Social Annotation and Representational Justice

What is Social Annotation?

Social annotation tools can help your students calibrate their compasses to navigate the academic wilderness together. While there are a variety of social annotation tools available, we will use Hypothes.is as an exemplary tool. Hypothesis.is is a free tool for students to collaboratively and critically engage with their course materials. Through social annotations, students directly respond to questions you privately or publicly post to their readings in the learning management system (LMS), a blog post, or Pressbooks.

A Representational Justice Strategy

Hypothes.is works better than a trial map because it holds students accountable for their reading, encourages peer-to-peer learning, and increases representational justice in your course materials. In a student perception study, OER advocate Virginia Clinton-Lisell found students better enjoyed being able to express their identities and personal experiences to create knowledge in their social annotations, rather than simply consuming their readings or taking higher-stakes quizzes.^[1] Faculty and staff at Contra Costa Community College District similarly reported [website] using Hypothes.is allowed them to individualize their instruction for their diverse student populations, particularly helping for students living with disabilities and those for whom English is their second language.

How Can I get Started?

Select the arrow for two options to get started with Hypothes.is.

Option One: Annotating in Pressbooks

Hypothes.is is a Pressbooks plug-in, enabling private or public annotation of your OER. The good news is, you can select which portions of your Pressbook where Hypothes.is can be active. Think of it as being able to turn off the comments section. This could be particularly useful if you do or do not want folks to comment on student work or sensitive materials in your OER.

Set up Hypothes.is Plug In

1. Select Settings –> Hypothes.is from the left navigation menu
2. Select where Hypothes.is should be loaded (allowed) in your Pressbook.
3. Remember to scroll and select save at the bottom of the screen.

Option Two: Annotating the Web

Following these simple steps from Hypothes.is, start your social annotation adventure by creating a Hypothes.is account and installing the browser extension. You can also watch the walk-through tutorial from Touro University Libraries, which shows how to create an account, activate your sidebar, create a group, and start annotating.

Introduction to Web Annotation with Hypothesis by Touro Libraries

OER for Social Justice Faculty Team Highlights

OERFSJ faculty and staff shared their expertise for partnering with students in social annotation.

• Remain mindful of students educational and privacy rights
  • Integrate the social annotation app in your LMS (here is guidance from Hypothes.is but your institution may have tutorials like USF does).
  • Set up a private group if asking your students to annotate on the public web. This will encourage your students to be brave in their learning and protect their educational privacy rights.
• Introduce the tool in class, allowing time for students to create their own accounts, practice using the tool, and ask any questions.
• Collaboratively establish community expectations. As the instructor you may mandate the assignment requirements (e.g., post once and respond twice), but students can vocalize ways they can constructively and kindly communicate with the tool.