Perusall

Perusall is a social annotation tool that allows students to collaboratively markup uploaded texts, webpages, adopted textbooks, as well as images and video. In practice, students are able to highlight, provide comments, add thematic hashtags, and respond to each other in the margins. Unlike a conventional discussion forum in environments like Canvas, social annotation interactions take place in and around the text itself. Such tasks can foster new patterns of critical engagement and community with course content.

Perusall can be used as a standalone tool by instructors to organize course assignments, however we strongly recommend getting started by using the Perusall integration in Canvas in order to simplify student access to annotation tasks and streamline available grading features.

To create a standalone course:

1. Visit the Perusall.com account registration
2. Click the Sign in with Google link and use your Middlebury network e-mail and password for your account details. This will enable you to still use the Perusall integration with Canvas in the future with this account.
3. Review Perusall guides to get started. The on-boarding process will walk you through standalone course creation.

To work with Perusall in Canvas:

1. Jump to Perusall in Canvas documentation