Incorporating Perusall Assignment in your Canvas Course Design
When building Perusall into a course, we try to keep things as straightforward as possible. While there are many options and variations for using Perusall, here is the recommended approach.
For technical details neutral to course design approaches, please refer to the Perusall support page content from Boise State’s Learning Technology Solutions or the Perusall(R) Support site. Links to support articles are included in the content below.
Setting Up Perusall for Your Course
Link Your Canvas User Account to Perusall
When you follow the steps to Turn On and Set Up Perusall in your Canvas course, a link ties your course to a course of the same name in Persuall.
Tips
Some instructors prefer removing the Perusall link from the Course Menu after all the assignments and the course are in place. There have been some reports that when student linked to the Persuall activities using the course menu, instead of the links in the Canvas assignment, resulted in an error when importing grades from Persuall to Canvas.
If you already have a Perusall account with another email, it may not sync up with this account. Syncing depends on whether you created your account as a stand-alone account or as an account linked to another Canvas course at Boise State.
Populate the Perusall Course with Content and Assignments
Follow the instructions in the Perusall course to populate Perusall with content and assignments. Find more information about setting up a Perusall course here.
Tips
If you have already built a version of your Perusall course and would like to import it into this new Perusall course, you can import a full copy of the course by going to Course Home > Library > Materials from another course.
If your course is in the same Perusall user account, you should be able to locate it in the Course to Copy dropdown.
If your course is in a different user account, you’ll need to select “Another instructor’s course, using a copy code.” You can get the Copy Code for the course you want to copy by logging into your other Persuall account, opening the course, and going to Settings > Access.
Design Recommendation for Canvas Perusall Assignments
Reference to Creating and Assignment in Persuall and Canvas for detailed steps from Learning Technology Solutions.
When writing Canvas assignments that use Perusall, clearly indicate that it is a Perusall assignment. They will need to be configured in a particular way to make sure that they link correctly to their Persuall counterparts.
You will be able to provide specific instructions in Canvas, but students will have to open Perusall in a new window to complete the annotation assignment.
When adding Persuall as an External Tool in the instructions linked above, it is very important to check the “Load This Tool In A New Tab” box for ease of student use.
Align the Perusall Assignment Names with the Canvas Assignment Names
Canvas and Perusall assignment names need to be identical in order for the assignments to be linked across platforms. Perusall provides a button that will allow you to copy the name of the Perusall assignment to use in Canvas.
Tips
It is recommended you start in Canvas and copy the Canvas name to the Perusall assignment. You will need to make sure that all Perusall assignments match the names in Canvas exactly. The assignment names must be identical in Canvas and Perusall in order for grade syncing to work. If assignments are renamed in Canvas, this will break the association with Perusall.
Grading Options
Perusall provides a number of options for grading, including completely automatic grading and completely manual grading. Read more about how Perusall scoring works. One Boise State online program prefers manual grading per an 2023 article, Student to Student and Student to Faculty Community Building.
Should you decide to use automatic grading where student work is evaluated in Perusally and grades are passed automatically back into Canvas, you may find it less cumbersome with these options:
If you have the same settings for scoring for all Perusall assignments established in the Course Settings, then be sure “Use course scoring settings” is selected.
If you have unique settings for each Perusall assignment, then be sure to select “Specify custom course settings for this assignment.”
Grades will need to be released to students from the Perusall Gradebook.
Subsequent grade changes in Perusall may need to be manually synced to Canvas, but should also push through to Canvas automatically.
Adjust the grading options for the assignment. You may want to refer to these resources for help with Perusall Grading
In your Canvas assignment, include a clear explanation of how the Perusall work will be scored. Student Rubric Explanation: How Perusall Works
More on Perusall Grading
Grading in Perusall – CTE Resources, from Boston College
How do I override the scores that Perusall provides for each annotation? – Perusall
Rubric Tips
If using a rubric, it is important that you attach the rubric to the assignment before you set the submission type to External Tool in Canvas.
You may create your rubric in Canvas, but students will be unable to see it while interacting in the Perusall interface.
To make sure the grading criteria are clear to students, you may want to add a table to the assignment instructions that provides details about the scoring breakdown.
Teaching a Course that Uses Perusall
Connect to Perusall
When a Canvas assignment is set to use Perusall as an external assignment type, there is no need to reconfigure or reset the assignment after the course is copied. The assignment will automatically link to its counterpart in Perusall, as long as the Canvas and Perusall assignments are named the same.
Student Access to Perusall
When using the LTI and assignment names are aligned in Canvas and Perusall, students will not need to create a Perusall account of their own. They are provisioned into the Perusall course the first time they click through on a Perusall Assignment in Canvas.
Tip:
Consider copying and pasting the same assignment directions to the corresponding Canvas Assignment Instructions area. This gives the students every opportunity to review the instructions.
Example Perusall Activity Instructions
Purpose: To clarify the ideas introduced in the research article. Concepts will be applied in this module’s presentation activity.
Task: This is a collaborative annotation activity using Perusall. For this assignment, you will be reading [Enter title and information about the reading]. When you get to a part of the reading that you feel connects with one of these prompts or inspires an opportunity for conversation, select that portion of the text in Perusall and then annotate it with your thoughts or questions.
You are encouraged to add questions and discuss elements you find interesting in the reading through annotations in the document while you read it. You are further encouraged to have a conversation with your classmates who are adding their own annotations throughout the article. As you complete the reading, consider the following prompts that may help you to focus your annotation efforts.
[Insert prompt]
[Insert prompt]
To complete this activity, do the following:
Select the button below to open the assignment in Perusall. Try refreshing the page if you do not see a button to open Perusall. (You should not need to log into Perusall if you open it from this assignment page.)
Add your annotations, questions, and thoughts.
To start a conversation, highlight some text. A panel will open on the right where you can type your comment.
You can also add a link to a website, video, or any other content you think is relevant to the text you have highlighted.
Submit your comments by pressing Enter after writing your comment.
Reply to your classmates' comments by clicking on their comment to highlight it in the text, then press Enter to add to the conversation.
Additional notes on using Perusall
When you open a document, you will see highlights superimposed on the document that represent comments that your instructor, you, and/or other students have entered.
Yellow highlights indicate comments or questions by you or other students.
Blue highlights indicate comments from your instructor.
Once you have submitted the comment, your classmates will see it appear immediately.
Criteria:
You are required to contribute at least three meaningful annotations (comments) or replies to your peers’ annotations in this activity.
Tips for Setting up Groups in Perusall
If you would like to sync your Canvas groups to Perusall, you can! Use the How do groups work? support page from Perusall or contact the Boise State Help Desk (helpdesk@boisestate.edu) for assistance with the group setup.
Tips:
Manual Groups
You must only have one Canvas Group Set in Canvas for your manual groups to properly align with Persuall. Multiple group sets will create errors.
Automatic Groups
If you already have students enrolled in the Perusall course, they will temporarily be placed in Group 1. Students will be placed in Perusall groups that correspond with your Canvas groups upon their next launch into Perusall. Students not assigned to a group in Canvas will remain in Group 1 in Perusall. (If all of your students have been assigned to groups in Canvas, Group 1 will be empty once all students join the course in Perusall.)
Every student in the course must access Perusall (from Canvas) in order for the new groups in Perusall to show up properly. This is the case since Perusall receives the new grouping information from Canvas when each student launches into Perusall from Canvas. Also, Perusall group numbers will not necessarily correspond with the Canvas group names, but students grouped together in Canvas will be grouped together in Perusall as well.
By default, Perusall puts students in groups of 20. Depending on the nature of your course and the guidelines you set for student annotations (quantity, length, and level of detail), a smaller group size might allow for more focused collaboration between students. You can adjust the group settings for your site by going to the “Settings” tab and clicking “Grouping.” Ideally, makes these adjustments prior to opening the course for the semester as adjusting group settings mid-course will affect student views of previous documents.
By default, Perusall sorts students into different groups for each assignment. If you want students to be in the same groups for the entire semester, you can set up manual group assignments. This option requires that you wait until students enter your Perusall site from Canvas to do this as students are not imported automatically from Canvas.
Additional Support Resources
Need more help? Try eCampus Center Faculty Development.
Suggest more topics by contacting onlinecourseresource@boisestate.edu.