Making comments on the website: Hypothesis

User types

This section is useful for user type 1-5.

Javascript overlay Chrome Extension

Hypothesis is a third-party application that allows anyone to make publicly visible comments on a website (once you create a free account). This section explains how to use and install the extension. As this tool requires an account with a third-party, we advise to use our local-annotator with similar capabilities but which store annotations locally. By default Hypothesis stores annotations publicly, which might confuse other students.

Be careful of changing website URL’s!

Annotations created using the Hypothesis feature are linked to the specific URL of a website, so keep this in mind if you move a book, or change the file name, as you could lose track of your work! Note that while changing the URL may make a page invisible, you can still find the annotations using the View group activity feature.

For example, if there is no annotation visible on this page, the URL probably changed!

Set up Hypothesis in your book

Add this to _config.yml. Need to create an account.

html:
  comments:
    hypothesis: true

Using Hypothesis

Once on a hypothesis version of this page, look at the top right corner: you will see three icons, an arrow, an eye and a note-pad. Clicking on the arrow will open the extension and allow you to view the annotations. Create an account and log in if you would like to reply or make your own annotations. You can also highlight text, but this is not publicly visible, it is only for your own reference.

Note that the annotations are only visible for the page that you are currently viewing. You can see all the Annotations on a website by opening the “Public” menu at the top of the dialog pane, selecting “Public” again in the drop-down, then “View group activity.” Make sure you type in the URL to search (e.g., teachbooks.io/manual).

Student-controller with browser extension

As an alternative to activating this for everyone, you can also advise your students to use the hypothesis browser extension. In this way, students are not distracted by potential unnecessary public annotation and comments by fellow students and teachers.