Hypothesis (Instructor)

Video Overview

Important Upgrade Notes!

The Hypothesis integration has been upgraded and instructors will have the option to setup assignments with auto grading and view a reporting dashboard. Please view the videos below for details.

Hypothesis is a Canvas integration that for the instructor and students to annotate documents together. It can be used to annotate a PDF, web page or a Canvas page. Hypothesis can be setup in modules (as a non-graded activity) or assignments (as a graded activity). If you want to grade student annotations, be sure to setup as assignment so grades will pass back to the gradebook.

Introduction to Hypothesis

Annotating Canvas Pages

Reusing Annotations

Automatic Grading

Starting with Spring 2025, instructors can setup automatic grading. See written guide for details. Note! For previously created Hypothesis assignments, see this guide for editing previously created assignments.

Reporting Dashboard

Starting with Spring 2025, instructors can review the student progress dashboard. See written guide. All Hypothesis assignments will display the dashboard regardless if the assignment was created before the upgrade.

Hypothesis Guides and Resources

Review the guides below. Click an item to view or use the expand all option to see all items in the list.

Setup as Non-Graded Activity in Modules

To set up Hypothesis as a non-graded activity, go to the Module page.

If you don't already have a module in the course, click +Module to create a new module. Make sure the module is published.
In the module header, click the + icon and select the External Tool option.
Select Hypothesis from the list of tools.
From the Hypothesis screen, choose what you will be annotating. This will create a link in the module.

Review the following guide for step-by-step instructions.

Using the Hypothesis LMS App With Modules in Canvas

Setup as a Graded Activity in Assignments

Go to the assignment page to set up the Hypothesis activity as a graded assignment.

In the assignment settings under submission types, select the External tool option.
Click Find and select Hypothesis from the list of tools.
From the Hypothesis screen, choose what you will be annotating.

The Hypothesis website has several starter assignment directions you can copy and paste into the assignment description. The annotations can be graded in SpeedGrader. Review the following guides for step-by-step instructions on assignment setup.

Using the Hypothesis LMS App With Assignments in Canvas - Note: This guide does not include details on auto-grading. See the link below.
Auto Grading in the Hypothesis LMS App
How to Edit Hypothesis-Enabled Readings in Canvas - Note: For previously created Hypothesis assignments, you can edit the assignment to include auto-grading or group settings
Student Roster Displays in the LMS Reporting Dashboards
Annotation Starter Assignments
Grading Student Annotations in Canvas

Tips and Guides on Using Hypothesis

Ideas for Social Annotation Assignments

Hypothesis Social Annotation Across Disciplines

Review the following guide on how to use Hypothesis to create and respond to annotations.

Annotation Basics

Understanding the differences between a highlight (private) and an annotation (public to all enrollments) is important.

What’s the difference between an annotation and a highlight?

You can add links and images to your annotations. See the following guide for instructions.

Adding Links and Images to Your Annotations

You can embed videos your annotations.

How to embed videos in annotations

You can setup group annotations using Canvas groups. See the following guide for instructions.

Using Canvas Groups to Create Hypothesis Reading Groups

Important Notes

Account Notes

With the Canvas integration, when user interact with Hypothesis activity, all user accounts are automatically generated using the default email address in each person's Canvas account (typically your Lake Land College email address).

Please note you can create an account on Hypothesis websiteLinks to an external site. for creating public annotations; however, this account will NOT be connected to the account automatically generated from the Canvas integration.

What Are the Differences Between the Hypothesis Web and LMS Apps?

File Notes

When you create Hypothesis activity, you can select web page URL or publicly available PDF. Please note the following:

Web page - Some websites may not work with Hypothesis so be sure to test the assignment before publishing the assignment. If you find that Hypothesis doesn't work with the website where the article located, you can save the article as a PDF to download and then upload to Canvas files.
- Hypothesis is not working on a particular page. What could be happening?
Canvas Files - You can also upload a PDF to Canvas Files and when you are creating Hypothesis activity, you can select the PDF from Canvas files. Please note for PDF files to be annotatable by Hypothesis, the PDF file must have optically recognizable textLinks to an external site.. If you can select text in the doc, then it does.
- OCRing a PDF - With Adobe Professional Acrobat
- OCR with UDOIT Cloud - You can convert PDF that do not have selectable text to a Canvas page.
Canvas Pages - Starting Spring 2024, you can use published Canvas pages for social annotation. Please note content for annotation must be added directly to the page. Embedded content cannot be used with the social annotations options.

Course Notes

When you create an Hypothesis assignment or module activity in Canvas, a private Hypothesis group is automatically created for you and your students for the purpose of creating web annotations that can only be seen by members of the group.

When you do a course copy, there may be some extra steps you will need to do setup existing Hypothesis assignments. This will vary depending on how the Hypothesis assignment was setup in the previous course. See the following guides for details.

If you setup your own annotations to begin an assignment, you can export them and import via Hypothesis so you don't have to recreate them each semester.

Exporting and Importing Annotations