Teaching with Technology

• To create a Hypothesis activity in Moodle, turn on editing and click “Add an activity or resource.” From the Activity Chooser, select “Hypothesis.” 

• Click the Select content button. Select the content type you would like to use.
• After you have selected your content, you will see an Assignment details window. Be sure to edit the title in that window to reflect the name of the assignment as you would like it to appear in Moodle.

• If this is a group assignment, first see the instructions below for setting up Moodle groups for use in Hypothesis. Then, check the box for Group assignment in the Assignment details window. Click Continue.
• You will be brought back to the Moodle External tools page. If you are grading Hypothesis annotations, and would like those grades to appear in the Moodle gradebook, be sure to select that option under Grading.
• After you select “Save and Display,” click “Open in new window” to launch Hypothesis.

Hypothesis supports a variety of content types. Choose the type that is right for your assignment.

• URL: If you are using a publicly available PDF or web page, choose URL, and then enter the URL for the page or resource. 
• Moodle page: You can annotate a Moodle page resource. For instance, if you share your syllabus as a Moodle page, you could use this option to have your students annotate it.
  • Be sure the page that you want students to annotate is available to students in Moodle, not hidden.
  • Once you select the option for Moodle page during Hypothesis assignment set up, you will see a list of weeks or topics that contain Moodle pages available to annotate. Select the week or topic that contains the page you wish to annotate.
  • Select the page you wish to annotate, and click the Select button.
  • Note that the page exists separately from the Hypothesis activity that allows students to annotate it. Be sure to direct students to the Hypothesis activity, not the page, for annotation.
• JSTOR: Hypothesis integrates with Reed's JSTOR resources.
  • Find the article you would like to use in JSTOR and copy the stable URL of the article, which you will find in under the title of the article. Do not copy the URL from your address bar.
  • In your Hypothesis assignment in Moodle, choose JSTOR, and then enter the stable URL you copied.
• YouTube: Hypothesis supports annotation of YouTube videos via the transcript. Both the transcript and the annotations are synced with the video. Note that YouTube transcripts may be auto generated and contain errors. 
  • Locate the video you would like to use on YouTube and select the sharing option. Copy the link.
  • In your Hypothesis assignment in Moodle, choose YouTube, and then enter the link you copied.
• Moodle File: If you are using a PDF that is not publicly available, add it first to Moodle to make it available for annotation.
  • Any PDF file posted in Moodle will be available for Hypothesis annotation. However, in order to avoid confusion, we suggest you create a Folder in Moodle to hold the PDFs you are using with Hypothesis. Upload any PDFs for annotation to the folder, and confirm that it is available to students and not hidden.
  • Once you select the option for Moodle file during Hypothesis assignment set up, you will see a list of weeks or topics that contain Moodle files available to annotate. Select the week or topic that contains the folder where you stored your PDFs, then select the folder.
  • Select the file you wish to annotate, and click the Select button.
• Google Drive: You can also select files you have stored in Google Drive to annotate. To do so, you must give Hypothesis access to Google Drive.
  • Store the file in Google Drive. You may want to rename it to make it easy for you to find later.
  • In your Hypothesis assignment in Moodle, choose Google Drive.
  • If you access more than one Google account on your device, you will be prompted to choose the correct account.
  • The first time you complete this process, you will be asked to give Hypothesis access to view and modify files in your Google Drive. This access is necessary for Hypothesis to function.
  • Use the Google Driver file picker to search for and select the file you would like to annotate.
• OneDrive: This option is generally not used at Reed.

You can set up a Hypothesis assignment to allow Moodle groups to annotate the assignment separately. Students will see only annotations from members of their group, while faculty can toggle between groups to see all annotations.

You will need to create a new Grouping (group of groups) in order to use Moodle groups in Hypothesis. 

• If you have not yet set up groups in your Moodle page, do that first.
• On your course Participants page, select Groupings from the drop-down menu.
• Select the Create grouping button.
• Name your grouping, and click the Save changes button at the bottom of the page.
• Choose the icon that looks like a person in a circle (Show groups in grouping) from the Edit options to the right of the information for your new grouping.
• Add the groups from your course you would like to annotate Hypothesis assignments and Add them to the grouping.

When you set up your Hypothesis assignment, be sure to check the box next to "This is a group assignment." You'll then have the option to choose your grouping. Select your grouping and click Continue to finish setting up the assignment.

You will be able to see annotations from both groups when you access the Hypothesis assignment.

Hypothesis assignments created before summer 2024 cannot be copied between Moodle course pages. If you are re-using content from a past Moodle page, you will need to follow these instructions from Hypothesis to set up any Hypothesis assignments again.

Hypothesis assignments created after summer 2024 can be copied between course pages without any new set up necessary. Just let us know you'd like us to copy the assignments when you request your Moodle course page.

If you would like to re-use your own annotations from semester to semester, you can export your annotations and import them to a new Hypothesis assignment. This is especially useful for faculty who annotate their Hypothesis assignments with notes or questions for students to respond to and want to re-use their annotations from a past course page.

Once you have entered a URL or selected your file, it will load in the Hypothesis annotation window. Below is an example with grading enabled, allowing you to filter annotations by student using the menu at the top of the page.

The first time users access a Hypothesis assignment, they will see instructions for making annotations. Hypothesis has a help page for students that covers making annotations and advanced functions.