Hypothesis (Pilot)

With Hypothesis, students can engage with ideas, readings, instructors, and each other in deeper, more meaningful ways through the power of social annotation. By leveraging this pedagogical approach, UIW instructors will find new ways to foster student success by building community, critical thinking skills, and a deeper understanding of readings. It brings the age-old process of marking up texts to the digital learning space and makes assigned readings a collaborative exercise. A recent study found that over 65 percent of students in the study stated social annotation helped them understand different perspectives and inspired them to think about course content outside the classroom.

The Hypothesis team recently published a whitepaper discussing the value of social annotation for teaching and learning, which explains why annotation is so effective in engaging students with course content (PDF).

Additionally, Hypothesis sits on top of readings already assigned in your Canvas course, so it’s an easy add to your teaching toolkit! It also supports using groups and is integrated with Canvas groups, and includes SpeedGrader support to send grades directly to the Gradebook. Through this pilot, the Office of Teaching, Learning, and Technology is hoping to gather feedback on such a tool and act, through a potential purchase, on those experiences and impressions accordingly.

Yes, there is a free Chrome extension for Hypothesis. However, the version being piloted by UIW is the Canvas integration, which offers conveniences such as the ability to create assignments from annotations, SpeedGrader and Gradebook integration, module placement, and more.

Contact your site's Instructional Designer or a Software Specialist to express interest or intent in joining the pilot, and we'll help you get started.

Additionally, UIW hosted an introductory "Welcome to Hypothesis" session with the Hypothesis team where the tool was introduced and demonstrated as it went live in Canvas. The recording (45 minutes), and accompanying slides, have been made available and can be found below. This serves as an excellent onramp to understanding and seeing the tool in action to decide whether or not you'd want to use it in your course.

Hypothesis at UIW - Introductory Session Recording

Hypothesis at UIW - Presentation Slides