- 911吃瓜
- Events
- Inquiry Support
- Workshops & Programs
- SoTL 101: Introduction to SoTL and Teaching + Learning Inquiry
- SoTL 102: Formulating an Inquiry Project
- SoTL Thoughts
- Coffee + Conversation
- Tools for Inquiry: Conducting Inquiry Using CES
- Amundsen Fellowship Program
- Decolonial Teaching + Learning Seminar Series
- Decolonizing and Indigenizing Curricula
- Disrupting Colonialism through Teaching Program
- Exploring Well-being in Learning Environments: An Integrated Seminar Series + Grants Program
- Inquiring into Your Multilingual Classroom: An Integrated Seminar Series + Grants Program
- New Ways of Teaching, New Ways of Learning: Supporting Learning in Online Environments
- Open Education Grant Pilot Program
- Teaching and Learning Development Grant Program
- Project Archive
- Amundsen Fellowship Program
- Disrupting Colonialism through Teaching Program
- Exploring Well-being in Learning Environments Program
- Inquiring into Your Multilingual Classroom Projects
- New Ways of Teaching, New Ways of Learning
- Teaching and Learning Development Grant Program
- Scholarship of Teaching + Learning Projects
- Conferences & Calls for Proposals
- FLO Workshop: GenAI and the Indigenous 5Rs Framework [June 16, 2026]
- Cfp: 2026 Global Students as Partners Roundtable [Deadline: June 29, 2026]
- Graduate Students/Post-docs Teaching in Higher Education Conference [August 07, 2026]
- 2026 DPI Conference [August 18-20, 2026]
- 2026 Global Students as Partners Roundtable [October 01-02, 2026]
- 2026 SoTL Symposium Conference [October 22-24, 2026]
- For Research Personnel
- News + Stories
- AI as learning coach: project explores ChatGPT integration beyond plagiarism concerns
- Investigating the motivations and perceptions of undergraduate students using AI for assignments
- Faculty teaching confidence soars through peer observation program
- Research proves role plays work: evidence-based approach transforms history and labour studies teaching
- Welcome Kaitlyn Watson!
- Authentic learning transforms large epidemiology course: students find personal meaning in public health research
- Developing AI-resistant teaching through story-centered approach
- Life-changing plant course reveals how to help students see the green world around them
- Strategic repetition transforms mobile computing education: students master challenging topics through distributed practice
- Beyond grades: Ungraded portfolios transform teacher education
Encouraging and Supporting Discussions Through Online Annotations
Grant program: Teaching and Learning Development Grant (TLDG)
Grant recipient: Juan Pablo Alperin, Publishing Program
Project team: Kathleen Burckhardt, research assistant
Timeframe: May 2016 to March 2017
Funding: $5,000
Course addressed: PUB 802 鈥� Technology & Evolving Forms of Publishing
Final report: View Juan Pablo Alperin's final report (PDF)
Description: Seminar courses are predicated on the notion that students learn by critically reading a text, and subsequently engaging in discussions with their peers and with the instructor. This project seeks to expand on this practice by bringing discussions about assigned texts online with an online annotation tool, Hypothes.is ().
Recent experience using Hypothes.is has been extremely positive, with students making upwards of 100 annotations on a single text on some occasions, and largely considering that the annotations help them focus on their reading. However, after using the tool in two courses, it became clear that students were not coming back to the text after they had made their annotations. By not coming back, they were missing the opportunity to engage with peers that made comments after them. Furthermore, several features were identified as lacking from the existing tool design, such as the ability for the instructor to flag or 鈥渟tar鈥� valuable posts, and for students to be able to 鈥渓ike鈥� each other鈥檚 posts as a form of recognition and positive reinforcements of their work.
As such, this project proposes to expand the Hypothes.is tool by adding the ability for the instructor to 鈥渟tar鈥� student posts, and for students to be able to 鈥渓ike鈥� each other鈥檚. More importantly, the proposed project will establish a new notification mechanism that will alert students via email of moments and comments that they should be engaging with
Knowledge sharing: If possible, it would be ideal to set up a series of daytime talks at the three campuses to share the experiences of using Hypothes.is.
There has already been interest from other faculty members within the Publishing Program, and I believe it would be of interest to many social science and humanities programs, or any course that critically engages with written materials.
Alperin, J. P. (2017, May). Shining a light on critical reading with annotations. in C. Battershill (Chair), Open Pedagogy. Symposium conducted at the Digital Pedagogy Symposium, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC.
Alperin, J. P. (2017, May). Shining a light on critical reading through online annotations: Explorations into the use of Hypothe.Is in the classroom. Presentation at the iAnnotate conference, San Francisco, CA.
Keywords: open-source software, online annotation; hypothes.is