Perusall

About this tool

Perusall is a collaborative reading annotation platform that encourages group reading and deeper engagement with course materials. It allows you and your students to discuss specific words, sentences, images and passages in a written text, video (link), or audio file by highlighting or time stamping key portions of a document for comment, questions and discussion.

Features and functionality

Unique features Document types  Grading/reporting options Accessibility features

  • Collaborative reading

  • Upload and clear digital copyrights (clears rights at a small cost to students)

  • A grouping feature allows for control of group size and composition

  • Analytics dashboard that reports on student engagement

  • Textbooks (Perusall library offers 1,000,000+ options from major university and popular presses)

  • Document

  • Webpages

  • Videos

  • Podcasts

  • A customizable grading algorithm for automated scoring of effort, engagement, and content.

  • Manual grading options.

  • No grade but analytical reporting

  • No grading

Tool guide

Cost No cost, although instructors may have students purchase textbooks through Perusall
Recommended class size Unlimited
LEARN integrations LTI 1.3 integration - class roster (including groups if desired) and grade sync from LEARN
Known limitations Potential cost to students (dependent on publisher and copyright costs)
Level of support Locally supported by Centre for Teaching Excellence (CTE) or for online courses (Centre for Extended Learning, CEL)
Privacy & Security This tool has been reviewed

Similar tool(s)

Copyright information

Perusall offers a catalogue of over 1 million text titles for instructors to employ in their courses. Students can purchase these texts through Perusall. Instructors also have the option to upload copyrighted materials and have the copyrights cleared through the Copyright Clearance Centre at a small cost to students. They also have a relationship with OpenStax to support open educational resources. For all other copyright concerns, please consult the Library’s guide on Perusall.  

Get started

Additional resources

How your peers are using this tool

“Perusall is without a doubt the most important new teaching technology I have ever used. It really is transformative…I’m blown away by the quality of some of the insights my firsties are providing. Reading their comments has given me a window into their heads that I’ve never previously had. And it’s letting me integrate the readings more deeply into the lecture content than has been possible before”

- Rob de Loë; Professor / Associate Director, Undergraduate; School of Environment, Resources and Sustainability

Campus support

Contact Mary Power, Centre for Teaching Excellence

m2power@uwaterloo.ca

Vendor support

Contact Perusall

support@perusall.com

Training

See training opportunities offered directly from Perusall, or check the EdTech Hub Training page for all upcoming EdTech training opportunities.

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