Quickstart Guide
Getting Started with Hypothesis
The Hypothesis Quickstart Guide introduces instructors to a UVA-approved tool for collaborative annotation and active reading. It shows how students can highlight, comment on, and discuss course materials directly within documents, websites, and videos. The guide also explains how Hypothesis integrates with UVACanvas to support engagement, collaboration, and critical thinking.
Account Login
All Hypothesis assignments must be launched through UVACanvas
What is Hypothesis?
Hypothesis is an open-source platform that allows for students to collaboratively comment or annotate websites, documents, videos, and other items that integrates seamlessly with UVACanvas.
How can Hypothesis enhance teaching and learning?
Hypothesis is a social annotation tool that enhances teaching and learning by transforming texts into an active, collaborative, and interactive experiences. This allows students and instructors to add comments, highlight key pieces of information, pose questions, and introduce other media directly into online course materials through annotations. Nearly any media can be annotated with Hypothesis, including documents, websites, articles, and videos.
Engage
Turns reading into an active experience by inviting students to highlight, comment, and respond directly within course materials.
Enhance
Deepens understanding through contextual discussion that supports close reading, critical thinking, and timely instructor insight.
Extend
Expands learning beyond the document by connecting course content to external ideas, resources, and ongoing conversation.
Key Features
Annotations
Hypothesis provides the ability to annotate various documents and files. Within the annotations, learners can transform their text through a variety of fonts and styles, and have the ability to link and embed other media as part of their annotations. Annotations can be both public or private, depending upon the learner’s preference.
Examples of Hypothesis use in the Classroom
Student Interface of Hypothesis
Why Use This?
Annotations support active learning and inclusive participation of students by anchoring discussions directly in course materials. This approach promotes close reading, critical inquiry, and shared meaning-making while making student thinking visible for timely instructional support.
Collaboration
Hypothesis allows students to collaborate with one another by replying to the annotations of one another. When creating the assignment in Canvas, instructors can either create the assignment such that the entire class annotates one document, or they can split the class into groups to have learners collaborate in a smaller setting.
Video: Setting up Small Groups
Why Use This?
Collaboration supports social learning by enabling students to build understanding together through dialogue, peer feedback, and shared inquiry. This approach values diverse perspectives, strengthens critical thinking, and fosters a sense of academic community.
Additional Tool Features
