4 Tips for Incorporating Hypothesis Into Your Course

Social annotation can help enhance learning by allowing students to actively engage with course materials and each other. It also provides educators valuable insights that will help them tailor their teaching strategies to better meet the needs of their students.

Hypothesis is a social annotation tool with a seamless integration into the majority of learning management systems. This integration makes it easy for students to bypass signup or registration and go straight to enhancing their learning as they annotate texts with peers and instructors.

To make the most of social annotation and Hypothesis, here are some helpful tips for incorporating social annotation into your teaching practices:

Start Small

Introduce social annotation with a low-stakes assignment, such as annotating the syllabus. This will allow students to get used to the tool and the practice of social annotation before moving on to more complex assignments. It’s also a great way to introduce students to the concept of social annotation and post answers to student questions publicly for the class instead of in individual emails to students. Hypothesis provides a range of starter assignments that can help get students started with social annotation in a meaningful way. These assignments include activities like reading and annotating a news article or a scientific paper.

Be Clear About Expectations

Provide clear guidelines and examples of how students can meaningfully annotate a document. It’s important to ensure that students understand what is expected of them and how their annotations can contribute to the conversation in a meaningful and additive way. For instance, you can provide examples of how to annotate a document to highlight key concepts, ask questions, or provide feedback to their peers. Encourage students to respond to each other’s annotations using guidance such as the TAG feedback protocol. Here are some examples of social annotation assignments that can lead to student success.

Vary Your Annotation Assignment Requirements

It may be useful to vary your annotation assignment requirements for different readings. Varying annotation requirements can boost student engagement. For example, you can ask students to annotate an assignment using only multimedia annotations. You could also ask students to identify key concepts or ideas in another assignment using tags. This helps students develop skills and accommodate all learning styles, and can lead to more varied discussions and diverse comments, allowing for more creativity and originality in student responses.

Let Students Know Their Contributions Matter

To encourage active participation and engagement in the learning process, it is crucial to show students that their contributions matter. You can show students that their contributions are valued by providing grades and feedback for their annotations or incorporating their contributions into assessments or class discussions. This can help create a sense of community and foster active engagement in the learning process.

By following these practices for using social annotation effectively, educators can create a more enriching and rewarding learning experience for their students. If you are interested in furthering the conversation, you can find more information on this page, or reach out to us today to learn more.