Social Reading to Help students engage

Perusall – a social reading platform

How many of us read a meeting agenda and submitted material before the meeting at every meeting. To be honest, I do when it’s important, or when I am leading the meeting. However, for most regular meetings I do not always read the material and to be honest, I have turned up to journal clubs without reading the journal. As bad as that is, how then can I expect students to read any pre-reading material. As a researcher, I know how important it is to read and keep updated with the latest in the field but when I am busy I find myself avoiding reading. So a few years ago, I started scheduling a regular time for reading, so no matter what else is happening, once a week I spend time reading.

In today’s fast-paced world, students have a lot of pressures and down with a textbook when there is no graded quiz coming up would seem pointless. In the past textbooks were our source of knowledge but in the online world where answers are just a few keystrokes away, do textbooks still make sense? If we think of ourselves as multimodal learners, i.e we absorb information through a variety of channels—visual, auditory, textual, and interactive experiences—all of which contribute to how we build mental models to organize and make sense of new knowledge. Then yes a textbook is part of that learning experience. But how do we motivate students to engage in textbooks the same way they engage with facebook, instagram, Tik Tok, WeChat or twitter. Maybe that is the answer may be we need a dynamic approach to learning that is like a social network where students can engage with content with their peers and help them transform the chaos of new information into structured, accessible frameworks.

Perusall: The social network for reading

Perusall is an innovative platform that brings the benefits of collaborative learning to reading assignments. It creates an interactive environment where students can annotate texts, share ideas, ask questions, and engage with their peers and instructors—all within the context of the assigned material. Think of it as the digital equivalent of scribbling notes in the margins of a book, but with the added bonus of seeing what others think and discussing concepts in real-time.

This collaborative approach taps into our multimodal learning needs. For example:

1. Textual Engagement: Students directly interact with the reading material, highlighting key points, and annotating sections for clarity or discussion.
2. Social Interaction: Peer comments and questions create a community-driven understanding, allowing learners to see multiple perspectives.
3. Visual Cues: Embedded images, graphs, or highlighted sections help emphasize important concepts.
4. Interactive Feedback: Instructors can guide discussions, clarify misconceptions, and provide real-time feedback, turning the reading process into a two-way conversation.

Problems with Social Reading and Grading

One of the consequences of social reading is that students often feel the pressure of reading. Particularly the students who struggle with reading or students who are not confident in their knowledge, tend to not say anything for fear of being wrong. Some are too scared to put themselves out there and see how well others are doing and then shy away. When there is a mark associated, it also leads to students getting a Large language model to write comments for them in response to their peers. It misses the point though because we have to be willing to be wrong and know that it is ok and it’s an opportunity to improve, that taking shortcuts means you do not learn. So this is not foolproof but it does enable the majority of students to engage with each other and the text.

Building Mental Models through Multimodal Learning

The classic video “The Learning Brain” illustrates how our brains thrive when engaging with information in multiple ways. By leveraging Perusall, educators provide students with a platform that mimics this multimodal process:

• Reinforcing Learning Through Discussion: Annotating and debating ideas helps solidify understanding.
• Making Connections: Social collaboration fosters connections between prior knowledge and new concepts.
• Creating a Systematic Framework: Repeated exposure to material through reading, writing, and discussing helps build robust mental models for long-term retention.

A More Systematic Approach to Chaos

The learning process can feel overwhelming, and reading is one that many people don’t want to do, let alone students at university. By encouraging students to engage in multiple modalities—reading, writing, discussing, and visualizing—educators can help learners structure their knowledge in meaningful and accessible ways. The result is not just better grades but a deeper, more enduring understanding of the material. Incorporating Perusall into your teaching toolkit is a step towards embracing the way students learn best: collaboratively, interactively, and multimodally. After all, learning isn’t just about transferring information; it’s about building connections—and Perusall helps bridge those gaps, I thoroughly have enjoyed using Perusall and find that students who engage in the content across all areas learn a lot more.