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Building and Assigning Content in Perusall

Building and Assigning Content in Perusall

This article is intended for instructors looking to add and create content in their Perusall courses.

For assignment material in Perusall, instructors will first need to add content to the Perusall library. Once added, they can create the assignment.

This article assumes you have already set up Perusall for your course.

Adding Content to the Perusall Library

  1. Navigate to Perusall through your HuskyCT course site.

  2. From the Perusall Home Page, select your course.

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  3. By selecting your course, Perusall will automatically open to the Perusall Library.

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  1. Click Add content.

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  2. From the drop down menu, select the content type you want to build.

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Content Types in Perusall

Perusall supports many different types of course content and allows for organization through a system of folders.

Instructors can incorporate a short introductory assignment designed by Perusall to introduce students to the learning platform.

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This allows instructions to add links to books for their course that are available through Perusall. Please visit this page to receive guidance on adopting eTextbooks from Perusall.

  • Import from Dropbox: This allows instructors to include a share link to a document stored on their Dropbox.

    • This will only work with links from Dropbox – not Google Drive or OneDrive.

    • Ensure the link is active and will be accessible to students who may not have a Dropbox account.

    • If the file is stored on another cloud platform, consider downloading the file and adding it as a document.

  • Import from Google Drive: This allows instructors to upload a document from their Google Drive account.

    • Instructors will need to sign into their Google Drive account and provide Perusall access.

  • Upload from my device: This allows instructors to attach a file from their local computer. This is similar to a File in HuskyCT.

    • If the text structure is detectable, students will be able to annotate with the text. Otherwise, they will annotate as if the document were a picture.

    • Perusall only supports Microsoft Office 2007 and later files, PDF files, ebooks, and source code files. (Older Microsoft Office files, such as *.doc, *.xls, and *.ppt, are not supported.)

    • For easy access and to best preserve formatting, it is recommended to use PDF files.

This allows instructors to include a screenshot from a webpage in their course.

  • Students will be able to annotate on the webpage as if it were a picture.

  • Students may be able to interact with some web content and may be able to navigate to links found on the website

  • Websites behind paywalls or authentication may not always render properly, so it is best to test the content before assigning it to students.

Instructors can use the quiz feature within Perusall to build a quiz or import quizzes.

This allows instructors to embed videos into their course for students to place comments at specific time marks.

  • Using videos may limit accessibility as the videos are played within the Perusall Player. Therefore, captions need to have open captions for them to be visible.

  • The Video tool supports embedding from YouTube, Vimeo, Boclips, Direct URLs, and videos located on your local device. (Note- Upload from local device is not yet available…stay tuned!)

  • Instructors wishing to utilize Kaltura videos can follow instructions on how to upload to their Perusall account here.

This allows instructors to embed podcasts from web sourced into the course.

  • Embedding a podcast, since it is only audio, may limit accessibility.

  • Instructors can enter a link directly or embed a podcast using the built-in search tool.

Instructors can easily web pages by providing a URL link.

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This allows instructors to organize content in the course into groups. This is similar to a HuskyCT folder.

  • Folders are required to create Differentiated Assignments.

  • Folders can be hidden from students.

  • Students have the ability to upload documents to folders noted by their instructor.

  • Colors can be chosen to provide differentiation between folders.

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At this time, iClicker cannot be integrated within Perusall due to iClicker contract policies.

This allows instructors to import or copy materials from another Perusall course. To copy materials, you must either be listed as an instructor in both courses or have a copy code for the other course.

 

Creating an Assignment in Perusall:

  1. After adding content to Perusall, click Assignments from the navigation menu.

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  2. Next, click Add Assignment.

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  3. From the drop-down menu, click on the assignment type.

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    1. Standard Assignment: Students will read, view, or listen to the content assigned and actively engage by annotating, commenting, or replying.

    2. Differentiated Assignment: Instructors can assign varied content to students within one assignment.

    3. Peer Review Assignment: Students submit original work, then provide feedback on a classmates' submission through comments or rubrics.

    4. Fishbowl Assignment: Students are divided into two groups; submitters and reviewers. Submitters will submit work, while reviewers will observer and provide feedback.

    5. Instructor Review Assignment: Students submit an a piece of work for the instructor to review and provide feedback. In this assignment, there are no peer-to-peer interactions.

  4. Fill in the information to create the assignment. This step will vary based on the assignment type chosen.

Contact Educational Technologies at edtech@uconn.edu or by phone at (860) 486-5052 for more information.

 

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