Creating Hypothesis-Enabled Readings in Schoology

This explains how to create a Hypothesis-enabled reading assignment. The app allows you to share a webpage or PDF document with the Hypothesis sidebar automatically added within the LMS. If you have not installed Hypothesis in Schoology yet, see our guide for instructors who are installing Hypothesis in a Schoology course.

1. Add a new Hypothesis assignment

From the Materials section of your course, click the Add Materials drop-down and select Add File/Link/External Tool

Then click the External Tool button

In the Add External Tool window, enter the following:

  • Tool Provider:
    • Select Hypothesis
  • Title:
    • Choose an appropriate title for your assignment
  • URL:
    • https://lms.hypothes.is/lti_launches
  • To enable grading, check the Enable Grading box (optional)

Schoology configure External Tool

Click the Submit button to create the new assignment.

2. Select a reading

Open the new assignment in order to select a reading to add.

Document options

A screenshot of the Hypothesis window labelled

Notes:

PDFs must have optically recognizable text in order to be annotatable in the Hypothesis app. If you can select text in the PDF, no further action is needed. If you can’t select text in the PDF, you’ll need to follow our instructions for how to OCR-optimize a PDF.

After selecting the URL or PDF for your assignment, you may need to refresh the page, or close and re-open the assignment, before you can start annotating.

Click the button that says Enter URL of web page or PDF. On the Enter URL dialog, enter a link to a public web page or PDF. Please note that the content at the link must be publicly viewable (i.e., not behind a login or paywall).

Enter URL source content window

Click the Submit button.

Using a PDF stored in Google Drive within the Hypothesis LMS app will change the sharing settings of the selected file to allow the PDF to be shown to anyone viewing the assignment. The exact setting on the file will be “Anyone with a link can view”. For more information please see our articles on Google Drive sharing settings and using Hypothesis with Google Drive.

Click the button that says Select PDF from Google Drive. You will be asked to select a Google account and/or authorize the Hypothesis LMS App to access Google Drive. To use an institutional Google Drive account you need to already have the ability to share documents with users outside your organization.

Search or browse to select a PDF to use in your reading. You may also click the Upload tab to upload a new PDF to use.

Only files for which you have edit permission are able to be used by Hypothesis.

Click on the file you want to use and then click the Select button.

Google Drive picker

Note: This process will change the sharing permission of the selected Google Drive file to allow the PDF to be shown to anyone viewing the assignment. For more information please see our document about using Hypothesis with Google Drive.

Click the button that says Select PDF from OneDrive. You will be asked to select a Microsoft account and/or authorize the Hypothesis LMS App to access OneDrive. To use an institutional OneDrive account you need to already have the ability to share documents with users outside your organization.

Once logged on, browse to select a PDF to use in your reading. You may also select the Upload option to upload a new PDF to use.

Only files available in “My files” are able to be used by Hypothesis. You will be unable to use PDFs that belong in any Shared Libraries.

Click to select the file you want to use and then click the Open button.

OneDrive file picker

Note: This process will change the sharing permission of the selected OneDrive file to allow the PDF to be shown to anyone viewing the assignment. For more information please see our document about using Hypothesis with OneDrive.

When selecting a text from JSTOR it must be one that your school has license to access, and you must use the JSTOR stable URL. Complete instructions here.

Find and copy the Stable URL of the article you will be assigning from JSTOR.org. The stable URL is listed as part of the content metadata section of the page, usually under the title, author, and journal information.

Select the JSTOR article option in the Hypothesis picker during the assignment creation process and paste the stable URL into the text field. Click the right arrow and then accept JSTOR’s terms of use.

Click the arrow after submitting a URL from JSTOR

When selecting a text from VitalSource it must be one that your and your students have access to independent of Hypothesis. Complete instructions here.

Open your VitalSource bookshelf, and then find and copy either the text’s VBID or the text’s URL.

Location of VitalSource text details button and URL

Select the VitalSource article option in the Hypothesis picker during the assignment creation process and paste the VBID or URL into the text field. Click the right arrow and then the “Select Book” button.

Location to enter the VitalSource URL

In the next screen select the starting point of the assignment (for example, you may have a specific assignment start on the book’s 2nd chapter instead of starting at the beginning of the book for every assignment).

With the starting point selected, click the Select button.

Choosing the YouTube option enables an instructor to create an assignment where users can watch the selected YouTube video and annotate its transcript simultaneously. Here’s what a YouTube assignment in Hypothesis looks like:

Hypothesis YouTube assignment with transcript shown

Click here to view the detailed steps on how to set up a Youtube video assignment in Hypothesis.

You must upload PDFs to the course first before completing the steps below. The Moodle File Picker does not allow for uploading new documents. You may put the PDFs in folders and the folder structure should be available in the picker.

Highlight the PDF file you wish to use and click the Select button.

The page must be available in the course before completing the steps below. 

Highlight the Moodle page you wish to use and click the Select button.

A screenshot of the picker where Moodle Pages within a given course are listed. The top of the picker says

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