You can add comments or questions like students. Instructor comments will appear in blue (student comments are yellow) for easy identification.
You can reply to student comments, and your responses will appear with theirs. Some instructors prefer not to join discussions to encourage open conversation, but this depends on your teaching style and students.
Staged threads
Instructors can create Staged threads, which require students to reply before they can see others' responses. This encourages independent thinking before engaging with peers.
To create a staged thread:
- Post your comment on the material.
- Open the menu: Click the three dots (...) on your submitted comment to expand the options.
- Enable Staged thread: Click the puzzle piece icon (labeled "Require students to respond before they can see others' replies").
Once a thread is marked as staged, students will only see the instructor prompt until they respond. Once they respond they'll see all other replies by students in their group, and can continue the discussion with their classmates as normal.
Staged threads must be started as a new conversation; the option is not available when replying to an existing comment thread.
Using generative AI to generate discussion prompts
Instructors can use generative AI to get suggested discussion prompts. Perusall won’t post automatically; rather it only suggests questions for you to review, edit, or discard before sharing with students.
To generate a discussion prompt:
- Highlight the specific material. (To give the AI model adequate context, highlight at least a full sentence or two.)
- A comment box will appear. Underneath click Suggest a discussion prompt.
To remove this feature from your course, go to Settings > Advanced > Commenting and select Hide instructor option to use AI to generate suggested discussion prompts.
The AI model runs completely within Perusall's secure, private infrastructure.
Related to