Perusall Exchange^® Library

Brokk Toggerson, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Physics, Amherst, MA United States: Graduate students face several important transitions: becoming a researcher, a teacher, and a colleague. These transitions require specific skills: reading research, giving presentations, and navigating issues of diversity in the workplace. At UMass-Amherst incoming physics Ph.D. students begin developing these skills in a dedicated seminar through the lens of TA training. Students read journal articles about physics education in Perusall: simultaneously honing students’ ability to read research articles and introducing them to teaching best-practices.

Comfort M. Ateh Providence College, Secondary Education Providence, RI, United States Instructors all around the world are excited about the benefits of Perusall in engaging students in reading prior to class. Another benefit of Perusall is enhancing formative assessment: A planned ongoing process to elicit and use evidence of student learning to improve student understanding of intended learning outcomes. On Perusall, students are more likely to share their authentic knowledge, which is at the core of effective formative assessment process.

Angélica Meza Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas and Instituto Caro y Cuervo, Education Bogotá, Colombia Synchronous Online Flipped Learning Approach (SOFLA) arises as an opportunity to engage and empower students who are enrolled in ESL and SSL teaching education programs. SOFLA outlines a cycle that requires interaction to develop in-class and out-of-class activities and this interactive component is facilitated and maximized through Perusall. Currently, my students benefit from learning together by posting reflections, questions and comments that make my lessons student-centered classes and make me a facilitator in their learning process.

Nuria Hernandez Nanclares Universidad de Oviedo, Applied Economics Oviedo, Spain With so many remote classes, the challenge of having students engaging in the learning process has become even more urgent. Perusall reveals itself as a "Swiss knife" tool that supports student engagement and active learning. A reflection framework is proposed, combining two dimensions: where students and teachers are and when and with whom students work.

Nuria Hernandez Nanclares, Universidad de Oviedo (Spain), Applied Economics department, Oviedo Spain: With so many remote classes, the challenge of having students engaging in the learning process has become even more urgent. Perusall reveals itself as a "Swiss knife" tool that supports student engagement and active learning. A reflection framework is proposed, combining two dimensions: where students and teachers are and when and with whom students work.

Blake, W., Laing, Southern Adventist University, Physics and Engineering, Collegedale, TN, United States: When I challenge my students to develop the new discipline of reading their textbook before class, the Perusall social reading platform lets me construct an asynchronous supportive learning community in which students can articulate a question and expect an answer. Participation is rewarded with attention. Knowing that students need encouragement to dive into a difficult reading, I record short “chapter trailers." Perusall has enabled a workflow in Just-In-Time teaching that is more natural and efficient.

Moderated by Pablo Valdivia, Professor at the University of Groningen, Netherlands, instructors participated in a live discussion about how to promote equity and inclusivity in the classroom using the Perusall platform.

Julie A. Schell, Nikki Rodelas, The University of Texas at Austin, College of Fine Arts, Austin, TX United States: The syllabus, an emblem of higher education, is often one of the most dreaded course artifacts for students and faculty alike. Unlike the traditional lecture, the syllabus is also a perennial document that has gone through minimal improvements in style or delivery over time. We will provide participants with a precedent for using Perusall to make their syllabus come alive and drive student engagement from day one of online or in-person courses.

Dr. Brent Scholar, Arizona State University, Leadership and Integrative Studies, Tempe, AZ United States: In this session join me as we explore “small teaching” concepts, such as building community, creating a space for peer-to-peer interaction, and giving learners autonomy to choose the material they find most interesting and want to discuss with their peers. Participants will participate in an activity to experience what their engagement could look and feel like and learn what they can do to encourage participation within Perusall.

Hongtao Dang Central Washington University, Engineering Technologies, Safety, and Construction Ellensburg, WA, United States Reading construction documents is a fundamental and essential skill for any architectural, civil engineering, or construction professionals to perform design, estimating, scheduling, and construction work. Perusall enables students to read construction documents, add annotations, and respond to questions while acting in different roles. Social reading stimulates student interests in studying construction documents and promotes an interactive and engaging learning environment in the classroom, helping assess and personalize education to the needs of students’ learning.

Gabriel Xavier Martinez Ave Maria University, Economics Ave Maria, FL, United States To make sure students prepared for exams, three economics courses had a video, a Perusall reading, and a learning check in each chapter section. Better students solidified their As; middle students did better by a letter grade; both failures and Bs were more frequent among weaker students. Perusall grades predicted over-performance for middle students. Perusall made students put material in their own words, ask and answer questions, and identify the important parts of the reading.

Bro. Thomas M. Terrill, S.M., Chaminade High School, Religion Department, Mineola, NY United States: As educators, we know that time is precious. Time spent in-person with our students is even more valuable. So why squander that limited time on humdrum reading assignments tempting them to mine the text for simple answers. Perusall helps us ensure that our students read the entire passage while saving us time to focus on what’s most important: our students!

Manuela Francisco and Cristina Amado Universidade Aberta, Distance Education and E-Learning Lisboa, Portugal Perusall was integrated with the LMS of Universidade Aberta (Portugal) and it will be used this semester as a pilot in one Curricular Unit. Two classes are involved with 68 students each. We’ve designed an activity in Perusall, where students have to read a document about the techniques to create accessible digital content, elaborate questions about it and vote on the 3 questions they consider to have aroused the most interest on the topic.

Matthew Bergbower, Indiana State University, Political Science, Terre Haute, IN United States My research examines classroom experiences with Perusall, with specific attention given to student reactions to using Perusall. Survey responses are captured from students on whether their course grade was higher or lower because of Perusall, if they read more or less because of Perusall, if the overall workload in the course was high or low, among others. The results suggest a vast majority of students have positive reactions to using Perusall.

Nicole J. Tavares, The University of Hong Kong, Faculty of Education, Hong Kong,Hong Kong: Students-as-Perusall-Managers (PM) is an initiative developed to address students’ over-reliance on instructors to pose and answer questions. Adopting a students-as-partners model, PMs are assigned to kick-start and MANAGE interactions. With PMs, significant differences in the nature of posts are noted: from formally-worded and often disconnected ‘essay-type answers’ to more personal and conversational exchanges which genERate deeper thinking and quality dialogues. This practice demonstrates the potential of Perusall not only as a social platform that fosters collaborative reading but a learner-centered, learning-driven and empowering environment that promotes joint inquiry and community-building.

Karen L. Myhr Wayne State University, Department of Biological Sciences Detroit, MI, United States "CREATE is a method to guide novices through reading and analyzing the primary literature. Adding CREATE-in-Perusall assignments before synchronous discussions added to the flexibility of asynchronous learning, created accountability, and enhanced preparation for the discussions. Students had time to gather their thoughts, which equalized contributions across communication styles and cleared up basic questions so synchronous discussions could focus on more complex issues. 1. Hoskins, Stevens and Nehm (2007) Genetics 176: 1381-1389. "

Laurie Mook Arizona State University, School of Community Resources and Development Phoenix, AZ, United States "The hybrid campus emerged in a big way this last year and is not likely to disappear as higher education reimagines how it will operate in the future. Bringing students together from various geographic and functional communities requires careful thought. This session demonstrates how to use Perusall as a tool to build a learner-community. You will learn how to: • Use your syllabus to practice social annotation • Clarify assignment instructions in interactive ways • Stimulate student ideation"

Co-moderated by Derek Bruff, Assistant Provost and Executive Director of the Center for Teaching, Vanderbilt University and Eric Mazur, Co-founder of Perusall, the final live session of the Perusall Exchange 2021 focused on the return to in-person teaching and how Perusall can help with the transition.

Qusay H. Mahmoud, Ontario Tech University, Department of Electrical, Computer and Software Engineering, Oshawa, Canada: In this presentation I will report on my experience in implementing Perusall for collaborative self-directed learning activities as asynchronous elements of a Cloud Computing course I delivered in Winter 2021. I will present survey results and student feedback from the course, discuss lessons learned, and offer suggestions for improvement.

Ted Clark, The Ohio State University, Chemistry and Biochemistry, Columbus, OH United States: PhET sims have been an essential part of my in-person general chemistry class for years. When forced to transition to online learning, I made sure to take PhET sims with me by including them in videos delivered with Perusall. I will discuss how Perusall provided me with insights into how students interact with instructor-led demonstrations and share suggestions for using PhET sims asynchronously.