Perusall uses a multi-faceted scoring system designed to reward meaningful engagement and interaction with your peers. Your grade is calculated using up to seven different components, which evaluate the quality, distribution, and impact of your contributions—rather than relying only on word counts.
Your instructor may choose to use all or only some of these components depending on their goals for the assignment. For example, some may place more emphasis on Comment Quality, while others may prioritize Social Interaction.
Assignment types
Perusall includes several types of assignments, and the way participation is scored can vary depending on the assignment your instructor selects. Each assignment type evaluates different kinds of activity to help measure meaningful engagement.
Below are the most common scoring components you may see.
- In standard assignments, all students engage with the same course material, while in differentiated assignments, students may be assigned different materials than their peers.
- Comment content Credit for contributing thoughtful, high-quality comments on the material.
- Opening assignment Credit for returning to the assignment multiple times to continue reading or participating in discussions.
- Reading, watching, or listening to the end Credit for engaging with the entire assigned material.
- Active engagement time Credit for spending time actively interacting with the content.
- Getting responses Credit for starting conversations that invite replies from classmates or instructors. Asking thoughtful questions, sharing insights, or highlighting interesting passages can help spark deeper discussion.
- Upvoting Credit for recognizing helpful contributions by upvoting classmates’ comments, and for writing comments that others find valuable enough to upvote.
- Quizzes gives credit for responding to quiz questions as part of an assignment.
In peer review assignments, students submit their own work and provide feedback on their classmates’ submissions through comments and rubric evaluations.
- Submission credit for uploading your document on time.
- Submitting in-text comments credit for providing comments by highlighting the document(s) you have been assigned to review.
- Submitting rubric credit for submitting rubric scores for the document(s) you have been assigned to review.
- Rubric scores received Credit based on the average rubric scores your submission receives from reviewers.
- Authors responding to in-text comments Credit for replying to feedback provided by reviewers or instructors on your submission.
In fishbowl assignments, some students submit work as authors while other students review and provide feedback on those submissions.
The following scoring components for authors include:
- Submission credit for uploading your document on time.
- Rubric scores received Credit based on the average rubric scores your submission receives from reviewers.
- Authors responding to in-text comments Credit for replying to feedback provided by reviewers or instructors on your submission.
The following scoring components for reviewers include:
- Submitting in-text comments credit for providing comments by highlighting the document(s) you have been assigned to review.
- Submitting rubric credit for submitting rubric scores for the document(s) you have been assigned to review.
In instructor review assignments, students submit their work and receive feedback and rubric scores directly from the instructor.
- Submission credit for uploading your document on time.
- Instructor score Credit based on the rubric scores provided by the instructor.
- Responding to instructor reviews Credit for replying to comments provided by the instructor on your submission.
How do I see my scores?
To view your grades in Perusall, open the left side panel and select My Scores, then choose an assignment to see a breakdown of your grade.
The condensed score breakdown includes the following details
- Total number of comments: The total number of comments you submitted for the assignment.
- Total number of comments submitted on time: The number of comments submitted before the deadline. Depending on your instructor’s settings, late comments may not be counted or may receive reduced credit.
- Comment score based on your best X comments: Your comment score may be calculated based on your best X comments, depending on your instructor’s scoring settings.
- Distribution of comments: A view showing how your comments are spread throughout the assignment.
While Perusall’s grading system can include up to seven components that contribute to your final score, the condensed breakdown in My Scores highlights the most relevant details to help you understand your participation.
If you have questions about your grade, your instructor can review the full breakdown with you in the course gradebook and discuss areas for improvement. Instructors also have the ability to adjust grades if needed.
Dynamic Feedback
Perusall may provide suggestions from Paige (the bookworm) to help you improve your participation and engagement in the assignment.
If you don’t see Paige, it may mean your instructor has disabled dynamic feedback or that notifications are turned off in your Perusall settings.
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Pro tip
Check out our guides for writing good comments!
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