Hypothesis

Hypothesis is an open source tool that lets users highlight and annotate any webpage or PDF. It can be used with a browser extension or inside your Canvas site.

How can I use Hypothesis in teaching?

• Have students look up difficult words or unknown allusions in a text and share their research as annotations.
• Pre-populate a text with questions for students to reply to in annotations or notes elucidating important points as they read.
• Have students highlight, tag and annotate words or passages that are confusing to them in their readings.
• Have students identify formal textual elements and broader social and historical contexts at work in specific passages.
• Have students share their personal opinions on a controversial topic as discussed by an article.

What is unique about Hypothesis?

• Instructors can add Hypothesis to any public webpage or PDF.

Technical requirements

If Hypothesis is used inside of Canvas, the user should follow the Canvas technical requirements. If Hypothesis is used in a web browser outside of Canvas, the user must have a version of Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Microsoft Edge or equivalent released within the last 12 months. Hypothesis does not work with Internet Explorer.