Perusall is a social annotation tool that allows students and instructors to engage with and transform written material in a social media-like environment. Student and instructor engagement with the text can help to facilitate class discussions and collaborative learning. Perusall is available to all Penn instructors, staff, and students through Canvas at no cost.
This page is intended for students. Instructors should review Perusall for Instructors.
Accessing Perusall
You will only be able to access Perusall if your instructor has enabled it in Canvas. To access Perusall through a Canvas course site:
- Log into Canvas.
- Click Courses and choose a specific course.
- Click Perusall in the course navigation menu.
If your instructor has created an assignment and linked it to Perusall for grading purposes, you will access Perusall by clicking on the assignment in Canvas either within a module or from the Assignments page.
Using Perusall
Perusall is connected to a payment site. However, Penn has an institutional license, so you will never encounter fees when using this tool. Disregard any messages asking for an “enrollment code”, and use the links inside Canvas to navigate to your Perusall assignments.
Visit Perusall’s Getting Started documentation for assistance with starting an assignment, starting conversations with your classmates, and keeping track of your scores.
Recommended Practices
Visit Perusall’s student website for detailed guides on using the following features:
Getting Help
Please contact your Local Support Provider or submit a request to canvas@pobox.upenn.edu.