Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

Step 1

Create a Hypothes.is Assignment (non-group) link in D2L:

1. Click the Existing Activities button within a module in the Content area and choose Hypothesis LTI 1.3 from the dropdown menu.
2. Select one of the four Hypothes.is assignment content types available (URL, Google Drive, D2L, or JSTOR), and follow the prompts to proceed through the setup. Further instructions on creating each assignment content type can be found in the PCC Instructor Guide.
   1. Enter URL (webpage or PDF). Enter the URL in the textbox and click the Submit button.
      Note: The website/PDF must be publicly accessible, not behind a paywall or a login (i.e., New York Times, EBSCO database, etc.).
   2. D2L (PDF). Follow the screen to allow access and choose the document from the Content module where it resides.
   3. Google Drive (PDF). Follow the screen to allow access and choose the document.
   4. JSTOR (Article). Paste the JSTOR stable URL into the field and accept the terms to continue.

Note: The Select PDF from OneDrive option is not supported at PCC! If the text in your document is not selectable/accessible, use the How to OCR PDFs guide to make it compatible with Hypothes.is.

3. Enter a name for the assignment in the TITLE field. (Note: The default TITLE will be Hypothesis assignment if this is not changed in the initial creation of the activity. It is best practice to enter a name on this step.)
4. Click the continue button to complete this step. (Do not check the box “this is a group assignment” if you are creating a non-group assignment.)

For a group assignment, you must first create groups and enroll students in your D2L course.

1. Follow Step 1 from the using D2L Groups to Create Hypothes.is guide to create the group
2. Guide to create a Hypothes.is Group assignment

Step 2

Step 2: Provide instructions for Hypothes.is assignment

Follow Step 2: Provide instructions for Hypothes.is assignment.

Step 3

Step 3: Add a grade item to the Hypothes.is assignment (Optional)

Important Notes:

• A grade item in D2L will automatically be created for the Hypothes.is assignment as soon as you enter a score for a student submission. The default out-of-value will be 100 points.
• If 100 points is not your assigned value for the Hypothes.is assignment, it is recommended that you change the out-of-value after entering the score for one student. Refer to the guide on changing the grade item value to customize it.
• Do not manually add a grade item to the Hypothes.is assignment. If you manually add a grade item to the Hypothes.is assignment, it will hide the grade bar when reviewing the annotations.

Follow Step 3: Create the Grade Item (Optional).

Read the page on how to Grade Student Annotations in D2L for more information about how grading works with a Hypothes.is assignment.

Teaching Tips

• Use Hypothes.is to ask your students to read the course syllabus. This will give you a sense of where students have questions about the course and provide low-stakes practice.
• To help your students understand how to annotate a document, provide them with a guide at the beginning of the term. This guide should contain examples of questions or comments, note evidence and key points, and highlight areas of disagreement. By providing structure, you can encourage more meaningful contributions.
  • Annotation starter assignments – This page contains various starter assignment examples that can be used in your course.
  • Creative ways to prompt student annotations
  • Examples you can use as a starter assignment:
    • Invite your students to annotate your syllabus
    • What I Wish Someone Told Me BEFORE Taking Online Classes
• Decide whether to use annotation or discussion forums based on your goals. Annotation systems can encourage detailed comments, while discussion forums may be better for longer, synthesized comments.
  • Annotation etiquette for students
• Review the articles below if you would like insight into how to use Hypothes.is in STEM courses with scientific literature.
  • How can annotation be used in STEM courses.
  • Annotated primary scientific literature: a pedagogical tool for undergraduate courses
  • Annotated primary literature: a professional development opportunity in science communication for graduate students and postdocs
• Find more ideas on the Back to School With Annotation: 10 Ways to Annotate With Students page.

Resources

Features you may find in Hypothesis:

• How to preview the Hypothes.is Notebook
• Using Tags Tutorial
• Ideas for using tags in your course. Using tags as a method for categorization or organization can be helpful in your courses.
  • Ask students to tag any questions with “question” so you can easily filter questions that need to be addressed.
  • Assign students specific roles to take in annotation and tag their annotations with their role name (such as questioner, connector, illustrator, etc.–see this site for more examples of group roles).
  • Ask students to tag specific themes, topics, key concepts, etc., that they find throughout the course texts as they identify them.
  • Ask students to annotate from a particular perspective (an author, a character, a theorist, etc.) and tag their annotation appropriately.

Examples

• Hypothes.is Example of classroom use – a collection of Hypothes.is examples of such coursework where you can see social annotation in action.
  • College students annotating poetry  (University of Pittsburgh-Greensburg)
  • College students annotating a novel (Hunter College)
• Hypothes.is Example from various disciplines. Each example may contain a description, instructions, and grading criteria
• Examples from STEM Courses
  • Annotations in a math classroom
  • Reading accountability in biology
  • Decoding jargon in a science classroom
  • Hypothesis assignment for Math

• Examples from Humanities Courses
  • Social annotation as a replacement for student response papers in a history classroom
  • Hypothesis vs. a traditional discussion board