The process for creating Hypothesis-enabled readings in Blackboard differs depending on whether an admin has installed the app or an instructor is using the app without a Blackboard admin installing it for them.
If an administrator has installed the app:
1. Make Hypothesis Available in the course site
a. Go to Customization in the course site sidebar
b. Click on Tool Availability
c. Find Hypothesis
d. Click the box in the third column, Available in Content
2. Under Course Content, click “Build Content”
3. Select Hypothesis under the “Create” section
4. Name your Hypothesis assignment (ex. “Hypothesis Reading 1”) and click Save.
If you want to be able to grade this assignment later, you’ll also need to click “Yes” next to Enable Evaluations. You will not be able to change this setting later.
If you do not have this option, your Blackboard administrator needs to enable grading in the Hypothesis admin settings. You can direct them to step 2e in this guide.
You can read about grading Blackboard assignments here.
5. Click on the content item you just created.
6. Configure your Hypothesis assignment.
You will have the option to enter a publicly-viewable URL (See Step 6A) or to add a PDF from Google Drive (See Step 6B). The screen will look like this:
On the “Select web page or PDF” screen, click the button that says Enter URL of web page or PDF:
On the Enter URL screen, paste a link in the text box. This can be a web page or a PDF hosted at a public website, as long as the content is not behind a login or paywall:
Click Submit.
Note: This process will change the privacy of the selected Google Drive file to “Anyone with the link can view,” creating a publicly-viewable URL for the document. However, the document URL will not be shared with anyone outside your course and cannot be easily discovered.
On the “Select web page or PDF” screen, click the button that says Select PDF from Google Drive:
You will be asked to authorize a Google account:
Next, you’ll be able to search for and select a file, or upload a new one. Click on the file you want to use and then click Select:
Click Submit.
Notes:
PDFs must have optically recognizable text in order to be annotatable in the Hypothesis app. If you can select text in the PDF, no further action is needed. If you can’t select text in the PDF, you’ll need to follow our instructions for how to OCR-optimize a PDF.
After selecting the URL or PDF for your assignment, you may need to refresh the page, or close and re-open the assignment, before you can start annotating.
If an administrator has not installed the app:
1. Under Course Content, click “Build Content”
3. Select Web Link under the “Create” section:
4. Fill in the Web Link information
- In the Name field, enter a sensible name for the annotatable reading assignment.
- In the URL field, enter
https://lms.hypothes.is/lti_launches
5. Click “This link is to a Tool Provider”
6. If you want to grade the assignment, make sure you select “Yes” for Enable Evaluation
Note that you will not be able to change this setting later.
7. Fill out the Key and Secret fields
For this step, you’ll need the credentials you generated as part of the instructor installation process. The Consumer Key goes into the Key field, and the Shared Secret goes in the Secret field:
8. Click Submit.
9. Click on the Content Item you just created.
10. Configure your Hypothesis assignment
You will have the option to enter a publicly-viewable URL (See Step 10A) or to add a PDF from Google Drive (See Step 10B).
Note: Depending on which version of Blackboard you’re using, you may need to click on the Content Item you just created in order to see these options.
On the “Select web page or PDF” screen, click the button that says Enter URL of web page or PDF:
On the Enter URL screen, paste a link in the text box. This can be a web page or a PDF hosted at a public website, as long as the content is not behind a login or paywall:
Click Submit.
Note: This process will change the privacy of the selected Google Drive file to “Anyone with the link can view,” creating a publicly-viewable URL for the document. However, the document URL will not be shared with anyone outside your course and cannot be easily discovered.
On the “Select web page or PDF” screen, click the button that says Select PDF from Google Drive:
You will be asked to authorize a Google account:
Next, you’ll be able to search for and select a file, or upload a new one. Click on the file you want to use and then click Select:
Click Submit.
Notes:
PDFs must have optically recognizable text in order to be annotatable in the Hypothesis app. If you can select text in the PDF, no further action is needed. If you can’t select text in the PDF, you’ll need to follow our instructions for how to OCR-optimize a PDF.
After selecting the URL or PDF for your assignment, you may need to refresh the page, or close and re-open the assignment, before you can start annotating.