Writing in the margins has always been an essential activity for students. Annotation helps in reading comprehension and in developing critical thinking about course materials. Hypothesis enables students to continue this essential activity with online readings. Digital annotation also offers new affordances, enabling students to respond to text using different media and empowering them to collaborate on understanding and developing ideas about their readings.

Hypothesis makes reading

Active

“I want students to learn the profits and pleasures of careful, engaged reading…Hypothesis finally delivers on the promise of digital annotation.”

Lawrence Hanley, Professor, Department of English, San Francisco State University

Visible

“I finally found a way to get students to read, and engage with one another about their reading, before class.”

Andrew Martin, Professor, Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, University of Colorado Boulder

Social

“Hypothesis is my literary Facebook. When I’m reading I sometimes wonder, does anyone actually understand this? Am I crazy? With this brilliant tool I know I’m not alone.”

Shannon Griffiths, Student, Plymouth State University

Presenting annotation

Annotation resources

Whether you’re teaching with digital texts, or you’re focused on web literacy or digital citizenship, you and your students can use Hypothesis to annotate course readings collaboratively.

Here are some resources to help you get started with Hypothesis:

For model assignments, product tutorials, teacher testimonials, and much more, visit our Educator Resource Guide. Direct your students to the Student Resource Guide for student-centered materials from tips for best annotation practices to inspirational poetry about marginalia.

Check out what other students are saying about collaborative annotation or see these examples of classroom use of Hypothesis.

Here are some resources to help you get started with Hypothesis:

Also check out the Student Resource Guide for student-centered materials from tips for best annotation practices to inspirational poetry about marginalia.

Start a supported pilot: We’ll help you with pedagogy and technology to incorporate collaborative annotation into teaching and learning.

Visit our knowledge base of articles for your learning management system:

If you need more guidance, you can also search our complete knowledge base or submit a ticket to get help.

Some schools already using Hypothesis

  • Yale
  • Square Rhode Island School of Design logo with RISD in orange lettering with swirly doodles above and below it and on a white background
  • stanford
  • Berkeley
  • Indiana University
  • choate rosemary hall
  • Tufts
  • Everett Community College
  • U of Cape Town
  • Middlebury