Getting started for students

Enrolling in your course 

There are two ways to enroll in your course, depending on how your instructor initially set it up.

1. LMS-Integrated Courses: If your instructor uses Perusall within a Learning Management System (e.g., Canvas, Blackboard, Moodle), simply click the Perusall links directly inside your school's portal. No course code is required.
2. Standalone Courses: If your course is not integrated with an LMS, go to perusall.com and click Login. Create an account, and the onboarding process will prompt you for a course code, which will be provided by your instructor.

Purchasing your material

If your course requires a textbook from the Perusall catalog or a platform access fee, you will be prompted to pay upon your first entry into the course or when you first open the book. 

You can pay directly through the platform using the following methods:

Option 1: Digital Purchase

• Cards & Digital Wallets: Credit Card, Apple Pay, or Google Pay.
• Buy Now, Pay Later: Affirm or Klarna (availability varies by region).
• Region-Specific: Additional local payment options may appear based on your location.

Option 2: Bookstore Access Code

If you prefer to buy through your school’s bookstore (or are using financial aid):

1. Purchase the Perusall access code from your campus bookstore.
2. Locate your code, which will look like: PERUSALL-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX.
3. Enter this code when prompted within Perusall.

Need a Receipt? To view your transaction history, click your Account Icon (top right) and select My purchases. For concerns regarding returns, please review our refund policy.

14-Day Free Trial

Some titles offer a 2-week free trial set by your instructor.

• During the trial: Access all materials immediately.

• After the trial: You must purchase access to continue.

Pro Tip: You can skip the wait and purchase the book anytime by going to your Library and clicking on the title.

Starting an assignment

Once you log in, you will be directed to the course homepage.

• The library tab is where all documents for the course are held.
  
• The assignment tab shows you a list of all the assignments and deadlines that your instructor has assigned for the course.
• To access a assignment, click on the work on assignment.

How to highlight and create comments

When you open a document, you'll see highlights superimposed on the document that represent comments that you and other students have entered.

• Yellow highlights indicate comments or questions by you or other students. 
• Blue highlights indicate comments from your instructor.

To highlight a piece of text, choose the text tool, then click and drag your mouse over the text.	To highlight an image, choose the figure tool then click and drag or drop a pin.

A comment box will appear in the right side bar. Type your message and press Enter or Return to submit. (If you have trouble highlighting, see this page).

• To join an existing thread, click on their comment or highlight to open the conversation panel, type your reply, and press Enter.
• While reading, you can change which comments are visible by clicking the Filter dropdown at the top of the page (set to All comments by default).
• When someone responds to your question or comment, you will receive a notification by email and you can post a reply by either signing on or merely replying to the email.

See also, What do all the icons mean? (Student)and How do I highlight and create, edit, or delete a comment?

Viewing Your Grades

• Click the My scores button on your course home page to see your current results. Scores are based on the quality and timeliness of your contributions, along with other engagement metrics set by your instructor. Learn more about how scoring works in this article. 
  • Score Details: To see a breakdown of a specific grade, click My scores and then click on the individual score for that assignment.
  • Missing Scores: If an assignment score is not visible, your instructor likely hasn’t released the grades for that specific task yet.

• Download Your Work: You can download all comments from an assignment by clicking the download button located to the right of your score.
• Post-Deadline Activity: You can continue to post and reply after a deadline has passed. However, note that if you edit a comment that was counted towards an assignment whose deadline has passed, that comment may no longer count towards your score for that assignment.

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