Online Active and Collaborative Learning Pedagogies: Using Perusall for Critical Reading and Peer Review

This study aimed to investigate how actively students interacted and participated in reading and peer review tasks using Perusall, a free e-reading platform through which students can collaboratively read and annotate a text. Research has indicated that only 20 to 30% of students complete pre-class reading (Burchfield & Sappington, 2000). Previous studies have found that using platforms such as Perusall can lead to better class performance and higher grades (Carroll, 2019; Walker, 2019), more regular reading intervals and task completion (Miller et al., 2018), deeper thinking and comprehension of a text (Tian, 2020), and enhanced second language socialization (Solmaz, 2020). Annotations and reading times were analyzed and correlated with course grades in four EAP subjects, and student feedback was collected through surveys and interviews. Perusall was found to motivate students to complete asynchronous reading tasks. Student perceptions were positive as reading peer comments was considered to increase comprehension and provide new and diverse insights. Perusall may also increase overall reading time and peer feedback. Increased reading time alone was not correlated with higher grades; however, a positive correlation between students’ total number of annotations and final course grades suggest Perusall promotes active learning that potentially leads to better course performance.