Perusall

Perusall is a powerful teaching tool developed at Harvard University that is integrated with Brightspace. Perusall allows students and their instructors to collaboratively annotate and discuss a variety of file types uploaded by the instructor. Instructors can create assignments that Perusall will grade automatically, and it has social media features such as likes and hashtags to make searching for topics easier.

Is it free?

Yes, however the first time you set it up, you’ll receive a prompt to set a fee for students. It suggests $15, but you’re advised to change that to $0.

Create Your Perusall Course – Start in Brightspace

Steps to set up your course space in Perusall:

1. Navigate to your Brightspace course.
2. Select the Content and Activities Tab on the green menu bar.
3. Add a module labeled Perusall to the Table of Contents.
4. Click the Perusall link on the Table of Contents that you created.
5. Then select the button labeled “Existing Activities in the module.
6. Select “External Learning Tools.”
7. Select Perusall from the list of tools available and save.
8. Click the link to Perusall and launch the integration. You will be asked to agree to a use policy and a privacy policy. Once you agree to these policies, the integration with Brightspace will be activated.

Perusall Resources

• Within Perusall, it’s a good idea to take the “tour” that starts up by default to familiarize yourself with the platform. Then you can begin to add assignments and upload documents/videos to the Perusall library.
• Grade sync to LMS now allows the instructors to choose whether Perusall should create gradebook columns automatically, or only when/if instructors create “Deep-links” to assignments. See article.
• Grade Syncing.
• Deep linking to assignments so they appear as individual columns in the Grade Book
• Perusall’s instructions for integrating with Brightspace.
• Getting started with Perusall