
  • Perusall YouTube Channel
    • Introduction to Perusall video (8:17) – Gary King, co-founder of Perusall, provides an overview of Perusall and describes the components of an engaging reading experience. (Introduction to Perusall slides)
  • Perusall Academy training webinars
  • How is comment quality defined in Perusall?
• Perusall Grading Criteria (can be shared with students; instructors determine the weight of any criteria for class assignments)

Students

• Documentation from Perusall: Student Support
  • Getting started for students

Additional Resources

Related Resources

• Jiang, H. (2022, August 29).  Enhancing Student Engagement with Course Materials through Digital Social Reading.  Faculty Focus.

References

1. Clarke, A. J. (2019). Perusall: Social learning platform for reading and annotating (perusall LLC, perusall.com). Journal of Political Science Education, 17(1) 149–154.
2. King, G., & Sen, M. (2013). How social science research can improve teaching. PS: Political Science & Politics, 46(3), 621–629.
3. Lee, S. C., & Yeong, F. M. (2018). Fostering student engagement using online, collaborative reading assignments mediated by Perusall. Asia Pacific Scholar, 3(3), 46–48.
4. Liberatore, M. W. (2017, June 24–28). Annotations and discussions of textbooks and papers using a web-based platform (Work in progress) [Poster presentation]. 2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Columbus, Ohio, USA.
5. *Miller, K., Lukoff, B., King, G., & Mazur, E. (2018). Use of a social annotation platform for pre-class reading assignments in a flipped introductory physics class. Frontiers in Education, 3, 1–12.
6. Suhre, C., Winnips, K., de Boer, V., Valdivia, P., & Beldhuis, H. (2019, June 25–28). Students’ experiences with the use of a social annotation tool to improve learning in flipped classrooms [Paper presentation]. 5th International Conference on Higher Education Advances, Valencia, Spain.

* As noted in the paper’s Conflict of Interest statement, this study was conducted by Harvard faculty who are also principals of Perusall, LLC.

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