1: Hypothes.is

Hypothes.is Web Annotations

This class will use the Hypothes.is web annotation service that is integrated into LibreText.  You need to go to https://web.hypothes.is/ and create an account.  If possible, please start your username with the first four letters of your last name followed by the first three letters of your first name, followed by anything you want, so you can easily be identified for grading purposes. So my user name could be belfrob99. You will then need to join the class group, which is a private group.  You will be sent an email invitation or contact your instructor, and you should only make annotations in the group.

The following YouTube gives a quick demonstration on the use of the Hypothes.is Web Annotation service.

Video \(\PageIndex{1}\): 4:10 min Youtube showing how to use tags to organize hypothes.is annotations.

Making Annotations

To make an annotation you simply highlight the text you want to annotate, choose "Annotate" and write in the overlay.   Note, the first time you open up a page it will post to "Public" and you need to change that to your class group.  Once you have started posting to the class group that will be the default option, but initially the default is public.

Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\): To annotate you simply highlight text and write in the overlay.  (Copyright; Belford, cc.0)

If you tag your annotation you can easily find it by going to your homepage in hypothes.is and then filtering by tags.  So you may want to make tags like "exam 1", or "nomenclature".  If you then filter with your hypothes.is user name and exam 1, you see those items you tagged.  If you just do exam 1, you filter for everything the class tagged exam 1.  You can then click the contextual link by the annotation, and hypothes.is will open that page, navigate to the highlighted text and display the annotation. (Note: In LibreText the highlights are hidden by default, and you need to click the "eye" with the slash over it (figure \(\PageIndex{2}\))).

Using the Hypothes.is Overlay to read discussions

By default the hypothes.is overlay is closed and you do not see the annotations.

 

Figure \(\PageIndex{2}\): By default the overlay is closed and annotations are hidden. This image shows how to pick a group and view group activity (Copyright; Belford CC0)

Figure \(\PageIndex{2}\) shows how to pick a group and view group activity.

 

Figure \(\PageIndex{3}\): Annotation and highlights text being displayed. (Copyright; Belford CC0)

 

Using tags

There are two fundamental ways to use tags, (1) to communicate with your instructor or other students, and (2), to take and organize notes by setting up a tag taxonomy for categorizing your annotations.

Communicating with Annotations

If you highlight text within Libretexts and tag an annotation "question", the instructor will know you want the annotation to be reviewed.  You should do this even if there is a typo or spelling error you wish to bring to the instructor's attention.  That is, question means you want the instructor to review the annotation.  At least twice a week the instructor will filter the class for annotations tagged question, and respond to the questions.

Tag Taxonomic Categorization

You can use a tag taxonomy to organize your notes and then use the filter function to search your notes.   In figure \(\PageIndex{4}\) you can link to 573 annotations by opening the S2021Chem1403 group in hypothes.is.  When you did this you were actually using a group tag ["group: S2021Chem1403"] which shows in the search window.  If you scroll down the page you see all the tags and members, and if you click on a member, you find the annotations that member made.  Here, member "[user:rebelford'] had made 40 annotations to this group. Now this user was an instructor and he had reviewed student annotations before lecture of 2/21/2021 and made a tag ["tag:2_22_21"] to link to material students were having trouble with, so he could quickly navigate to that material during lecture.  

Figure \(\PageIndex{4}\): Hypothes.is search filtered by the group tag 0UALR-OLCC (which was a class group) and a student's tag "Ch.3-ToDo". (Copyright; Belford CC0)

 

Tips on using tags

• Use Autocomplete: don't make redundant tags (HELP, Help and help all mean the same thing).  
• Do not worry if others use the same tag, but adding your user tag, you will only see things you tag.
• Create assessment tags (exam 1, quiz 1,....)
• Create topic tags (VSEPR, Lewis Dot, electronegativty...)
• Be creative and create tags that make sense to you.

Warning:  You can not tag someone else's tag.  If you tag a reply  it currently will not work. That is, the tag shows in the reply, but does not get processed, and so does not show on the group landing page.  We are trying to add that feature, but it is not available now.

If the student clicks the contextual link hypothes.is will open the webpage that was highlighted, scroll down to the highlighted section and show the annotation in the overlay. This allows students to organize their notes on LibreText and quickly find content. If you get the chrome plugin you can even annotate material outside of LibreText and connect it to your material and notes within LibreText, as long as the material does not require a login to access.  It should also be noted that you can not highlight hidden text within LibreText (like the answers to exercises), and if you have a question on the answer to an exercise, you should highlight the question, not the answer.

Commentary on Tagging

The following are some comments that might assist you in productively using hypothes.is as you study.

1. The tag filter is a Boolean AND function. So, if you have a set of tags on several items, they will all show up in a filter using those tags.
    
2. Both tags and annotations can be "living", that is you can add/remove tags and you can edit your comments after you fist post them (you can only tag and edit your own comments, you can respond to other people's comments). For example, you may tag something with an action like "memorize", and once you have memorized it, you can remove the tag.
    
3. The annotations supplement your notes.  So if I say something in lecture about a topic, and you put it in the annotation, than you can access it in the context of my textbook (I will be doing a lot of lecturing from the textbook content). Therefor, your tag schema (conceptual framework) is not just about the narrative of my text, but also of your notes.  That is, as you read and think, you can preserve your thought in the annotation, and tag it in the context of the thought (associating your annotation with the highlighted text).  So you can use the tags to structure a navigational pathway through both my text and your notes, while also connecting them.

Finally, this is really a high level metacognitive activity.  If you tag everything "exam1" or "remember", it essentially becomes a useless tag. You need to think about how a topic is important and how it fits in the framework of the other topics of the class, and it will take some practice to come up with tags that work for you. But one of the challenges of today's information landscape is the huge amount of information that is instantly available at your fingertips, and developing these skills will give you a tool that can assist you in other classes beyond chemistry.

Robert E. Belford (University of Arkansas Little Rock; Department of Chemistry). The breadth, depth and veracity of this work is the responsibility of Robert E. Belford, [e-mail]. You should contact him if you have any concerns. This material has both original contributions, and content built upon prior contributions of the LibreTexts Community and other resources, including but not limited to: