The Wizard of OT

Perusall to enhance engagement and learning in Flipped or Online Asynchronous Classroom

11-6-24

Heather Kuhaneck

What is it?

Perusall is a web-based platform and asynchronous response system designed to facilitate collaborative reading and annotation. Perusall was created to motivate and engage students. It is a combination of three digital technologies: social network, annotation, and data reporting. It allows students to read assigned texts, watch videos, and engage in discussions through annotations, making the learning process interactive and engaging. Students can highlight chunks of text to annotate, ask questions, reply to comments from peers, upvote annotations, and add emojis, links, and pictures. Student (and instructor) comments appear in line with the chosen text. Perusall integrates with many learning management systems and can provide assessment information regarding the student’s annotations.

How to use it?

Go to https://www.perusall.com/  and sign up for a free account.  You may want to begin by looking at the textbooks available as there are many OT texts in their catalog. Perusall will also try to add any other books that are not there yet, if you make a request.  

If you wish to assign a textbook through Perusall, the students purchase the book through them, rather than through the bookstore, and then they can access their books through the platform. This enables you to assign readings in that text for student assignments, and it makes the platform free for you and the students to use.

You then assign a book chapter to read, give them a required number of annotations to complete (or however you choose to structure your assignment), and provide options for the types of annotations they can add such as:

• Making an original comment or question 
• Responding to a classmate’s comment or question about the article, 
• Building on responses from a previous student 
• Linking to a relevant outside application or resource, 
• Agreeing or disagreeing BUT with evidence to support the position

If you wish to see a sample of what these annotations can look like in Perusall, please see https://www.researchgate.net/publication/342870467_Building_Community_in_Asynchronous_Online_Higher_Education_Courses_Through_Collaborative_Annotation/figures?lo=1 

Of note, students can also tag the instructor with specific questions they might have or if they’d like their opinion on something. 

Perusall can also be used with videos, articles and other media as well.  If you choose to use it with video, please note that research suggests that students engage more if the videos are kept short (20 min or less) (Sigmon, Lee, & Bodek, 2024). These authors also found that most of the engagement occurred in the hours right before a deadlines, so it may be important to consider when things are due on Perusall.

Why use it?

Theory and research suggest that learning takes place best when students work together and jointly construct knowledge. Using a social constructivist approach lends itself to deeper student learning, increased student responsibility, and engagement (Kerrigan & Andres, 2022; Sigmon, Lee, & Bodek, 2024). For many faculty members, therefore, creating a learning environment that is most conducive to active involvement and peer discussion can be a top priority. Students often see discussion boards as busywork in online asynchronous classes. Research suggests that Perusall (and similar collaborative tools) in online courses results in statistically significant increases in students’ perceived knowledge, skills, and attitudes, with moderately high effect sizes, better exam scores, as well as better students’ preparedness for class (Cecchinato & Foschi, 2020; Miller et al., 2018, Suhre et al., 2019). A recent systematic review suggests 2 primary benefits from using Perusall; better student engagement and enhanced learning (Craig & Kay, 2024). Perusall seems to help students sort out misunderstandings and apply content. Smaller groups of students can engage in the conversation without being drowned out by dominant participants in larger groups.

Applications in OT?

Perusall can be used in any flipped or asynchronous online courses in OT. By leveraging Perusall, OT educators can promote an interactive learning environment, active participation, and a greater likelihood that students engage in pre-class reading. OT students can use Perusall to dissect case studies enriching their clinical reasoning and understanding of client-centered interventions. Students might also benefit from more in-depth and careful analysis of evidence, via peer annotation and critique of research papers. In flipped classrooms, Perusall can be one measure of “individual space” work prior to class. Additionally, faculty can use the data gathered via Perusall to better understand student thinking, clinical reasoning, and their areas of confusion.  

References

Banks, L., & Kay, R. (2022). Exploring flipped classrooms in undergraduate nursing and health science: A systematic review. Nurse Education in Practice, 64, 103417.

Craig, C., & Kay, R. (2024). A systematic review of the Perusall application: exploring the benefits and challenges of social annotation technology in higher education. INTED2024 Proceedings, 7566-7574. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Chris-Craig-5/publication/378904026_A_SYSTEMATIC_REVIEW_OF_THE_PERUSALL_APPLICATION_EXPLORING_THE_BENEFITS_AND_CHALLENGES_OF_SOCIAL_ANNOTATION_TECHNOLOGY_IN_HIGHER_EDUCATION/links/65f0fbc7286738732d3c4354/A-SYSTEMATIC-REVIEW-OF-THE-PERUSALL-APPLICATION-EXPLORING-THE-BENEFITS-AND-CHALLENGES-OF-SOCIAL-ANNOTATION-TECHNOLOGY-IN-HIGHER-EDUCATION.pdf 

Graham, K. (2022). TechMatters: Perusall: A Social Annotation Tool to Enhance Student Learning (and Support Classroom Flipping). LOEX Quarterly, 49(3), 3.

Hanč, J., Hančová, M., & Borovský, D. (2023). Social Reader Perusall–a Highly Effective Tool and Source of Formative Assessment Data. arXiv preprint arXiv:2308.07188. https://arxiv.org/pdf/2308.07188 

Kerrigan, J., & Andres, D. (2022). Technology-enhanced communities of practice in an asynchronous graduate course. Journal of Educational Technology Systems, 50(4), 473-487. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/John-Kerrigan-5/publication/358506824_Technology-Enhanced_Communities_of_Practice_in_an_Asynchronous_Graduate_Course/links/62ea960a0b37cc344769b6fc/Technology-Enhanced-Communities-of-Practice-in-an-Asynchronous-Graduate-Course.pdf 

Sigmon, A. J., Lee, E., & Bodek, M. (2024). Transforming student interactions with flipped content from an isolated, passive activity into a collaborative and engaging endeavor. Journal of Chemical Education, 101(8), 3107-3117.

Suhre, C., Winnips, K., De Boer, V., Valdivia, P., & Beldhuis, H. (2019). Students’ experiences with the use of a social annotation tool to improve learning in flipped classrooms. In HEAD’19. 5th International Conference on Higher Education Advances (pp. 955-964). Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. https://riunet.upv.es/bitstream/handle/10251/123882/9131-27027-1-PB.pdf?sequence=1