Perusall

Perusall logo in red and orangeImplementation Support - ITS Canvas@utlists.utexas.edu 
Technical Support: - Perusall Support Links to an external site.

With Perusall, an online social annotation platform, you can increase student engagement, collaboration, and community within your course. Plus, Perusall works with your favorite course content including books, articles, web pages, videos, podcasts, and images.

Perusall is offering "kickstart" and next level webinars and community book events for interested instructors. More information on the Office Hours and Workshops page.

 

Table of Contents

 

New Features Available January 2025

Reusable scoring templates, flexible TA permissions, peer review enhancements, and more! New Features Release Links to an external site.

News & Updates Blog Links to an external site.

 

We moved from LTI 1.1 to LTI 1.3!

You might see two "Perusalls" if you course copied "All Content" from a past course.  Start by blocking access to the LTI 1.1 versions of your courses.  

  1. Navigate to Settings > Access > Students, and enabling block student access to this course (save changes). Students will not be able to access those LTI 1.1 courses.  
  2. Next, make sure the LTI 1.1 links are removed from your course. Follow this guide to make sure all links point to the LTI 1.3 course: How do I transition my Perusall course from an LTI 1.1 integration to LTI 1.3? Links to an external site.

 

Getting Started Documentation Links to an external site. from Perusall

 

Enable Perusall in Your Course

Perusall is installed in all Canvas courses, disabled by default. To use Perusall, go to Settings > Navigation tab, locate 'Perusall' and select the three dots to Enable [1]> select Save [2].  

Canvas course Navigation interface, select 'Enable' to activate Perusall

 

Quick Start Guides

red Stop sign

Scanned PDF documents used with Perusall must be put through 'Optical Character Recognition' or OCR before they are used in Perusall. The OCR process makes using the text selection tool in Perusall work as it should.  If the document is a scanned PDF, basically an image or picture of the document, the text selection tool will not work. If you need assistance determining if your PDFs are scans or OCR, or with converting PDFs to OCR, check out the "How do I use scanned documents in Perusall? Links to an external site. 

 

Canvas Integration Features

Read the full Perusall Support article - Canvas Integration Features Links to an external site.

 

Roster Sync

Each time you launch Perusall from Canvas, a roster sync is run in the background.  Any students that have added to your LMS course will be added to your Perusall course roster (under the Students tab), and any that have unenrolled will be removed from the course.

 

Group Sync

To access Canvas group sync, navigate to your Perusall course Settings > Grouping, select Specify groups, and then click Import Groups from Canvas or Import Sections from Canvas.  A pop-up will appear where you can select a Canvas group set or section to apply to your Perusall course. If you make changes to groups or sections in Canvas, re-import them to update Perusall, and Save Changes.

Note: In order to use this feature, please ensure your Canvas course is published.

 

Grade Sync

If you'd like to sync scores from Perusall to your Canvas, in your Perusall course, navigate to Settings > Scoring > LMS grade sync.

Setting up average or total grade sync

A student’s average score is each individual assignment score summed and then divided by the total number of assignments, while the total score simply takes the sum of across all assignments.

Syncing the average or total score rather than individual assignment scores saves time because  Perusall will automatically create a grade book column in your LMS course that matches the summary column Links to an external site. in your Perusall course, and send the scores for all assignments that have been released and are passed their due date.  To set up average or total grade sync:

  • Launch into your Perusall course > Click Settings > Scoring > scroll to Grade sync to LMS > select Automatically sync students' average or total scores back to the LMS > save.

Students will click the Perusall link you created in Canvas Instructor Set Up Links to an external site., and Perusall will pass their average or total scores back to Canvas as you release assignment scores in Perusall.

 

Setting up individual assignment grade sync

Our LTI 1.3 integration gives instructors the opportunity to manage how gradebook columns in your LMS are created. Instructors can allow Perusall to automatically create LMS gradebook columns for each Perusall assignment, or they can manually create deep links Links to an external site. to individual assignments in the LMS.  Released scores can then be sent back to your LMS. Links to an external site.

 

Allow Perusall to automatically create LMS gradebook columns

If you select to sync students’ individual assignment scores, by default, each time you create an assignment in your Perusall course, a corresponding assignment link will automatically created in your Canvas Assignments page, and a grade item will automatically be created in your LMS gradebook.  As a result, student scores that have been released in the Perusall gradebook will automatically sync (unless using manual sync). Follow the step below to set this up:

Launch into your Perusall course: Click Settings > Scoring > LMS grade sync:

  • Set Grade sync to LMS to Automatically sync individual assignments scores back to the LMS
  • Set LMS gradebook column management to Perusall creates gradebook columns in LMS for each Perusall assignment automatically.
  • Click Save.

Students will click the Perusall link you created in Canvas Instructor Set Up Links to an external site., and Perusall will pass their individual assignment scores back to Canvas as you release assignment scores in Perusall.

 

Manually link to individual assignments (Creating deep links)

If you would like to create deep links to each individual assignment, Perusall will not automatically create the gradebook columns. Follow the steps below to set up deep links:

  1. Launch into your Perusall course: Click Settings > Scoring > LMS grade sync:
    • Set Grade sync to LMS to Automatically sync individual assignments scores back to the LMS
    • Set LMS gradebook column management to Instructor creates deep links in LMS; no Perusall gradebook columns will appear in LMS until deep links have been created.
    • Click Save.
  2. Return to your Canvas course, and you can create deep links. Links to an external site.

 

Creating graded deep links

  1. Create your assignments in Perusall first.
  2. Navigate to your Canvas Assignments page, click + Add assignment, scroll down to Submission Type, and select External tool.
  3. Click Find, and then click the blue magnifying glass next to Perusall.
  4. In the next screen, select Perusall. A window will pop up that will allow you to select a Perusall assignment to link.
    1. Under Assignments, click on the dropdown to select an assignment.
    2. Ensure that Import grading information to LMS is enabled and click Link to this assignment.
    3. Click Select.
  5. Enable Load This Tool in a New Tab, finalize assignment settings, and click Save & Publish.
  6. Open the assignment, taking you directly into the Perusall assignment.

Canvas Assignment Deep Link.gif

Creating ungraded deep links

If you'd like to create deep links to your Perusall course library items or to assignment, but do not want to have a grade associated with them in your Canvas gradebook, follow these steps:

  1. Navigate to your Canvas Modules, and click "+" beside your desired Module.
  2. In the new window, select to Add External Tool, and click Perusall 1.3.* If you do not see Perusall 1.3, contact your Canvas admin, and ask them to ensure they've enabled the Link Selection placement. Links to an external site.
  3. Perusall will present you with a list of assignments you have created in your Perusall course, as well as your documents from your course library; select your desired item from the corresponding dropdown.
    • If you select an Assignment, disable Import grading information into LMS.
  4. The URL should automatically fill with the following URL:  https://app.perusall.com/ltia/launch Links to an external site.
  5. The page name will be the name of your document/assignment
  6. Enable Load in a new tab.
  7. Click Add Item and then publish it to make it accessible to your students.

Canvas Module deep link.gif

Perusall Support

Our customer support team is happy to help! Below you may search our knowledge base articles Links to an external site. for frequently asked questions. You may also open a ticket Links to an external site. for additional assistance. 

 

Perusall Academy 2025

Discover all the ways you can boost your pedagogy with Perusall. Perusall Academy Links to an external site. will offer three different educational webinars, each hosted by a Perusall expert. Decide which webinar you would like to start with below, or attend all three and earn a Perusall Academy Certificate of Completion!