Turn Content Into Conversations

Hypothesis enables students to collaborate and engage directly with course content through social annotation, boosting academic success and participation.

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How Does Hypothesis Social Annotation Work?

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Comment and highlight directly over content.

Students, faculty, and colleagues can highlight and comment directly on online articles, websites, videos, and more without switching platforms.

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Turn Annotations into Discussions.

Students, faculty, and teams can share ideas, ask questions, provide insights and respond directly to annotations. Creating a dialogue directly over content.

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Tag Other Users for Increased Collaboration.

Faculty, students, and teams can engage more deeply by tagging peers directly in annotations, triggering notifications and encouraging students to revisit course materials and participate in ongoing discussions.

How Hypothesis Improves the Teaching & Learning Experience:

Boost Student Engagement

Drive deeper interaction with course materials through in-context annotations and collaborative discussions.

Improve Outcomes

Students experience increased comprehension, higher grades, and improved critical thinking.

Increase Course Retention

Engaged students stay enrolled longer and Hypothesis has shown to increase retention by up to 32%.

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Seamless LMS Integration for Educators

The Hypothesis online annotation tool integrates directly into your LMS—no extra logins or software needed. Educators can easily set up assignments, interact with students directly over course materials, and track engagement through our reporting dashboard.

Proven Success with Hypothesis

32%

Increase in Class Retention

3-5X

Increase in Engagement

Increase in Student Comprehension

24%

Student Grade Improvement

Explore our Case Studies

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Testimonials

Professor of Chemistry
Rutgers University–Camden Dr. Georgia Arbuckle-Keil
"I noticed that the personality of the students came through...I gain insight into the students beyond what is possible in the classroom. Even after we are back in person, I have enjoyed getting to know students via Hypothesis beyond a typical classroom response."

Distinguished Professor
Information Science and Computer Science, University of Colorado Boulder Leysia Palen
"With Hypothesis, everyone’s visible to each other and so we really do have a chance at creating a learning community. Students get to know each other’s names. Conversations with Hypothesis feel very warm and collegial. Nobody has to be afraid of raising their hand"

Assistant Professor
Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies, Metropolitan State University of Denver Dr. Sonny Dhoot
"Hypothesis allows us to push the limits of what we think is required as a solitary activity. Every time I ask my students to annotate, it has a very clear purpose and will directly benefit the students. The annotations are almost like a ‘living’ text that they are able to go back to. With Hypothesis, students are actually reading together, and they are giving each other feedback. I would never have thought that you could do that."

Associate Professor of Teaching/Instruction
Temple University Marcia Bailey
"Hypothesis is an excellent tool to engage students with the text and with each other. I used it almost weekly this semester."

Distinguished Service Professor of Anthropology
Knox College Nancy Eberhardt, Ph.D.
"Hypothesis gets students talking to each other about the reading outside of the classroom in a way that I have never been able to see happen before. They come to class much more ready to talk about the reading, and I have a sneak preview of the issues they found most compelling, as well as the ones they might have missed"

Professor of English
Florida State University Candace Ward, Ph.D.
"I’ve found Hypothesis invaluable in engaging students with assigned reading material…The students say very smart things; they engage with each other very civilly and respectfully, and they synthesize their annotations with other class discussions, projects, and readings."

ESOL Instructor
Peralta Community College District Danitza Lopez
"We love Hypothesis! This handy tool allows us to go deeper than any other platform because we can directly have discussions about a particular word/sentence/paragraph within a text. We even use it for peer reviews, and it works super well. It is such an easy tool to use, too!"

Professor of English
Cerritos College Francie Quaas-Berryman
"I have found Hypothesis to be a great way to guide students through online reading, provide additional resources directly through the text, and engage them in online discussions of the text!"

Professor of Chemistry
Rutgers University–Camden Dr. Georgia Arbuckle-Keil
"I noticed that the personality of the students came through...I gain insight into the students beyond what is possible in the classroom. Even after we are back in person, I have enjoyed getting to know students via Hypothesis beyond a typical classroom response."

Distinguished Professor
Information Science and Computer Science, University of Colorado Boulder Leysia Palen
"With Hypothesis, everyone’s visible to each other and so we really do have a chance at creating a learning community. Students get to know each other’s names. Conversations with Hypothesis feel very warm and collegial. Nobody has to be afraid of raising their hand"

Assistant Professor
Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies, Metropolitan State University of Denver Dr. Sonny Dhoot
"Hypothesis allows us to push the limits of what we think is required as a solitary activity. Every time I ask my students to annotate, it has a very clear purpose and will directly benefit the students. The annotations are almost like a ‘living’ text that they are able to go back to. With Hypothesis, students are actually reading together, and they are giving each other feedback. I would never have thought that you could do that."

Distinguished Service Professor of Anthropology
Knox College Nancy Eberhardt, Ph.D.
"Hypothesis gets students talking to each other about the reading outside of the classroom in a way that I have never been able to see happen before. They come to class much more ready to talk about the reading, and I have a sneak preview of the issues they found most compelling, as well as the ones they might have missed"

Professor of English
Florida State University Candace Ward, Ph.D.
"I’ve found Hypothesis invaluable in engaging students with assigned reading material…The students say very smart things; they engage with each other very civilly and respectfully, and they synthesize their annotations with other class discussions, projects, and readings."

ESOL Instructor
Peralta Community College District Danitza Lopez
"We love Hypothesis! This handy tool allows us to go deeper than any other platform because we can directly have discussions about a particular word/sentence/paragraph within a text. We even use it for peer reviews, and it works super well. It is such an easy tool to use, too!"

Professor of English
Cerritos College Francie Quaas-Berryman
"I have found Hypothesis to be a great way to guide students through online reading, provide additional resources directly through the text, and engage them in online discussions of the text!"

Professor of Chemistry
Rutgers University–Camden Dr. Georgia Arbuckle-Keil
"I noticed that the personality of the students came through...I gain insight into the students beyond what is possible in the classroom. Even after we are back in person, I have enjoyed getting to know students via Hypothesis beyond a typical classroom response."

Distinguished Professor
Information Science and Computer Science, University of Colorado Boulder Leysia Palen
"With Hypothesis, everyone’s visible to each other and so we really do have a chance at creating a learning community. Students get to know each other’s names. Conversations with Hypothesis feel very warm and collegial. Nobody has to be afraid of raising their hand"

Assistant Professor
Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies, Metropolitan State University of Denver Dr. Sonny Dhoot
"Hypothesis allows us to push the limits of what we think is required as a solitary activity. Every time I ask my students to annotate, it has a very clear purpose and will directly benefit the students. The annotations are almost like a ‘living’ text that they are able to go back to. With Hypothesis, students are actually reading together, and they are giving each other feedback. I would never have thought that you could do that."

What Can Be Annotated with Hypothesis?

Hypothesis online annotation works seamlessly across various content types, allowing students and educators to annotate:

Webpages – Engage with online articles, research, and course readings directly in the browser.

Online PDFs – Highlight and discuss academic papers, readings, and handouts.

Videos – Bring videos to life by adding thoughts, questions, and discussions as you watch.

JSTOR Content – Engage with scholarly articles directly from the JSTOR platform.

eTexts – Enhance comprehension with social annotation in digital textbooks.

Online Articles – Dive into educational and scholarly articles, adding highlights and notes to spark deeper discussions.

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Join thousands of educators and teams using Hypothesis to make reading more engaging, collaborative, and effective for students.

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