You can have students discuss a digital text in marginalia! Social annotation apps like Hypothes.is allow students to discuss PDF texts and websites by commenting on passages and replying to each others’ comments. This can be an improvement on the asynchronous discussion because conversation happens at the site of the passage. Using Social Annotation can also help get students to read various documents– you will have an idea that they read it because they commented on the text.
You can also use Hypothes.is to ensure that students have read the course syllabus too– have them leave a comment (even if it’s only to say “I have read the Course Syllabus”) or ask a clarifying question about the content in it.
Hypothes.is is integrated into D2L and uses Google Drive to get PDF documents. If you are interested in using it for your Winter Intersession Courses or spring 2022 Courses, you can watch the video below:
Or go click on this link to go to the Wiki page.
Submitted by: Tyler J. Kron-Piatek, academic technologist, COLI
