Social Annotation tools allow students to engage more proactively with the text as a group. The research has shown that they participate more fully and that they have a better understanding of the text/document. They also are able to gain insights that they may not have as the discussion are often richer and easier to follow.

In the summer (2020), the Faculty asked what tools would be useful for the next academic year and there was strong support for social annotation tools. Hypothes.is was identified as a useful solution but for History, it was not sufficient for their needs. They bought a substantial amount of licenses for their department for Talis Elevate which is a similar tool but it works using images which is a particular requirement for primary source documents.

History of Art is due to use Hypothes.is in Term 2

Hypothes.is is web-based and can be accessed within Moodle (if you have a license)

Talis Elevate allows documents to be uploaded into a class and is accessed through a link.

Both are only available with licenses

Contact me if you are curious, or have any specific questions about Hypothes.is or Talis Elevate

f.harvey@ucl.ac.uk

Teams: Fiona Harvey

Twitter: fionajharvey