Hypothesis Overview
Hypothesis is a social annotation tool empowering students to engage with an instructor's selection of online content from websites, Canvas Pages, Studio video transcripts, documents, or YouTube video transcripts.
Social annotation, also known as collaborative annotation, is a digital practice where individuals or groups collectively markup digital content by adding comments, replies, highlights, and notes. Hypothesis uniquely allows students to highlight key points, add questions, and engage in discussions with peers' annotations directly inside the selected material. This provides an immersive experience that is different from sending them to the Canvas Discussions feature to communicate.
A recent study found over 65 percent of students stated social annotation helped them understand different perspectives and inspired them to think about course content outside the classroom.
Hypothesis Availability
Hypothesis is available for instructors to implement in all Canvas courses.
- For graded work, create a Canvas Assignment with the external tool submission type.
- For nongraded activities, add external tool to a Module.
- A Chrome web browser extension is available free to the public, but it is not compatible with Canvas.
Hypothesis Tech Support
Hypothesis offers tech support to all users.
Hypothesis Considerations
Social annotation applications in education include active reading and critical thinking as well as with research for collaborative analysis of scholarly materials. It enhances engagement with digital content by fostering collaboration and reflection in a digital space. Ultimately, social annotation brings the age-old process of marking up physical texts to the digital learning space and makes assigned content a shared experience.
- Determine your instructional goals and create either a nongraded activity or graded assignment accurately in Canvas.
- Outline clear expectations for students regarding how they must participate.
- Provide students with a link to a training guide or video.
- Students don't need to install anything unless they want to use the Chrome extension independently. If a student needs help adding the extension, they call the UIW Help Desk.
- If you are using a Rubric with your Canvas Assignment, be certain to select the correct one—you cannot remove or edit the Rubric after it is added. If you make a mistake adding a Rubric, delete the Assignment and start over.
- When copying your Canvas course using a new term, Hypothesis can copy forward but will not retain the participation from the previous term.
Hypothesis Resources
Hypothesis Instructor Resources: Implement in Canvas Courses
Hypothesis Student Resources: Participate in Canvas Courses
Help your students get up to speed with Hypothesis using these resources.
Hypothesis Overview FAQ
Can students use keywords to flag the instructor?
Yes. For example, if you use a Hypothesis assignment to review the syllabus have students mention #help to get your attention. You can then search for #help to focus on those comments. While the # key is not required, using it differentiates the term search from any other casual use of the same word in a post.
