Getting Started with Perusall

To get started with Perusall, you will need to:

1. Create an account

2. Upload documents for your students to read

3. Create assignments

4. Invite students


To create an account:

1. Go to app.perusall.com

2. Click the red "Sign in with Google" button

3. IMPORTANT! Choose your @umd.edu account

4. Click the "Create or enroll in a course" button

5. Click the "I am an instructor" button

6. For the "I want to create a course" option, select "for students to access directly at perusall.com"

7. Fill out all of the info boxes presented to you. For the "Target Group Size" option, choose a number between 10-40. If you have 30 students in the class, then you might want to choose a group size of 15, so Perusall will create two groups of 15 students for your class. According to Perusall's learning science research, the Persuall assignments will work best for your students if you limit the group sizes to 10-40 students.

8. Skip the Select materials option.

9. Check the "I represent that I am an instructor" box

10. Click the green "Complete Setup" button.


To upload documents for your students to read:

1. Immediately after logging into Perusall, from the Perusall Home page, click the name of the course where you want to add documents.

2. Click the Library button in the second horizontal menu toward the top

3. Click the green "+Add content" button toward the top right corner

4. Choose the type of content you want to add and follow the directions provided to add the content


To create an assignment:

1. Click the "Assignments" button in the second horizontal menu toward the top

2. Click the green "+Add assignment" button toward the top right corner

3. Click the dropdown arrow next to "Content to assignment" to choose the uploaded content you want to assign

4. Select the range to assign

5. Click the "Next step" button toward the bottom right

6. Fill out all the Options fields

7. Click the "Next step" button toward the bottom right

8. For Assignment Scoring, leave the "Use course scoring settings" option selected.

9. Click the green "Save Changes" button


To invite students, you will need to send them your course code. To find it:

1. Click the "Get started" button in the second horizontal menu toward the top

2. You will see your course code is a red box in step one. Click on it to copy the course code. 3. Paste the course code into an ELMS/Canvas message or email to your students, along with these Student stand alone account setup directions. IMPORTANT! Tell them to click the "Sign in with Google" button and to choose their @umd.edu account.


To get an overview of how Perusall works, watch these two videos:

Introduction to Perusall

Perusall 101 webinar