Hypothesis Transforms the Learning Landscape at Indiana University Bloomington With Remarkable 78,996 Annotations
BLOOMINGTON, IN, March 22, 2023 – Indiana University Bloomington has taken a progressive step in transforming the first-year student experience with the utilization of Hypothesis, a leading digital annotation tool. This partnership, initiated in Fall 2020, aimed at enhancing engagement and fostering a stronger sense of community in the university’s first-year composition writing seminar. Three years into its implementation, the initiative has proven tremendously successful, showing considerable benefits for both students and instructors, and extending its reach to upper-level courses.
The Hypothesis platform has been embraced across 182 courses, engaging 3,687 students who have made a total of 78,996 annotations, cumulating over 4.6 million words. Associate Professor of English, Justin Hodgson, who spearheaded the initiative, said, “Hypothesis promised to help us achieve both of our main objectives— increasing student engagement with course content and building a sense of community.” Preliminary results of the university’s IRB-approved study have been encouraging, with students’ response to Hypothesis being “overwhelmingly positive.” Faculty usage has also expanded significantly, making Hypothesis a staple in their program. Hodgson praises Hypothesis as “one of the single most impactful tools I’ve ever brought into a classroom.”
About Indiana University Bloomington
Indiana University Bloomington, the flagship campus of IU’s seven campuses and two regional centers statewide, has been fostering innovation, creativity, and academic freedom since 1820. Its mission is to prepare leaders who will make lasting contributions in research, arts, and various professional fields.
About Hypothesis
Hypothesis is an advanced web annotation software solution that implements a real-time conversation layer over the entire web. It enables sentence-level note-taking or critique on top of a diverse array of texts, such as blogs, legislation, articles, and news — with users creating over 50 million annotations thus far.