Teacher instructions: Copy and paste these instructions into your own course to use with your students. Be sure to review the instructions before posting in your courses. You may want to make adjustments depending on how you plan to assess the annotations or to reflect your specific discipline and/or assignment.

Instructions for students

Purpose: Annotating the syllabus allows you to identify questions and clarify course expectations, in addition to practicing using the annotation tool. You can review a quick-start guide for how to add annotations.

Instructions: As you review the syllabus, add at least 2 annotations. Here’s some guidance for what you might include in your annotations:

• Ask a question about something that is unclear or confusing to you
• Paraphrase instructions in your own words (this can help your instructor understand how you’re interpreting expectations)
• Comment on a topic or assignment you’re looking forward to and explain why
• Comment on a topic or assignment that is concerning to you and explain why
• Comment on a topic or assignment using an outside resource, image or video that might be helpful as supplemental material (review instructions on how to add images, links or videos to annotations)
• Reply to a classmate with an additive annotation (add to the conversation by answering their question or extending their response). Here are some ideas on how to start an additive response to a classmate:
  • What did you mean by …
  • Did you consider …/ You might consider …
  • I think you should …
  • I connect with …
  • It made me think …

Important notes about annotating: 

• Make sure you hit “post” after you complete your annotation, or else your annotation will not be saved.
• Make sure it says “post to [this class]” and not “post to only me,” or else people won’t be able to review your annotations.
• If someone replies to your annotation, you will not receive a notification. Check back periodically to continue the conversation!