Grading with Perusall

This article is intended for instructors looking to understand and use the Perusall grading system.

Grading Model

Perusall features 2 built-in grading models.

The Holistic grading model (default) is built around course engagement. It assesses points not only for the student’s annotations, but also for their engagement with the content, and with other course members. In this model, there are multiple ways for students to earn a perfect score.
The Annotation Content Model only scores the annotations themselves, and by default, there is only one way to earn a perfect score.

Instructors can select the model that most closely aligns with their assessment style and learning objectives, then customize the option below to best suit their specific needs.

There are six scoring categories in Perusall, each worth 0 to 100 percent. If a category is set to 0, that will exclude it from counting towards a student's grade. A score is assessed for each category and the sum of these scores is computed into the student’s grade. By default, any score over 100 is a perfect score on the given assignment. By default, assignments are scored from 0 to 3, so if the raw sum of a student's score is 50, they would receive 1.5/3 points on the assignment.

Editing Grading Settings

Editing Course Scoring Settings

Navigate to your Perusall Course.
Click Settings, and then click the Scoring tab.
You will now see the overall assessment model used in the course, and the grading components which you can adjust.

Editing Assignment Specific Scoring Settings

By default, assignments are scored using the course-wide scoring settings. However, instructors can set specific scoring settings for a particular assignment when it is created.

Navigate to your Perusall Course.
Click Course Home, and then click the Assignments tab.
Select the assignment you want to edit the scoring settings for, and click Edit.
On the new windows, click Scoring.
1. If Specific Custom Scoring Setting for this Assignment is checked, then the assignment uses the scoring settings below. You can edit the scoring components below, and it will affect no other assignment
2. If Use Course Scoring Settings is checked, the assignment is scored using the course-wide settings, and you can either switch the scoring method or edit the course-wide scoring settings.

Grading Components

Default Target is 60% for Holistic, and 100% for Annotation Content Only.
Annotations to Grade: Number of annotations that a student must submit to receive full credit.
Relative Point Values for Each Quality Level: The relative amount of credit given for each quality level. If the box Quality Scores are Absolute is checked, then the score is computed as a fraction of the credit earned over the maximum possible score.
Post-Deadline Reply Window: Determines if students can submit replies (not original comments) after the assignment deadline has passed for credit.
Late Annotation Period: The time after the deadline has passed when the submission can be made for partial credit.

Default Target is 20% for Holistic, and 0% for Annotation Content Only.
Opening Assignment Increment: The percent of the target that students earn for each time they open the assignment before the deadline.

Default Target is 20% for Holistic, and 0% for Annotation Content Only.
Pro-rated score based on the amount of the document that a student reads. For content that does not have pages, including websites and videos, students automatically receive full credit regardless of how long they interact with the content.

Default Target is 10% for Holistic, and 0% for Annotation Content Only.
Active Reading Increment: The percent of the target that students earn for every minute of reading before the deadline.

Default Target is 20% for Holistic, and 0% for Annotation Content Only.
Getting Responses Increment: The percent of the target that a student earns for each time one of their comments receives a response from another student before the deadline.

For more information or assistance, contact Educational Technologies at edtech@uconn.edu or by phone at (860) 486-5052.

Teaching and Learning