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Perusall as a Collaborative Reading Tool

Perusall is a digital tool that allows students to collectively annotate readings and videos. Incorporating the tool into course assignments may be one way to increase students’ motivation to complete course readings, improve their connections with their peers, and lead to deeper understanding of content.

Faculty upload documents/videos/podcasts that they have the rights for (including OER materials) and ask students to read and annotate them, including responding to their peers' comments and annotations.

Perusall can assist when faculty find that students are not consistently completing course readings or are not able to demonstrate deep engagement with and understanding of what they’ve read—or when Blackboard discussion boards aren’t eliciting the type of interactive and meaningful conversations that lead to transformative learning. Perusall can also provide faculty with a quick way to gauge common areas of confusion from a reading or other source material, enabling faculty to target the focus of class sessions more efficiently.

Resources on Using Perusall

  • Getting Started with Perusall: A tutorial from Perusall designed for instructors.
  • Faculty Testimonies: Listen to faculty at Washington State University describe how they are using Perusall in their courses.
  • Examples of Perusall Uses in Courses: North Carolina State University has gathered several examples of different ways faculty have used Perusall to support student learning.
  • Increasing Student Engagement and Understanding Through Perusall: Eastern faculty Miriam Chirico (English) and Lyndsey Lanagan-Leitzel (Psychological Science) led a Teaching and Learning Conversation on 11/5/24 on how they use Perusall to improve student engagement in and understanding of course readings. Their handout from that session is on the CTLA Sharepoint site.