Exploring Perusall and summarizing findings from GEO & ISS courses

Title: Exploring Perusall and summarizing findings from GEO & ISS courses

Presenter: Ryan Shadbolt

Format: Learning Tech Demo

Date: May 11th, 2023

Time: 10:00 - 11:15 am

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Description:
To increase student engagement, educators are shifting toward digital textbooks, which often improve student access as a lower-cost option, and provide immediate access at the time of purchase. Some digital textbook platforms are adding features that allow students to engage more deeply with the text or collaborate with peers. The premise is that increasing student engagement, collaboration, and community will improve student understanding of course content. This learning technology demonstration includes a summary of findings spanning Spring 2021 to Spring 2023 following use of such a platform in one undergraduate section of ISS205 Big Ideas in Social Science, three undergraduate sections of ISS310 People and Environment, one lower-division undergraduate section of GEO203 Introduction to Meteorology, and one upper-division undergraduate section of GEO480 Undergraduate Seminar in Geography. Findings suggest gains in student engagement, collaboration, and assessment, particularly when reading is supported with required assignments. The online platform used is Perusall® (pronounced “peruse-all”), which launched at Harvard University in 2015. To date, the business has served 2 million students at 3000 educational institutions in 90 countries. Following free registration, instructional content guides a new educator through creating a course or a new student through registering for an existing course. Educators may select textbooks from a vast digital catalog, at which point students may purchase access to the digital textbook at a competitive market price. Current features include assignments, quizzes, analytics, confusion reports, chat, grade book with synchronization to learning management systems, and more.