This article covers:

Installation

Average Grade Sync

Individual Assignment Grade Sync

NOTE: There are two different versions of the Brightspace user interface. This page covers Perusall setup in the new version of the interface; if you go go to your D2L course and see "select a module" then you are using the old version. If you go to your D2L course and see "select a unit" then you are using the new version, click here for Perusall setup information for this old version of the Brightspace interface.

Step 1: (Get your institutions Key & Secret)

To connect Perusall to Desire2Learn/Brightspace, Contact support@perusall.com to obtain your institution’s Consumer Key & Shared Secret. Please email in from your official university email address using the subject line “Key and Secret Request” (For security verification purposes, please provide a link to an institutional web page that shows your name, email address, and title/affiliation.)

(If your D2L administrator has already set up Perusall as a global tool in D2L, you can skip the installation instructions and go directly to “Adding a Perusall link to your D2L course”. Please check with your D2L administrator before proceeding.)

Step 2: (Add Perusall through D2L)

1. Go to your D2L course, click: External Learning Tools > Manage Tool Providers > New Tool Provider. 
2. Enter https://app.perusall.com/lti/launch in the Launch Point field.
3. Choose version 1.1 from the LTI Version dropdown menu
4. Choose HMAC-SHA1 from the OAuth Signature Method dropdown menu
5. Enter your institution’s Shared Secret
6. Check “Use custom tool consumer information instead of default”
7. Enter your institution’s Consumer Key
8. Enter “Perusall” in the Name field
9. Enter “The Perusall social learning platform.” in the description field.
10.  Enter “support@perusall.com” in the Contact email field. 
11.  Check “Allow users to use this tool provider”
12.  Check all security settings except “Send system Org Defined ID to tool provider” 
13. Click "add org units" and 
14.  Click Save and Close

Adding a Perusall link to your D2L course:

1. Go to your D2L course>select a unit> select create new
2. Click: external tool activity
3. Enter Perusall (or anything) in the Title field> Enter https://app.perusall.com/lti/launch in the LTI URL field> Click Create and Insert
4. Now it is added to that unit>click edit>and make sure perusall opens tab in a new window
5. Click the Perusall link that appears in the module to launch Perusall and create a D2L-linked Perusall course. Students can also click this link to launch into your Perusall course.

Perusall to Desire2Learn/Brightspace Grade Sync 

You can sync students' average assignment scores or students’ individual assignment scores back to D2L.

Average grade sync: 

A student’s average score is each individual assignment score summed and then divided by the total number of assignments. 

Syncing the average score rather than individual assignment scores saves time because an instructor will only need to create one Perusall link in a D2L content area rather than an assignment link for each assignment. Students will access Perusall through this link.

Step 1: (adjust your Perusall course settings)

1. Launch into your Perusall course> Click Settings > General> scroll to Grade sync to LMS > select Automatically sync students' average scores back to the LMS> press save changes

Students will click the Perusall link you created to access their Perusall assignments and Perusall will pass their average scores back to D2L as you release assignment scores in Perusall.

Individual assignment grade sync

To sync students’ individual assignment scores, create Perusall assignment links in D2L whose names match your Perusall assignments:

1. In Perusall, set the Grade sync to LMS field (Settings > General) to Automatically sync students' individual assignment scores back to the LMS
2. In Perusall, click: Course home > Assignments > select an assignment > Copy full title for LMS. The assignment name will be copied to the clipboard
3. In D2L, within a content module, click:  Create New>External Tool Activity>
4. Paste the assignment’s title in the Title field> Enter https://app.perusall.com/lti/launch in the LTI URL field
5. Click Create and Insert. Test the assignment-specific link you just created by clicking it. Now it is added to that unit>click edit>and make sure perusall opens tab in a new window
6. Test launch. You should launch directly into the corresponding assignment in Perusall. 

Repeat this process for each Perusall assignment. Hide the generic Perusall link from the students’ view in D2L (so students only use the assignment-specific links, thereby ensuring grade sync works correctly) by clicking the dropdown menu in the generic Perusall link’s row and then Hide from Users. 

Note: In order to successfully sync individual assignment scores, students must access each Perusall assignment by clicking its assignment-specific link in D2L. If a student does not, then Perusall will not be able to send the student's scores back to D2L.

When D2L first receives grades from Perusall (whether individual assignment grades or the average grade) to a particular link, it will by default create a new grade item out of 100. The numeric value will correspond to the percentage equivalent of the student's Perusall score. (For example, if you leave your Perusall course at the default 0-3 grade scale, D2L will show scores of 0, 33.3, 66.7, and 100 for Perusall scores of 0, 1, 2, and 3, respectively.)