When building assessments in Canvas, faculty often wonder which tool would best fit their assessment needs. We have gathered below a comparison of grading features and tool options in order to better inform users as they make their decisions. We invite you to contact us at acadtech@cornell.edu to discuss which of these tools might best meet your needs.
What can be annotated
Annotation options
General Canvas integration
Canvas Gradebook integration
| Feature/Function | Hypothesis | Perusall |
| Optical Character Recognition PDFs | ✔ | ✔ |
| Word documents | ✘ | ✔ |
| Google Docs | ✔ (may not work in restricted countries) | ✘ |
| Website pages | ✔ (w/ more access to deeper pages in domain) | ✔ (will take a snapshot of a page) |
| Textbooks / paywalled articles | ✔ (can be used with CAMP and VitalSource materials) | ✔ (free for faculty; may require paid access for students: https://app.perusall.com/catalog) |
| Student created content | ✔ (w/ the help of the instructor) | ✔ (w/ the help of the instructor) |
| Podcasts | ✘ | ✔ |
| Other audio files | ✘ | ✔ (rss feed url) |
| Video | ✘ | ✔ |
| Feature/Function | Hypothesis | Perusall |
| Inline annotation | ✔ | ✔ |
| Document notes | ✔ | ✔ |
| Write in Latex | ✔ | ✔ |
| Commenting on peer annotations | ✔ | ✔ |
| Can bundle several activities into one assignment | ✘ | ✔ |
| Can download document (w/o annotations) | ✔ | ✘ |
| Can disable downloading | ✘ | ✔ |
| TA role can set assignments | ✔ | ✘ |
| Annotations can be private (to the student vs. group) | ✔ | ✔ |
| One-to-one annotations between instructor and student | ✔ | ✔ |
| Annotations can be anonymous | ✔ | ✔ (to other students but not anonymous to instructor) |
| Instructor can delete student comments | ✘ | ✔ (unless someone has replied to the comment) |
| Students can export annotations | ✘ | ✘ |
| Students can print files | ✔ (using Adobe Reader) | ✘ |
| Synchronous annotations (like Google Docs) | ✘ | ✘ |
| Sortable annotations | ✔ (for students) | ✔ |
| Tagging | ✔ | ✔ |
| Controlled tags | ✘ | ✔ |
| Faculty can download annotations embedded in PDF document | ✘ | ✔ (works when reading online) |
| Feature/Function | Hypothesis | Perusall |
| Allows files to be stored in Canvas | ✔ | ✘ |
| Supports Canvas groups | ✔ | ✔ |
| Supports multiple user roles through Canvas | ✔ | ✔ |
| Has short quizzes | ✘ | ✔ |
| Ungraded External Tool activities in Modules | ✔ | ✔ |
| Requires separate account/login | ✘ | ✘ |
| Feature/Function | Hypothesis | Perusall |
| Graded External Tool Assignment | ✔ | ✔ |
| Autograding | ✘ | ✔ |
| Instructor/TA can comment on annotations | ✔ | ✔ |
| Instructor/TA can comment privately on annotations | ✔ (via SpeedGrader) | ✔ |
