Hypothesis logo

What is Hypothesis?

Hypothesis is a social annotation tool that allows students to highlight and annotate readings online and to respond to one another’s annotations. Think of it as adding notes in the margin of a page or book, only digitally. These digital annotations could be reactions, perspectives, questions, clarifying information, definitions or more.

Hypothesis is integrated with Canvas, and student annotations and their replies are viewable in SpeedGrader.

This Hypothesis video provides a one-minute overview.

What is Hypothesis good for?

  • Students build knowledge together: Students annotate together, reacting to each other’s ideas and collectively building knowledge and understanding together; learning takes places inside the text from the course and acts as a springboard for emerging ideas and perspectives.
  • Excellent equalizer: For some students who are less likely to participate verbally in class discussions, annotating text can be more comfortable and give them a safer opportunity for engaging in text-based conversations.
  • Great for modeling: With their own guiding annotations, instructors can demonstrate critical thinking, raise important questions or considerations when reading articles, or showcase strategies for critically analyzing particularly dense articles.
  • Visible evidence that students are reading: Through student annotations in class readings, instructors can see direct evidence of students engaging and interacting with the text.

Key Resources

Technical Support

Visit our daily office hours or email tlc@ucsc.edu to schedule a consultation.

Last modified: Apr 26, 2023