Perusall Exchange®

Sharon Lauricella Ontario Tech University, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities Oshawa, ON, Canada This session will introduce the Ludic Pedagogy model, which consists of fun, play, playfulness, and humour in the undergraduate classroom. The session will address results of a student survey regarding their satisfaction with Perusall, and how students identified and appreciated the social nature of Perusall. We will discuss student reports that Perusall is “actually kind of fun” because it made reading less isolating and more interactive.

Despite the call for change, passive teaching methods are common in medical education. Active learning can decrease cognitive load and positively impact long-term retention. Perusall was selected to support active learning activities and deliver preparatory materials to first-year medical students (n=125) in a basic science course. This strategy was compared to providing students with a pre-recorded lecture. The findings demonstrated that Perusall was effective in increasing engagement, motivating reading through social annotation and shared understanding, and ultimately enhancing academic performance in midterm and final exams.