Getting Started with Social Annotation and Hypothes.is
Social annotation enables multiple people to collaboratively annotate an article found on the web. Many Colgate faculty have adopted the tool Hypothes.is to integrate social annotation into their course readings. Here is a curated a list of resources to guide faculty in getting started with social annotation and Hypothes.is.
Example Annotated Articles
It may be helpful to see examples of social annotation and Hypothes.is in action. Below is a sample of articles that were annotated as part of the Marginal Syllabus, a professional development program for K-12 teachers (learn more about the Marginal Syllabus project). Note: these webpages were publicly annotated using the web-based Hypothes.is tool. Learn more about annotating within a course by using Hypothes.is in Moodle.
- The School and Social Progress (example webpage)
- Storytelling and Surveillance (example webpage)
- Critical Literacy and Our Students’ Lives (example PDF)
Annotation Starter Assignments (New Fall 2023)
Hypothes.is has curated a list of “starter assignments” that may be useful for faculty who are new to social annotation.
Other Example Annotation Assignments
- Assigning annotations as reading actions is a good place to start in prompting students to make different kinds of annotations
- Annotations as questions and answers. Structure an annotation assignment in which students add their questions to the text and reply to each other’s questions.
- Annotations as fact-checking. Design an assignment in which students fact-check news articles with annotations. (The nonprofit Climate Feedback uses Hypothes.is to fact-check news coverage of climate change)
- Review additional annotation activities and assignments.
Using Hypothes.is in Moodle
You can create Hypothes.is enabled readings inside your Moodle Course. Review these instructions from Hypothes.is to learn how to enable Hypothes.is as an “external tool.”
Introduction to the Hypothes.is LMS App for Students and the Student Resource Guide may be helpful for your students as they begin annotating.
Additional Resources for Instructors
- Review the blog post Assessing Hypothes.is for example rubrics
- The Education Portal and Teacher Resource Guide provides getting started guides for instructors and students, instructions for annotating documents, links to webinars, and articles about collaborative annotation as digital pedagogy.
Resources for Students
These resources may help your students in making quality annotations.
