Social Annotations: ESU's Hypothes.is Trial

ESU is piloting a trial of the social annotation service Hypothes.is for Fall 2021. Hypothes.is is an online tool designed to allow for collaborative annotation across the web. It can be used to annotate web pages, PDFs and EPUB files.

How can I use Hypothes.is?

There are actually a number of ways Hypothes.is can be used, but we've integrated it into Canvas so that students and faculty can use it without having to create a Hypothes.is account.

Once enabled, faculty can create annotation assignments for content pages they have uploaded. The Hypothes.is LMS app brings discussion directly to course content by enabling students and teachers to add comments and start conversations in the margins of their texts. Collaborative annotation engages students more deeply in course readings and lets faculty glimpse students' insight into the material.

 

How do I set up a Hypothes.is assignment?

 

Using the Hypothesis app within Assignments allows some additional functionality over creating Module Items. Instructors can assess student work in SpeedGrader, assign the reading/annotating to a particular Canvas Group and also set due dates or dates of availability for the Assignment. 

1. Navigate to your Assignments page and click the “+ Assignment” button

2. Scroll down to the Submission Type field

Note: some users may have to click a More Options button to see this field.

3. From the drop-down menu, choose External Tool and click Find.

On the next screen, you will be able to create an Hypothesis-enabled reading by linking to a publicly-viewable page or document, choosing a file from Google Drive, or selecting a file from your Canvas file repository.

4. You will be returned to the Configure External Tool screen

Notice that the URL text box is now populated.

If you’d like to have the document open in a new tab, allowing for more room for the text and annotations, click Load This Tool in a New Tab.

Click Select.

5. Optional: Edit the Assignment name, instructions, due dates, and any other settings you wish to change

You can come back and do this step later if you want.  

6. Scroll down and click Save or Save & Publish

You will see your Hypothesis-enabled reading listed on the Assignments page. When your students click on the Assignment, the web page or document will open with Hypothesis enabled and scoped to your automatically-provisioned private group.

Learning Technologies has a more in-depth tutorial available at https://bit.ly/3j3kjfP