Integrating Perusall and Canvas
These instructions walk through the steps for an Instructor to use Perusall in their Canvas Course Site.
Re-linking Existing Perusall Assignments to Perusall 1.3
Action Needed for Fall 2026: Update Existing Perusall Assignments
If your Canvas course contains Perusall assignments created using the previous Perusall LTI integration, you must connect those assignments to Perusall 1.3.
The good news is that you can bring your existing Perusall content into the new integration. The update process includes:
Enabling and launching Perusall 1.3 in your Canvas course.
Copying your existing Perusall course content into the new Perusall 1.3 course.
Re-linking your existing Canvas assignments to the corresponding Perusall assignments.
Updating the Perusall grade sync setting, if needed.
Testing your updated assignments to ensure everything is working as intended.
For complete step-by-step instructions see below.
Part 1: Enable and Launch Perusall 1.3
Open your Canvas course.
Click Settings in the Course Navigation.
Click the Navigation tab.
Locate Perusall 1.3 in the list of hidden navigation items.
Click the three-dot menu next to Perusall 1.3 and select Enable.
You can also drag Perusall 1.3 into the list of active course navigation items.
Click Save.
Refresh the page if needed.
Click Perusall 1.3 in the Course Navigation.
Opening Perusall 1.3 creates a new Perusall course connected to your Canvas course.
Part 2: Copy Your Existing Perusall Course Content
After launching Perusall 1.3 for the first time:
Follow the Get Started prompts.
In Step 1: Welcome, select Copy existing course.
Choose your previous Perusall course from the drop-down menu.
Select the content and assignments you want to copy into the new Perusall 1.3 course.
Review any available options for copying additional items, such as course settings, rubrics, scoring templates, or group sets.
Complete the copy process.
Tip: Copying your previous Perusall course before re-linking your Canvas assignments allows the existing Perusall assignments to be available for selection when you re-link them.
Part 3: Re-link Your Existing Canvas Assignments
Once your Perusall content has been copied into the new Perusall 1.3 course, repeat the following steps for each existing Perusall assignment in Canvas:
In your Canvas course, click Assignments.
Open the Perusall assignment you want to update.
Click Edit.
Scroll to Submission Type.
Select External Tool.
Click Find.
Select Perusall 1.3.
From the list of available Perusall assignments, select the assignment that corresponds to the Canvas assignment you are updating.
Review the assignment settings, including the assignment name, points, and due date.
Click Save or Save & Publish, as appropriate.
Repeat these steps for each Perusall assignment that needs to be re-linked.
Part 4: *Important* Gradebook Column Management
Before re-linking existing Canvas assignments, you may need to update the Perusall grade sync setting:
In your Perusall course, click Settings.
Select Scoring.
Locate LMS grade sync.
Find LMS gradebook column management.
Select Instructor creates deep links.
Enable the option to delete the existing LMS gradebook columns when prompted.
Click Save Changes.
This setting allows you to update your existing Canvas assignments so that they link to the corresponding assignments in your new Perusall 1.3 course.
Part 5: Test Your Updated Assignment
After re-linking an assignment:
Return to the Canvas assignment.
Open the assignment as an instructor.
Confirm that it launches directly into the correct Perusall reading or activity.
If the assignment opens correctly, the link has been successfully updated.
Need help? If you run into trouble activating Perusall 1.3, copying your course content, or re-linking assignments, please contact Learning Technology Solutions or join an LTS Virtual Help Session for assistance.
Boise State Instructions for Using Perusall
Step 1: Turn on Perusall in the Canvas Course
Add Perusall to the left-hand navigation menu in your Canvas course
Open the course in Canvas.
Select Settings from the Course Layout Menu.
In the Settings screen, select the Navigation tab from the top.
Find Perusall in the “Disabled” navigation list.
Drag and Drop to the Enabled list
Or, select the ellipses for Perusall, select Enable
Scroll to the bottom of the page. Select Save.
You will now see the Perusall link on the left-hand navigation menu. Click it.
A new window will pop up in Perusall.
Step 2: Course Management and Setup
View: Tutorial Video for Perusall with LMS.
Bonus: What do all the icons mean for instructors?
Creating your course
To create a course integrated with your institution's Learning Management System (LMS), read our setup documentation. Once installed, launch into Perusall. The course set up is the same as a non-integrated (standalone) course.
Inside your course, under Course Home > Getting Started Perusall will walk through a 4-step process for initial course setup:
Step 1: Welcome give you the option to start with an empty course or copy an existing course.
Step 2: Select Content gives you the option to add content from the Perusall catalog to your course Library.
Step 3: Student Cost
While Boise State negotiates further with Perusall, please use the $0 cost version Perusall.
Step 4: Basic Settings asks for the basic course settings; such as providing the course end and start date, if you will be using Perusall’s analytics, enrollment estimate, and if using LMS integration, how you would like the grades to sync over. You can always change your settings later.
Step 5: Ready to go! provides further tips.
Setting course policies
Navigate to Settings > General to set overall course information.
Navigate to Settings > Access to manage access to your course:
The Student tab shows the course code. This is what you will share with students so they can enroll in the course. (If you are integrating with your LMS, there is no course code as they will launch Perusall from inside your LMS course.)
The Instructor and Teaching Assistant tabs allow you to invite other instructors and TAs into your course by sending an invitation to their email inbox. You can also allow other instructors to copy the content and settings (but not the student data) from your course by sharing a copy code with them.
Navigate to Settings > Grouping to manage discussion groups. Learn more about groups.
Navigate to Settings > Scoring to determine how Perusall will generate engagement scores. Learn more about scoring.
Navigate to Settings > Integrity to configure tools for promoting academic integrity in your course.
Navigate to Settings > Terminology to customize the course terms in the user interface to match your use of Perusall.
Navigate to Settings > Advanced to adjust fine-grained course options for comments, documents, and class chats.
Adding readings to your course
Navigate to Course home > Library on your course home page.
Click Add content and select the type of content to add to your course. Learn more about what type of materials can be added to your course.
Creating assignments
Navigate to Course home > Assignments on your course home page.
Click Add assignment and select the document you want to assign.
Select the part of the document to assign, specify a deadline, and click Save changes. Learn more about managing assignments.
Viewing discussions within the text
Navigate to Course home.
Open a document in the Library tab, or open an assignment in the Assignments tab.
When you (or your students) open a document, you'll see highlights superimposed on the document that represent comments that students have entered. Conversations initiated by students will appear as yellow highlights, and conversations initiated by an instructor will appear as blue highlights.
Highlight text or images by clicking and dragging your mouse, or using our figure annotation tool. (see more info here) You will see a new conversation panel appear on the right side of the page. Enter a comment or question, and press Enter to save it. Instructor-initiated threads will appear with a blue highlight, and student-initiated threads with a yellow highlight.
When someone responds to a question or comment, the original author receives a notification by email and can post their own response by replying to the email. Students can click the checkmark to “upvote” the response and indicate that it was helpful for their understanding.
Control the highlights that you see by clicking the All comments filter dropdown at the top of the page and selecting a filter. (For example, you can show only your own comments, only unread comments, or none at all.)
Managing groups
To avoid an unwieldy experience for large courses, students are automatically placed into groups for each document; students can only see and respond to comments and questions made by other students in their group. Learn more about groups and how you can manage the process
Managing grades
Perusall's automatic grading engine will automatically score all student work in an assignment and assign an overall score. You can control how Perusall incorporates various metrics of engagement into students’ overall scores.
First, navigate to Settings > General> and scroll down to Scoring and analytics. There are four options
| 1 | Automatic grading and engagement analytics | Perusall will provide data about student engagement for your review, and assignments will be graded automatically-assigned grades and decide when they are displayed to students. |
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| 2 | Manual grading and engagement analytics | Perusall will provide data about student engagement for your review. Assignments will not be graded automatically, but you can review student engagement data and manually assign scores to students' assignment submissions. |
| 3 | Disable grading, but provide engagement analytics | Perusall will provide data about student engagement for your review. All assignments will be ungraded and the gradebook will be disabled. |
| 4 | Disable all analytics | Perusall will not provide data about student engagement. All assignments will be ungraded and the gradebook will be disabled. |
Next, navigate to Settings > Scoring > General to indicate when you would like scores to be released to students. (By default, students will not see any scores for an assignment until you release them in the Gradebook, so you have an opportunity to review first.) You will also be able to adjust the overall score range all assignments are based on.
Navigate to Settings > Scoring > Automatic Scoring to customize how automatic scoring works in your course. Perusall can use seven different components to calculate a student's work in an assignment; you can customize each component and its weight in the overall calculation. To customize a component, click on the colored box for that component to reveal its options. To set a component’s weight, change the percentage allocated to that component. (Your percentages can add up to more than 100%, which does not award extra credit but rather gives students flexibility in how they can earn full credit.)
View assignment scores by navigating to the Gradebook.
Within the gradebook, click on a score to reveal additional details about how the score was computed. On the resulting details dialog, you’ll be able to make manual adjustments if you prefer.
If your institution has Turnitin integration enabled, Perusall will display a (T) icon next to any scores representing student work that Turnitin has assigned a high similarity score to. Click the score and navigate to the Turnitin tab to review the full report from Turnitin. Click here to see how Perusall helps promote academic integrity in courses
Please whitelist messages coming from @Perusall.com and @mg.Perusall.com to ensure users are able to receive our emails.
Step 3: What to tell Students about Perusall
Direct links to Perusall Support |
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Direct links to Perusall Support |
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Getting started | Assignments |
Reading | Writing good comments |
BONUS: Direct Links to Perusall Faculty Support Articles:
Direct Links to Perusall Support |
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Direct Links to Perusall Support |
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Course management and setup | Content |
Assignments | Scoring and grades |