hypothesis annotation app

Hypothesis - Web & PDF Annotation

213 ratings

Collaboratively annotate, highlight, and tag web pages and PDF documents.

Use Hypothesis to hold discussions, read socially, organize your research, and take personal notes on webpages, PDFs and EPUBs.

4.1 out of 5 213 ratings Google doesn't verify reviews. Learn more about results and reviews.

Bond Sun Feb 28, 2024

This is very usefull extension, thanks a lot! By the way, why it logs me out after some time? Any way to keep signed in?

Lakshya Dugar Feb 1, 2024

very useful extension

adadad Jan 19, 2024

Great, but it's better to synchronize the update of the edge version.

• Version 1.1471.0.0 (Official Build)
• Updated March 22, 2024
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Hypothesis - Web & PDF Annotation has disclosed the following information regarding the collection and usage of your data. More detailed information can be found in the developer's privacy policy .

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• 06 May 2019

Web annotation tool Hypothesis hits a milestone

• Rina Shaikh-Lesko 0

Rina Shaikh-Lesko is a science writer based in San Jose, California.

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Illustration by The Project Twins

The team behind Hypothesis, an open-source software tool that allows people to annotate web pages, announced in March that its users had collectively posted more than 5 million comments across the scholarly web since the tool was launched in 2011. That’s up from about 220,000 total comments in 2015 (see ‘Comment counts’). The company has grown from 26,000 registered users to 215,000 over the same period.

“Five million annotations is a major milestone for us, and something we’ve worked hard to achieve,” says Hypothesis founder, Dan Whaley, who is based in San Francisco, California.

Source: Hypothesis

Hypothesis is one of a handful of tools — others include A.nnotate, Diigo, PaperHive and Remarq — that allow users to mark up and comment on any web page or online PDF, and to see annotations made by others. Hypothesis focuses on the scientific literature, and has, over the past few years, partnered with publishers, societies and educational institutes, including the journal eLife , the American Geophysical Union, the American Society of Plant Biologists and Cambridge University Press, to integrate that functionality into article pages and editorial processes. Working with eLife , for example, the service built tools to allow staff to moderate comments, and to track and authenticate users through ORCID — a digital identifier for academic authors. The journal’s readers have used the annotation tool to note minor errors and to flag up other papers that agree or disagree with conclusions. And editorial staff have used it to contribute to the dialogue. In the 15 months since eLife introduced the system, more than 6,000 annotations have been posted on nearly 2,000 documents, although about half of those were made by eLife ’s automated curation assistant, SciBot.

“I don’t think the quality of the dialogue in [the previous commenting system] was ever as constructive or as good as it is within the Hypothesis ecosystem,” says Giuliano Maciocci, head of product and user experience at eLife in Cambridge, UK. That, he says, is probably because annotations are positioned on top or next to the text to which they refer, instead of at the bottom of the page as they are in conventional commenting systems.

Some publishers have integrated annotations into their peer-review processes. In the American Geophysical Union’s system, for instance, comments can be organized by reviewer or editor, and by importance. Reviewers can see only their own comments, whereas editors can see all comments from reviewers and manuscript authors.

And some publishers are taking advantage of the tool’s enhanced group feature, which allows users to create groups that are open (available to all users), private (anyone can read, but only invited members can annotate) or restricted (only invited members can see or add annotations). Last December, the American Society of Plant Biologists launched an open group for annotations on its journal Plant Cell ; it has logged almost 30 comments.

Hypothesis is accessed using a Chrome extension, a bookmarklet, or the via.hypothes.is proxy server. In February 2017, the World Wide Web Consortium, or W3C, the international standards body for the web, formally recommended a web-annotation standard that allows developers to make annotation a native feature of their browsers. So far, none has done so.

Nature 569 , 295 (2019)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-01427-9

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Annotating Digitally

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Annotating with Hypothesis

Hypothesis is a free online tool designed to allow for collaborative annotation across the web.

It can be used to annotate web pages, pdfs and EPUB files. You can annotate documents and pages publicly, privately, or within a group.

To get started with Hypothesis you'll need to:

• Create an account . 
• Install the Chrome extension or the Hypothesis Bookmarklet if you are using a browser other than Chrome. 
• Start annotating!

This guide will walk you through using Hypothesis with the Chrome extension. To use the bookmarklet in another browser, please refer to the hypothesis user guide for step-by-step instructions.

What makes Hypothesis different than other tools is that you can annotate pdfs as well as web pages. It also allows for group and collaborative annotation. 

Opening Web Pages and PDFs

Navigate to the web page or pdf in your browser. 

Next, select the Hypothesis icon located in the right corner of your Chrome browser if it is not already active.

 An inactive icon will appear as light gray, and if it is ready to use it will be black. If you have not used Hypothesis for a while you may need to log in to activate the program.

Once Hypothesis is active on a page you can start annotating. You can highlight text, add annotation, add a note for the whole page, share the page with others, and reply to other comments on the page. You may have to click the toggle arrow to see options, comments, and notes.

Adding Annotation and Highlighting Text

To highlight or add annotation for certain text, simply select the text and the highlight and annotation icons will appear.

To create a note for the entire page, select the note icon that appears on the Hypothesis menu on the right side of the screen. You can also toggle highlighted text on and off using the eye icon.

Formatting Annotation

Once you have selected text to annotate, an annotation box will appear in the menu on the right. The annotation section allows you to perform minor formatting of text such as bold, italics, quoted text, lists, links, and even mathematical notation that is LaTex supported.

There is also an option to add web links and links to online images and videos. Images will appear and videos will play right in the annotation section of the page. 

Adding Tags

You may also add tags to your annotation to better organize your idea and thoughts, and categorize content. To learn more about tags and how they can be used to enhance collaboration and search, please see the Using Tags Tutorial .

Public, Private, and Private Group Annotation

Annotations, notes and highlights can be made public, private or shared within a specific group. All annotation setting default to public unless you choose another option. Public annotations can be seen by anyone who visits the webpage or pdf and has Hypothesis enabled.

Switching from Public to "Only Me"

If you would like to make notes private where only you can see them, be sure to select the Only Me  option in the annotation box.

Once you have selected this option, all other annotations, highlights and notes will default to private on the page and be shown with a lock icon next to your name. To switch back select the Public option.

Private Groups

To share annotations with a group you have already created or have been invited to, select the down arrow next to Public  in the Hypothesis menu. Here you will see any private groups you belong to as well as an option to create a new private group. Selecting a group will allow you to annotate and have only the members belonging to the group view and respond to your comments, highlights and notes. 

To create a new group, select the + New Private Group option. From here you will be taken to a new screen where you will be asked to name the group. Click the Create group button to create the new private group.

Once the group is created, you will be given a link to share to invite new members to the group.

Annotating a Locally-Saved PDF 

To annotate a saved pdf in Hypothesis, open it in your browser. Once it is open in your browser activate Hypothesis to start annotating. The pdf must have selectable text in order for Hypothesis to work. If you have issues with this feature, consult the annotating locally saved pdfs tutorial .

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Hypothesis - Web & PDF Annotation

Description.

Hypothes.is Social Annotation

Introduction.

Hypothes.is is an open source tool/plugin for social, collaborative asynchronous annotation . Collaborative annotation is an effective methodology that increases student participation and engagement, expands reading comprehension, and builds critical-thinking skills and community in class. Annotation can also increase faculty, student and cognitive presence in classes. Annotating together makes reading visible, active, and social, enabling students to engage with their texts, teachers, ideas, and each other in deeper, more meaningful ways.

To join our UMB Hypothesis course in Blackboard, where you can experience Hypothesis in a sandbox environment and learn about it, log into Blackboard.umaryland.edu and then come back here and click on this link (won't work if you aren't logged in!).

Basically, Hypothes.is is a layer of conversations on top of the open web and PDF documents. With it, you and your class can:

have private group dialog about open web content (web pages, newspapers, blogs, wikis, etc.)

highlight and take notes on class readings, PDFs and open web content

reply and respond to other group members' comments - have dialog and discussion about readings

check for understanding of concepts in readings

help ensure that students have read and processed readings prior to class

and much more...

How to Get Started - Exploring (Non-Blackboard Integration)

The main thing you need to do to get started is add the extension to your browser. We highly recommend starting with Google Chrome browser, and installing the extension/plug-in from this website . However if you'd prefer to use a different browser, you can also add the Bookmarklet on this page to your browser.

Once you have installed and enabled the Hypothesis extension or bookmarklet, you can click to view the examples below, and see all the annotations on these web pages.

To view the annotation layer on the following examples, you must have the Hypothes.is extension installed and enabled on your browser (see above). Here is an example of a web article with Hypothes.is annotations , and another, a blog post that has annotations , Amanda Gorman's inaugural poem on CNN, or an article on Wired Magazine's website with annotations and discussion. You never know where you might see public annotations on web pages! But all annotations need not be public, you can also annotate privately for yourself, or privately with a group of your choosing.

Blackboard Integration

It is possible to use the Hypothes.is LTI plugin in Blackboard to automatically set up accounts for all instructors and students, as well as a private group for each class that uses it. When Hypothesis is added to a course the app will automatically create a private group for that course. The app will also provision accounts for all students and instructors in the course when they launch the app for the first time. This means that students can begin annotating readings in Blackboard without creating or logging into a separate Hypothesis account. See a video webinar on using Hypothes.is in Blackboard .

These Blackboard-based Hypothesis accounts operate differently than public Hypothesis accounts in the following ways:

They are domain-specific: They only work within the Blackboard instance in which they were created, not on the open web.

They are separate from regular Hypothesis accounts: Users who have created accounts through the public Hypothesis service will be given new and separate accounts for use within the context of Blackboard.

They cannot create their own private groups: A private group is automatically generated for courses where the Hypothesis Blackboard app is installed. Neither instructors nor students will be able to create additional private groups within the Blackboard context.

They do not have access to Hypothesis profile and group activity pages: This is something we plan to address in the near future so that teachers and students can view their annotated comments and conversations outside of the context of a particular document.

Even though these guides are listed for Blackboard they display a Post to Public option when using the tool but since this is installed in Blackboard the only options are to Post to the Course or a Private Post to the user.

Creating Hypothesis-enabled readings in Blackboard

https://web.hypothes.is/help/creating-hypothesis-enabled-readings-in-blackboard/

For a PDF-Based Activity

There are 2 main options for using a PDF for your reading: Upload or use one already in Google Drive, or use one already on the open internet by URL. (This could be a blog post, wiki page, magazine article, etc. ( but with no paywall or login credentials required to view it !) NOTE: It is also possible to use files that are uploaded into Blackboard but it is a bit more convoluted . See the bottom of this page for more info and steps .)

Make sure your PDFs are accessible! This quick OCR tool converts photocopied/scans to accessible text!

For most folks setting up and using a Google Drive account will be the easiest way. Anyone can set up a free account at https://drive.google.com and you can upload your PDFs to a folder that account to get started. We suggest a folder for each class you teach that uses Hypothesis annotation.

Next we will create the Hypothesis Activity item in your course content/modules folder in your Blackboard course:

In a content or module folder, use the Build Content menu to select Hypothesis. Provide a name for your reading/annotation activity, and choose whether or not this is a graded activity (and how many points it is worth, if so.) These are the only 2 settings you need to fill in. Do not upload an attachment here(!) , click Submit to save this item.

Click on the Hypothesis activity you just created in your Bb course and you will see boxes to either Enter URL of web page or PDF , Select PDF from Blackboard or Select PDF from Google Drive . Note: If you choose Select PDF from Blackboard you will need need to take additional steps. Please see the section titled Using Existing Blackboard Course Files below for specific instructions. If you choose Select PDF from Google Drive, please review this article for specific steps.

After you have entered that URL, you are ready to click the item in your course content to launch Hypothesis. All students will have to do is add the Hypothesis extension and click that link to launch the PDF. Below is an image that depicts the things students can do to view annotations, add their own, reply to others, and have dialog about the content:

Grading Student Annotations in Blackboard

https://web.hypothes.is/help/grading-student-annotations-in-blackboard/

Helpful guides to getting started using Hypothesis in Blackboard

https://web.hypothes.is/help/lms-faq/#getting-started

Introduction to the Hypothesis LMS App for Students

https://web.hypothes.is/help/introduction-to-the-hypothesis-lms-app-for-students/

Annotation Tips for Students

https://web.hypothes.is/annotation-tips-for-students/

An Illustrated Taxonomy of Annotation Types

https://web.hypothes.is/blog/varieties-of-hypothesis-annotations-and-their-uses/

Adding Links, Images, and Videos

https://web.hypothes.is/adding-links-images-and-videos/

FAQ for all LMS

https://web.hypothes.is/help/lms-faq/

NOTES on Blackboard Hypothesis Copying from Semester to Semester

Blackboard Hypothesis assignment items (in Blackboard) are separate from the annotation data itself. The former "live" on Bb servers and the latter live on Hypothes.is servers. So, for example, if you delete a Bb Hypothesis reading assignment in Blackboard, that does NOT mean you have deleted the highlights, annotations and discussion. That all lives on Hypothesis servers, separately.

This has a few ramifications:

When you copy a reading assignment from course to course - it sets up a new Hypothesis private group for each course - meaning, it starts fresh, with no annotations or highlights.

If you want to pre-populate a Hypothesis reading with highlights and annotations that you share with all students in your class, you can do so, but when you copy your course to a new semester/section, those annotations will not copy with the Blackboard Hypothesis activity item. There is a separate (and complicated) process for copying Hypothesis annotations and highlights from one section to another (and we don't recommend it.)

We DO recommend providing detailed instructions to students for the Hypothesis activity, that may include screenshots or pointing to specifics in the document - but to do this in the assignment description in Blackboard, rather than using your own highlights/annotations.

Keep in mind, in terms of moving or copying items in Blackboard: if you move a Hypothesis reading activity to another course, the Bb item will copy, but again, NOT the associated annotations.

Non-Blackboard Use

You can also set up a free public Hypothes.is account (not necessary if you use the Blackboard integration above). NOTE: Anyone can create a free Hypothes.is account, but note that if you intend to use the Blackboard Hypothes.is LTI plugin with your UMB classes (info above) that account will be a separate account. So for exploration, we recommend you set up a standard (non-Blackboard) Hypothes.is account with a non-UMB email address (use your gmail, yahoo, hotmail, etc.)

Further Resources

Podcast on social annotation to engage students -(SUNY Oswego-Margaret Schmuhl)

What is Hypothesis, how to use it, and examples -instructor resource page (Carleton College - Wiebke Kuhn)

College resource page for using Hypothesis - instructor resource page (Randolph Macon College- Lily Zhang)

Class Roster & the Social Annotation of Our Names - instructor assignment example (SUNY Finger Lakes CC - Curt Nehring Bliss)

Collaborative Online Annotation with Hypothesis - introduction to Hypothesis module example (Missouri University of Science and Technology - M. Emilia Barbosa and Rachel Schneider) Teaching students to annotate - assignment teaching students to engage in collaborative annotation (Washburn University- Becky Dodge)

The Delftia Project - how to with Hypothesis (North Carolina State University)

Printing readings with annotations - (University of Chicago- Cecilia Lo)

Student Guide to using Hypothesis - (University of California Santa Cruz- Dana Conard)

Active Learning with Collaborative Annotation (CSU Pueblo- Denise Henry)

Promoting Hypothesis after webinar- email to faculty (Middlebury- Bob Cole)

How to OCR a PDF - video (St. Stephen’s School- Jenny Huth)

Using Existing Blackboard Course Files

It is possible to link to existing Blackboard Course files, however there are several steps that are required in order to make this work by creating a course content folder specifically for use with Hypothesis.

In the Blackboard sidebar, under Course Management locate and expand Content Collection and click on your course name.

2. In the Course Content window, click the Create Folder button and give the folder an appropriate name, such as Hypothesis Files and click Submit to create the folder.

3. Set permissions on the folder to allow students to view PDFs. This is done by selecting the small down-arrow to the right of the folder and selecting Permissions from the drop-down menu.

4. Once there, you will click Select Specific Users By Place and choose Course from the dropdown menu.

5. Under Select Roles check the box for Student, and make sure that Read is checked under Set Permissions . Then click the Submit button to save.

Once this is complete, you can upload files to this folder as you would normally. With permissions set the way they are, students will now be able to see these documents when selected for Hypothesis.

Understanding The Difference Between Annotation, Highlights and Page Notes

There are three ways in which you can mark up a document using Hypothesis: Annotations, Highlights or Page Notes. It is important to note that not everyone sees the work that is done using these three different styles.

Annotations

In it's simplest form, annotations are visible to everyone. If you annotate a fragment of a document, the annotation will appear on the right-hand side and will be visible. it is important to note that you can change the privacy of your annotations at any time by clicking on the pencil icon at the bottom right of the annotation card.

A highlight is the digital equivalent of swiping a yellow marker over a passage of text. After you select text on a page, you can use the “Highlight” button in the adder that pops up or press the “h” key on your keyboard. These are always private to you.

A page note is a whole page annotation as opposed to annotating a specific passage of text. These can be made visible or private as you see fit. The intent of a page note is to is to add text and tags as you would an annotation, but on a more global level compared to the granular aspect of a annotation.

Hypothesis - Web & PDF Annotation

• Request a Consultation
• Workshops and Virtual Conversations
• Technical Support
• Course Design and Preparation
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Teaching Resources

Resource Overview

Guide on using Hypothesis, a social annotation tool used for collaboration, interactive reading, annotation, and discussion.

For more ideas and technical support, email the EdTeam team  or schedule a consult . You can also reach out to Becky George, WashU Customer Support Specialist at Hypothes.is, to get individual help and ideas for using Hypothes.is by emailing her or scheduling a consult with her.

• WashU licensed
• Seamlessly integrates with Canvas Assignments, Groups, and SpeedGrader
• Shared annotations and replies as well as private highlights and notes
• Use with webpages or searchable PDFs
• Can split students into small reading groups
• Ability to annotate with images, links, and videos
• Student resources, including instructions , tutorials , and guides on best practices and annotation types
• CTL managed and supported

Hypothesis makes reading active, visible, and social. A metanalysis conducted by Novak et al in 2012 suggested that social annotation tools can “lead to learning gains in higher education” (p. 47). In particular, the study found that social annotation activities contribute to “improved critical thinking, meta-cognitive skills, and reading comprehension” (p. 47). Preliminary findings in the same study also suggested that using social annotation “promotes motivation for reading and contributes to higher frequency of positive emotions and lower frequency of negative emotions” (towards the reading). In addition, Brown and Croft (2020) argue that social annotation is an inclusive teaching practice because of how it promotes collaborative knowledge building.

• Increase engagement on a reading assignment by asking students to share reactions, personal connections, or questions about a text. Such annotations make the reading experience social and spark conversations between students.
• Familiarize students with the expectations and objectives of your course by having them annotate the syllabus. This not only ensures that students read the syllabus, but also helps build community from the start .
• Help students read a difficult text together. In the instructions, ask students to raise questions about confusing concepts, share how they interpret the text, and add links to resources that define terms, provide examples or elaborate on concepts raised in the text.
• Help students do more close reading by asking probing questions or directing students to important parts of the text. Open the text in Hypothesis as a student would and add your prompts as annotations. Consider these 10 different types of annotations .
• Use a text or a section of a text to model how you would engage with it. Open the text in Hypothesis and add annotations to share your own responses, analyses, and meta-comments. You could also use this opportunity to introduce students to annotation etiquette , or best practices that make annotations more useful for others.
• Synthesize annotations using tags. Make sure that you and students add specific tags to your annotations such as by concept, topic, or comment type (e.g., “metaphor” “love” “resource” “follow-up”). This will allow you to search for this tag and quickly identify themes across annotations.
• Include multimedia in annotation by showing students how to add external images and videos in comments and replies. These can be immediately viewed in the comments window.
• Get ideas from the Hypothesis teacher community at Liquid Margins which meets regularly to discuss ideas for social annotation. All past recordings are available on YouTube .
• Discussion Board Alternative: Students benefit from conversations that take place within a text. This can keep their conversations specific and grounded. Students can post questions and then respond to other students’ questions OR you can place questions within the text for students to respond to.
• Comparative Activity: Students work to closely analyze a series of texts looking for commonalities, dissimilarities, or other points of importance for future discussion.
• Close Reading Practice: Students often fly through short complex texts too quickly. A Hypothesis activity can slow them down and encourage them to engage in slow, careful reading. Students may be tasked with adding definitions to unfamiliar words, grappling with passages that seem critical or patterns that stand out in the text, and linking to other texts or theories that a passage seems to allude to etc.
• Rhetorical Analysis: Students might be tasked with marking and explaining rhetorical strategies that they encounter in a text.
• Multimedia Writing: Students use Hypothesis to create a collaborative multimedia text by annotating a written text with images and video.
• Creative Writing Exercise: Students could respond creatively and collaboratively to a written text. It could also be used as an exercise (e.g. annotate “x” text in the voices of characters from a prior text).
• Syllabus Search : Students annotate for specific important course details such as due dates, course goals, and resources. This is a great beginning activity to build community and help students identify how your course relates to students’ personal and professional goals.
• Jigsaw Multiple Texts : Students are split into separate groups where each group reads a different text. After becoming “experts” on their assigned reading, they split into new groups with experts of other texts to teach each other about the text that they read.

• Brown, M. & Croft, B. (2020). “Social annotation an inclusive praxis for open pedagogy in the college classroom.” Journal of Interactive Media in Education, 1-8.
• Novak, E. et al. (2012). “The educational use of social annotation tools in higher education: A literature review.” The Internet and Higher Education, 15, 39-49.

Get Started

Hypothesis is fully integrated into Canvas. You’ll find it under Assignments and External Tools.

Here’s a great page designed to walk faculty through social annotation and using Hypothesis: https://web.hypothes.is/getting-started-with-canvas/

Hypothesis Tutorials

• How to set up and grade a Hypothesis Activity
• Quick 2-page overview

Additional Tutorials from Hypothesis (external links)

• How to set up Hypothesis readings through Canvas Assignments  
• How to set up Hypothesis readings through Canvas Modules  
• How to set up Hypothesis reading groups in Canvas  
• How to grade Hypothesis annotations in Canvas  

Ideas for How to Use Hypothesis

• Starter assignment ideas
• User-submitted assignment ideas
• NEW! AI Starter Assignments with ChatGPT
• Instructions for Students
• A student guide to Hypothesis in Canvas
• An Illustrated Guide to Annotation Types
• Annotation tips for students
• How to sync Hypothesis readings for imported Canvas courses

Have suggestions?

If you have suggestions of resources we might add to these pages, please contact us:

[email protected] (314) 935-6810 Mon - Fri, 8:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.

Getting Started with Hypothesis

• Last modification date Updated On August 14, 2023
• Categories: Hypothesis
• Categories: annotation , assessment , collaboration , Getting Started

Hypothesis  is a social annotation tool. It allows for sentence-level note taking or critique on top of classroom reading, news, blogs, scientific articles, books, terms of service, ballot initiatives, legislation, and more. In Canvas, it is available as an external tool link as a module item or through an External Tool Assignment, but will not appear in the Course Navigation menu of a Canvas course.

Find answers to frequent questions about Hypothesis at  Hypothesis FAQs . 

For setting up graded annotation activities, see  Using the Hypothesis LMS App With Assignments in Canvas .

For setting up graded group annotation activities, see Using Canvas Groups to Create Hypothesis Reading Groups .

For setting up ungraded annotation activities, see  Using the Hypothesis LMS App With Modules in Canvas .

To provide students a larger annotation window, check the box next to  Load in a new tab  when creating a new Hypothesis assignment or module item in Canvas. 

For setting up annotation activities with CAMP or VitalSource materials, see Utilizing the Course Materials + Hypothesis Integration .

For information on grading Hypothesis assignments, see Grading Student Annotations in Canvas .

For information on grading Hypothesis assignments via rubrics, see Using Rubrics in Canvas with Hypothesis .

Use the Hypothesis tool to create OCR copies of PDFs.

PDFs added to Canvas for use in Hypothesis must be published. Unpublished files will deliver an error when a student tries to open it to annotate.

We recommend caution linking to Google Drive files, as students living abroad have reported access issues.

Document annotations will not transfer during Canvas course copy. See Canvas Course Import or Copy and Hypothesis for more information.

Accessibility Tips

It is possible to use  Hypothesis with your keyboard .

Additional Resources

• Comparison of Annotation Tools: Hypothesis and Perusall
• Hypothesis FAQs
• Social Annotation Tips
• Social Annotation
• Introduction to the Hypothesis LMS App for Students
• Annotation Tips for Students
• An Illustrated Taxonomy of Annotation Types
• Hypothesis instructor guides
• Hypothesis workshop slides
• Ideas for Using Hypothesis

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Start annotating with a free personal account..

Use the Hypothesis browser extension to annotate anything, anywhere. Follow these two simple steps to get started.

Sign up for a free account.

Hypothesis is always free for personal use and collaboration. For our premium Education and Enterprise solutions, talk to our sales team.

Add the browser extension.

Install the Hypothesis Chrome extension from the Chrome Web Store. The extension also works on other Chromium-based browsers, including Brave, Vivaldi, and Microsoft Edge.

How to make annotations.

Go to any page or document in your browser with the Hypothesis extension turned on. Select the content you want to annotate, and a window will open on the right side of the browser. You can also view and respond to other public or group annotations.

View our Annotation Basics for tips on using Hypothesis.

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Hypothesis Annotation

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Due to COVID19 this course is being run online and using a variety of web tools.  This section provides instructions on many of the tools used in this class.  For example, if you properly set up email notifications you will get an email with the course Zoom link 10 minutes before class.  If you properly set up Zoom you can run two monitors, one that you are working on, and the other that shows the instructors desktop.  

Email Notifications

This class will use Zoom and you need to be logged in by 8:40 AM.  We will use the same Zoom link for lecture and lab and it will be emailed to you.  I suggest you set up an email notification through your Google Calendar and the following video shows you how to do that for the duration of the class (with the email containing the link being sent 10 minutes before class).

Hypothes.is Web Annotations

This class will use the Hypothes.is web annotation service that is integrated into LibreText.  You need to go to  https://web.hypothes.is/  and create an account.  Please start your username with your last name so you can easily be identified for grading purposes. You should follow it with an underscore and then anything you want, so my username could be belford_123. You will then need to join the class group, which is a private group.  You will be sent an email invitation or contact your instructor, and you should only make annotations in the group.

The following YouTube gives a quick demonstration on the use of the Hypothes.is Web Annotation service.

Making Annotations

To make an annotation you simply highlight the text you want to annotate, choose "Annotate" and write in the overlay.   Note, the first time you open up a page it will post to "Public" and you need to change that to your class group.  Once you have started posting to the class group that will be the default option, but initially the default is public.

If you tag your annotation you can easily find it by going to your homepage in hypothes.is and then filtering by tags.  So you may want to make tags like "exam 1", or "nomenclature".  If you then filter with your hypothes.is user name and exam 1, you see those items you tagged.  If you just do exam 1, you filter for everything the class tagged exam 1.  You can then click the contextual link by the annotation, and hypothes.is will open that page, navigate to the highlighted text and display the annotation. (Note: In LibreText the highlights are hidden by default, and you need to click the "eye" with the slash over it (figure \(\PageIndex{2}\)

Using the Hypothes.is Overlay to read discussions

By default the hypothes.is overlay is closed and you do not see the annotations.

Figure \(\PageIndex{2}\) shows how to pick a group and view group activity.

Tags are a very powerful way of organizing your notes and Hypothes.is has different types of tags.  Your class group is a tag, and when you click on your hypothes.is group activity (figure \(\PageIndex{2}\)) you only see items posted to your class (note the first tag in the search filter of figure \(\PageIndex{4}\) is a group tag.  If you then click your name you see those you have posted to that group.  If you remove the group you see all the annotations you have posted anywhere.  If you generate a tag based on a topic or exam, you can then easily find that information.  Figure \(\PageIndex{4}\) shows a filter using two tags that resulting in four items in a student's "To Do list" for chapter 3 of a cheminformatics class

If the student clicks the contextual link hypothes.is will open the webpage that was highlighted, scroll down to the highlighted section and show the annotation in the overlay. This allows students to organize their notes on LibreText and quickly find content. If you get the chrome plugin you can even annotate material outside of LibreText and connect it to your material and notes within LibreText, as long as the material does not require a login to access.  It should also be noted that you can not highlight hidden text within LibreText (like the answers to exercises), and if you have a question on the answer to an exercise, you should highlight the question, not the answer.

Accessing Google Classroom

If you open your Google Mail you will see 9 dots by your name which opens the Google Suite.  If you scroll to the bottom you will find Google Classroom, and if you open the Drive you will also find a folder called Classroom where you can find your assignments.  

Contributors and Attributions

Robert E. Belford (University of Arkansas Little Rock; Department of Chemistry). The breadth, depth and veracity of this work is the responsibility of Robert E. Belford, [email protected] . You should contact him if you have any concerns. This material has both original contributions, and content built upon prior contributions of the LibreTexts Community and other resources, including but not limited to:

• Chat with a consultant

About Hypothesis in Canvas at IU

On this page:

Hypothesis (also known as Hypothes.is) is an open-source annotation tool that is commonly used for annotating information on the web. Hypothesis has developed a Canvas app that seamlessly facilitates annotation of PDF documents or web pages by the members of a course either as an assignment or a module item.

The Hypothesis Canvas app automatically provisions accounts for all students and instructors in the Canvas course site. This means that everyone can navigate to a Hypothesis-enabled reading and begin annotating without ever creating or logging into a separate account. The app also automatically creates a private Hypothesis group for the members of the course so class members can only access these annotations within Canvas. To use the Hypothesis Canvas app in a course, you'll need to order Hypothesis through the IU eTexts Initiative .

Hypothesis is available at a discounted price through the IU eTexts Initiative. To place an order for Hypothesis, follow the instructions in Use IU eTexts to order digital course materials and use ISBN HYPOTHESIS000 when completing order forms. For assistance with ordering, submit a request via the IU eTexts Service Catalog .

Hypothesis is also integrated into Pressbooks at IU ; however, the process for creating an account in Pressbooks is currently different than it is for Canvas. For more, see:

• Use Hypothesis in Pressbooks at IU
• Use Hypothesis in Pressbooks at IU as an instructor
• Using the Hypothesis LMS App with Assignments in Canvas
• Using the Hypothesis LMS App with Modules in Canvas
• Webinar by Jeremy Dean from Hypothesis
• Short videos showing how to use Hypothesis in Canvas

To contact Jeremy Dean, IU's customer support representative at Hypothesis, send mail to [email protected] .

Instructors can get help using technology in their teaching at the teaching and learning centers on each campus.

For help from a UITS Support Center consultant, fill out the "Ask for Help" form found in the Canvas Help menu. You can also contact your campus Support Center directly.

This is document awah in the Knowledge Base. Last modified on 2023-05-15 13:59:55 .

Annotation Demos

Explore annotating with Hypothesis in the three most widely used formats for published documents: webpages (HTML), PDFs, and EPUBs.

Webpages (HTML)

Annotate any webpage : If you’ve already equipped your browser with Hypothesis , just navigate to a webpage and then activate Hypothesis in your browser to start annotating.

If you don’t have Hypothesis in your browser yet, click on  Paste a Link in the menu at the top of this page and type or paste any web address in the box to visit that webpage with Hypothesis enabled.

Annotate any PDF : If you’ve already equipped your browser with Hypothesis , just navigate to a PDF online or open any PDF saved on your device using your browser’s File menu, and then activate Hypothesis in your browser to start annotating.

If you don’t have Hypothesis in your browser yet, you can also drag and drop any PDF on the target at docdrop.org  to open it with Hypothesis enabled.

Try annotating this example copy of Moby Dick published as an EPUB, the most widely used electronic book format.

• Using the Epub.js EPUB viewer
• Using the ReadiumJS EPUB viewer

Annotate any EPUB : Just drag and drop any EPUB file on the target at docdrop.org  to open it with Hypothesis enabled.