Hypothesis is a tool that lets you collaboratively annotate and discuss webpages and documents. It enables sentence-level note taking or critique as a layer on top of class readings, news, blogs, scientific articles, books, terms of service, ballot initiatives, legislation and more. You and your students can annotate and comment on most documents you can view on the web. For examples of what you might do with Hypothesis, see the Liquid Margins blog.
Hypothesis is now integrated with Duke Canvas to allow faculty and students to easily use Hypothesis in Duke classes. Using Hypothesis, students can annotate documents and webpages that are publicly accessible on the web or uploaded to Canvas.
This page covers:
Getting started with Hypothesis
Follow these steps to get started with Hypothesis in Canvas: Using the Hypothesis LMS App With Assignments in Canvas
Check out this short video on how to use Hypothesis in Canvas.
Getting help
Check out the Hypothesis help documentation or the Frequently Asked Questions below to see if your question is addressed there.
If you’re continuing to experience problems with using Hypothes.is, request help from LILE and we’ll help troubleshoot your issue.
You may also contact Hypothesis help for assistance.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are there pages or types of websites I can’t use in Hypothesis?
Yes, you may encounter difficulty using certain types of webpages or PDFs. While most regular web pages and documents like PDFs work well with Hypothesis tool, others may not work well or won’t work at all.
Often, if you can see the page on your screen, there may be a workaround. For example, if a particular page does not load properly, you can print or save the page as a PDF document, then use the “upload to Google Drive” option.
Any page that is not publicly accessible on the open web (or that requires Duke sign-in) is not accessible by Hypothesis and will need to be made public. Please make sure to test your document before assigning to students.
Articles from Duke Libraries which require Shibboleth/NetID sign-in or Proxy VPN do not work with Hypothesis. Some non-paywalled pages may not work, either, so please test your article and re-upload to Canvas if necessary.
Why can’t I add Hypothesis in Canvas Navigation?
Hypothesis is best utilized within the Canvas Assignments or Modules tools. Learn more about adding Hypothesis in Canvas.
Why do I need to optimize my PDFs and documents?
Pages or documents need to have selectable text to work with Hypothesis. Please use OCR text recognition on your PDF to make it possible to select text in the document. At Duke, you can utilize the UDOIT Accessibility tool to automatically recognize text in your documents and make them accessible both to your students and for Hypothesis annotation.
Learn more at Hypothesis support: how to OCR-optimize PDFs and Duke Web Accessibility: PDF Accessibility Demystified in 8 minutes.