Academic Application: Perusall

Brightspace Perusall

Overview

What is it?

Perusall is a social reading and annotation platform that allows students to collaboratively annotate assigned course materials — PDFs, videos, audio, ePub eBooks, and websites — with comments, questions, upvotes, and hashtags. Rather than reading in isolation, students engage with each other before class, generating a Confusion Report that helps faculty identify the concepts most in need of class discussion.

Who is it for?

Faculty: Upload readings, set annotation assignments with auto-scoring, and receive a Confusion Report summarizing student difficulty — allowing for more targeted, data-informed class sessions. No manual grading of reading annotations required.

Students: Annotate and discuss assigned readings collaboratively inside the LMS course link. Scores are calculated automatically based on engagement quality and quantity and appear in the Brightspace gradebook.

Access

Through the Perusall link inside your Villanova Brightspace course.

Authentication

Villanova LMS Single Sign-On (SSO). A Perusall account is created automatically the first time you click the Perusall link from within your Brightspace course. No separate Perusall account creation or password is required.

LMS Integration

Brightspace (D2L).

Cost

Free for faculty and students when using instructor-uploaded PDFs or open-access content. Perusall maintains a catalog of 200,000+ titles that students may purchase as digital books at standard (often lower than print) prices — but no paid book is required to use Perusall.

Availability

Available in Villanova’s Brightspace environment.

Vendor

Perusall, LLC — perusall.com

Managed By

Learning Technologies, Academic Technologies, University Technology Services

Key Features & Use Cases

For Faculty / Instructors

Collaborative Annotation on Any Material: Upload PDFs, Word documents, images, ePub eBooks, video or audio files, or link to web pages and YouTube videos. Students annotate any of these types with text comments, images, or links — all within your Villanova LMS course.
Auto-Graded Engagement Scoring: Perusall's machine-learning model scores student engagement on up to 7 configurable criteria — reading time, comment quantity and quality, peer responses, upvotes, confusion flags, and reading coverage. Your student data is not used to train the model.
Automatic Brightspace Grade Sync: Perusall creates a gradebook column in your Brightspace course for each assignment and syncs scores automatically when you release them. You can alternatively configure sync to push one average/total score column to the LMS rather than per-assignment columns.
Confusion Report: After each assignment closes, Perusall generates a Confusion Report summarizing which concepts your Villanova students flagged as most confusing or asked the most questions about — giving you a data-driven agenda for class without reading every annotation yourself.
Automatic Roster Sync: Perusall syncs your student roster from Brightspace every time an instructor or student launches the tool. Students added late to the LMS course are automatically added to Perusall; droppers are removed.
Group Annotation: Import course groups from your Brightspace course into Perusall for group-specific annotation assignments — students only see and respond to their assigned group's annotations.

For Students

No Extra Login: Access Perusall with a single click from within your Villanova Brightspace course. No separate account creation or sign-in is required.
Collaborative Reading: See classmates' annotations, respond to their questions, and upvote helpful comments — making reading a social activity instead of isolated work.
Real-Time Score Feedback: As you annotate, Perusall shows your current engagement score so you can gauge your progress before the deadline.

Getting Started / Quick Start

Faculty / Instructor Setup

Add Perusall to Your Course: In Brightspace: Go to Content > Add Existing > External Tool Activity > Perusall Assignment Link. (The first time you will need to agree to the terms of service and privacy policy.)

Click on the Link to homepage button. This creates your access to Perusall.
Click on the Perusall link on the created page to access Perusall.
Configure Grade Sync and Gradebook: Inside your Brightspace course, go to Settings > Scoring > LMS grade sync. Choose whether to sync individual assignment scores (one Brightspace gradebook column per assignment, created automatically) or a single average/total score for the whole course. Instructors can choose to have Perusall auto-create gradebook columns for each Perusall assignment in the LMS

Instructors can choose to manually create deep links for each assignment in the LMS and create their own gradebook columns.
Upload Content & Create Assignments: In Perusall, go to Library to upload your reading materials (PDFs, videos, etc.). Then go to Assignments to create a new assignment linked to your uploaded content. Set due dates, minimum word counts, and scoring criteria.
Verify Grade Columns in LMS: If Perusall automatically pushes a grade column to Brightspace for each assignment, verify the columns appear in your LMS gradebook before the assignment opens to students. These settings are found under Settings > Scoring > LMS grade sync within your Perusall course. Verify the columns appear in your LMS gradebook before the assignment opens to students.
Create a Deep Link: If users are creating deep links, they will go to Content > open an existing module or add a new module > within the module, click Add Existing > then click More > Perusall Assignment Link. They can then select and link the individual assignments.
Review Confusion Report: After the assignment deadline, review the Confusion Report in Perusall before class to identify high-priority concepts to address. Release grades in Perusall when ready. Scores sync automatically to the LMS gradebook.

Student Setup

Click the Perusall link inside your Villanova Brightspace course. Your Perusall account is created using your LMS credentials, no separate registration.
Open your assigned reading in Perusall and annotate the text. Add comments, ask questions, and respond to classmates' annotations. Monitor your running engagement score as you work.
Your grade appears in the Brightspace gradebook after your instructor releases scores from Perusall — no additional action required on your part.

Best Practices & Tips

Always launch from the Villanova LMS link. Both faculty and students must use the LMS course link for initial access. Going to perusall.com directly creates a separate, unlinked account that cannot sync grades to Brightspace
Use the Confusion Report before every class. The Confusion Report distills student questions and confusion flags into a prioritized list, saving faculty from reading hundreds of annotations while still informing class preparation.
Use Perusall for pre-class reading. Research shows students who complete Perusall readings before lecture arrive better prepared and participate more actively in class discussion.
Assign the syllabus as the first activity. Many Villanova instructors assign the course syllabus as the first low-stakes Perusall activity, so students learn the tool while engaging with course policies.
Communicate scoring criteria to students. Perusall rewards quality engagement. Tell students what earns full credit (minimum word counts, responding to peers, annotating throughout the reading rather than all at the end) to reduce confusion about scores.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do Villanova students need to pay for Perusall?

No, unless they are purchasing a digital book from Perusall's catalog. Perusall is free when instructors upload their own PDFs or use open-access content. Students never pay a platform or subscription fee.

What happens if a student goes to perusall.com instead of the LMS link?

They create a separate, unlinked Perusall account that is not connected to your Villanova course. Their annotations and grades will not sync to Brightspace. Always instruct students to access Perusall exclusively through the LMS course link.

Can I import course groups from Brightspace?

Yes. Go to Perusall Settings > Grouping > Import Groups from [LMS] to import your LMS group sets into Perusall for group-specific annotation assignments.

Is Perusall available in Villanova's Brightspace environment?

Yes. Perusall is integrated with Villanova's Brightspace via LTI 1.3. Contact Learning Technologies if Perusall does not appear as an available tool in your Brightspace course.

How-To Guides & Resources

Vendor Resources

Get Help

Submit a Learning Technologies request: https://villanova.teamdynamix.com/TDClient/2759/UNIT/Requests/ServiceDet?ID=51441

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