Hypothes.is 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. Teachers and students can annotate and comment on documents across the web. For examples of what you might do with Hypothes.is, see the Liquid Margins blog.
Hypothes.is is now integrated with Duke Canvas to allow faculty and students to easily use Hypothes.is in Duke classes. Using Hypothes.is, students can annotate documents and webpages in Canvas or on the Web.
This page covers:
Using Hypothes.is in Canvas
First, check out Getting Started With Hypothesis in Canvas.
How to Set-Up New PDFs in Hypothesis
If you want to change/add readings, you’ll need to set up new Hypothes.is readings. Please note that you should do this only once your PDFs have been deemed accessible.
If PDFs needed to be updated after learners had already annotated the document, we keep the old version to preserve a record of learners’ work. Then you should add the new PDF. Here is the naming convention for PDFs that need to be updated in this situation: title, author, (Updated for OCR Accessibility.)
Since your Hypothes.is readings are ungraded, here are Hypothesis’s instructions about how to set up readings in Modules. If you copy over your site, you should remove Hypothesis readings that 1) were not replaced with accessible PDFs and 2) are no longer relevant. You can do this by editing the item in the Modules tool.
Hypothesis can also be graded. Here are instructions about how to use grading, and you’ll need to set it up differently using Assignments.
Getting help
First check the Hypothes.is help documentation or the FAQ below to see if your question is addressed there.
If you’re still running into issues with using Hypothes.is, request help from Learning Innovation and we’ll help troubleshoot your issue.
You may also contact Hypothes.is help and the OIT help desk.
Frequently Asked Questions
Help! I’m having trouble with Hypothes.is.
We are still working to document any issues that aren’t included in Hypothes.is help documents. Check out this page first to see if your question is answered in the official documentation: Hypothes.is LMS FAQ.
Are there pages or types of websites I can’t use in Hypothes.is?
Yes, you may encounter difficulty using certain types of webpages or PDFs. While most regular web pages and documents like PDFs work well with Hypothes.is 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 Hypothes.is 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 Hypothes.is. Some non-paywalled pages may not work, either, so please test your article and re-upload to Google Drive if necessary.
PDF Optimization
Pages or documents need to have selectable text to work with Hypothes.is. Please use OCR text recognition on your PDF to make it possible to select text in the document. Learn more at Hypothes.is support: how to OCR-optimize PDFs and Duke Web Accessibility: PDF Remediation.
Duplicate files will be recognized as the same item (even if they have a different file name). You may need to add a PDF Fingerprint to the file. Learn more at Hypothes.is Support: How to save copy of a PDF with a different fingerprint.