Perusall has been a game changer for me and my students. The platform allows me to quickly identify "hot spots" in the reading where students are engaging in conversation. I can easily see where students experience difficulty understanding the material or have questions. I also love the flexibility of the system, and have included podcasts, journal articles, and video content, too. By moving course content into a social space, Perusall incentivizes engagement, asking questions, and dialogue. Just the kinds of skills I want students to develop!
Perusall has really transformed the way I do discussions in my online classes. The kinds of conversations students have about the readings are much more organic and thoughtful than traditional discussion boards. My students often go into great depth about a variety of topics as they explore the material--connecting the literature to current social, political, personal issues, for example. They love asking me questions and using the hashtags to identify key features of the literature. I find that this platform helps students engage with the readings, with me, and with each other. It also prepares them for discussions, essays, and exams. In fact, I plan to use it for my F2F classes as well to get students ready for in-class discussion.
Using Perusall in my Reading and Composition class at UC Berkeley has transformed the way students engage with the text and with each other. The platform facilitates collective reading, a good experience for my studets. Perusall helped them not only dive deeper into the material but also actively participate in discussions by commenting on specific passages. This interactive environment foster a collaborative learning space. One of the most valuable aspects of Perusall is that it allows me to see the close reading strategies my students use in real-time. I can track their interpretations, highlight areas that may need more attention, and provide immediate feedback. I think Perusall is a powerful tool that enhances student engagement and helps them build critical reading skills.
I have been using Perusall for my Inorganic Chemistry lecture for the past 4 years and love it! Since I do a type of flipped-classroom, this has been the best way for me to ensure students are doing the reading prior to class. I also love the social aspect of it, with students asking deep questions and fellow classmates or myself are able to take the time to respond thoughtfully. This has also been a great tool for students whose first language is not English, sometimes in a traditional lecture they are not able to grasp what you are saying, however, with the reading before class students have the time to process the information and/or translate accordingly so they are not at a disadvantage during lecture time. I also appreciate the flexibility with the grading methods and how you can prioritize certain aspects of engagement to promote student learning.
I use Perusall in all of my upper division/graduate level stacked courses. I assign papers from the primary literature that students access through Perusall, and they are expected to engage in an online discussion about the paper using the Perusall platform. This is followed up by a presentation of the paper in class (by a graduate student) and subsequent in-person discussion that builds from the comments and interactions through Perusall. I really like the platform for its ease of use in enabling students to interact, ask each other questions, and engage with each other and the content. I've found they have more confidence participating in the in-person discussions that follow. I've recommended Perusall to several colleagues.
This semester, we needed to run our history of mathematics course in an asynchronous web format. Perusall has been a great tool for this course with its multiple weekly readings -- the annotation system is a good analogue for classroom discussion. The system also makes it easy for me keep track of each student's "classroom participation." Also, our information technology office reported that it was easy to incorporate Perusall into our learning management system (BlackBoard).
Perusall is a wonderful alternative to the traditional "discussion board," as it allows my students to more naturally engage with the material and with each other. Reviewing student comments and questions before class helps me prepare to facilitate class discussions and direct the conversation towards the areas of interest to my students.
Perusall solved my frustration with traditional discussion boards, which never captured real classroom conversation around literature. The unexpected win: it grounds students' comments in specific textual evidence in a way nothing else has. I'm consistently impressed by how much control it gives faculty.
Cuando me preguntan por qué me gusta tanto Perusall, respondo que la razón principal es que hace pensar a los alumnos, algo que, últimamente, está en desuso. Eso promueve la comprensión. Pero, además, estimula la lectura comprensiva, la expresión escrita, la asertividad cuando escriben sobre el comentario de un compañero... Perusall es una opción fantástica para un aprendizaje completo.
Perusall is an excellent teaching tool, and each time I meet with the team, I receive clear, efficient guidance for resolving my issues. They know their stuff! Also, they are so lovely to interact with that I always come away from our meetings with a smile on my face. Ask for help and you will get the best!
I teach entirely online, and each semester my students express how much they benefit from hearing their peers' perspectives. They gain this insight from their Perusall assignments. Getting students to read course materials can be difficult--this makes it more interesting for them. With 60 students, I appreciate the auto-grading option, too.
I have used Perusall for a couple of years, and only recently encountered an issue. I had a student who struggled to get logged in, Perusall responded to my email very quickly and were able to help the student with a list of possible solutions that will aid me in the future.
Perusall is a great tool to ensure my students do the reading prior to class and come prepared to discuss it. It also provides me insight prior to class of areas of student confusion or interest to help steer our discussions.
Perusall has been an incredibly valuable addition to my courses. It provides students the opportunity to read and process collaboratively (asynchronously) and gives me a window into what concepts students are struggling with and the sense that they are making of course content. I find it to be user friendly and a great addition to my course design!
