Getting Started with Hypothes.is for Social Annotation (August 2024)

Overview

Social annotation enables students and faculty to collaboratively annotate an article or PDF found on the web or inside Moodle. Many Colgate faculty have adopted the tool Hypothes.is to integrate social annotation into their course readings.

Hypothes.is provides a comprehensive resource guide to assist faculty in getting started with the tool and designing social annotation assignments. Refer to the guide Getting Started with Hypothes.is in Moodle, which includes:

An introduction to Hypothes.is and the types of documents that can be annotated within Moodle (Moodle pages, uploaded PDFs, webpages, YouTube video transcripts).
How to set up a Hypothes.is enabled reading inside of Moodle
Tips for effectively engaging students in making substantive and meaningful annotations
An overview of different strategies for assessing annotations (plus instructions for how to grade annotations directly in Moodle)

Create Hypothes.is Readings (with new features)

If you are ready to launch social annotation activities or assignments in your course, learn how to create Hypothes.is enabled readings (both written instructions and a YouTube video are included).

Note: As of August 2024, there are new features for settings up Hypothes.is enabled readings in Moodle

Use Hypothesis With Moodle Course Content Files: Enable Hypothes.is on PDFs that have already been uploaded into a Moodle Course site (this feature did not previously exist).
Use Moodle Groups to Create Hypothesis Reading Groups: Set up students to annotate in small groups, rather than as a full course.
Moodle Course Copy and Hypothesis: Copy Hypothes.is reading assignments from previous courses, without copying over annotations from students in previous courses.

A new feature introduced in May 2023 is Instructor Digest Emails. These emails provide a daily summary of annotation activity in your courses. Instructors can opt out of these emails; look for the unsubscribe button at the bottom of the digest emails. Learn more: Instructor Email Digest FAQs.

Looking for Social Annotation Assignment Ideas?

Check out the following collections of assignments from Hypothes.is. Instructors are invited to copy/paste from these resources to remake and remix these assignments for their own use.

Annotation Starter Assignments: includes assignments that are suitable for the beginning of the semester, and for the middle or end of the semester when you hadn’t initially planned on using social annotation at the start of the semester.
Social Annotation Assignments by Discipline: this collection is searchable by academic fields.
General Assignments that can work across disciplines.