Social annotation is the activity of reading and thinking together. With hypothesis for Blackboard, instructors can ensure that their students understand the readings by annotating digital content socially. Imagine a group of your students opening a PDF or a webpage and being able to work together to make meaning of the reading, sharing their responses and ideas about the text or images, and annotating within the margins of the digitally assigned content.
Enroll in one or more engaging workshops that will introduce you to the power of hypothesis-driven learning in your courses. Discover exciting strategies for leveraging collaborative annotation, fostering student interaction, and ultimately enhancing your students’ academic achievements.
All workshops are 45 minutes and are held on Thursday
February
8-FEB
9:15 AM-10:00 AM
The Value of Social Annotation for Teaching and Learning
Instructor: Gloria Barron
This workshop aims to equip faculty members with innovative strategies to fully harness the potential of collaborative, interactive social annotation through hypothesis, enhancing student engagement and course content comprehension. During the session, participants will actively explore the integration of hypothesis for collaborative annotation within their unique fields and teaching approaches.
Upon completion, participants will be able to:
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- Develop a comprehensive understanding of employing collaborative annotation to elevate student achievement in their classes.
Investigate the successful implementation of social annotation across various courses. - Assess the benefits of adopting social annotation as a powerful pedagogical instrument.
- Gain a deeper understanding of how they can leverage collaborative annotation to enhance student success in their courses.
- Develop a comprehensive understanding of employing collaborative annotation to elevate student achievement in their classes.
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15-FEB
4:00 PM -4:45 PM
Empowering Students with Social Annotation
Instructor: Gloria Barron
Adding hypothesis as an external tool to readings in Blackboard supports student success by placing active discussion on course readings, enabling students and instructors to add comments and start conversations in the margins of digital texts. This workshop is an excellent opportunity to learn about the potential of social annotation as a learning tool and discuss creative ways to increase engagement in your courses.
Upon completion, participants will be able to:
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- Describe how to get started with hypothesis and feel comfortable creating a graded assignment.
- Create assignments that require students to read socially and make annotations or replies to other contributors.
- Gather some fun ideas for expanding the use of collaborative annotation to improve student success.
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22-Feb
3:15 PM – 4:00 PM
Annotate Your Syllabus
Instructor: Gloria Barron
Encouraging your class to annotate the syllabus serves as a gentle introduction to social annotation, providing a platform for students to actively interact with the course material. This initial engagement establishes a precedent for sustained participation throughout the term.
By incorporating this approach, you offer students the opportunity to delve into the syllabus, exchange ideas, and pose questions about the course, setting a tone for ongoing engagement. In this workshop, participants will not only gain insights and guidance on crafting a collaborative syllabus annotation assignment but will also receive a comprehensive list of pedagogical best practices for effective annotation.
Upon completion, participants will be able to:
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- Create a syllabus annotation assignment using hypothesis in Blackboard, establishing an initial low-pressure task at the semester’s outset.
- Initiate the integration of social annotation into your courses, fostering a collaborative environment that encourages active engagement to enhance student success.
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29-Feb
1:30-2:15 p.m.
Leveraging Social Annotation in the Age of AI
Instructor: Gloria Barron
The advent of cutting-edge technologies, exemplified by innovations like ChatGPT, has ignited a crucial dialogue within the education industry. In this workshop, you will receive guidance on utilizing social annotation to foster authentic, process-oriented engagement with your course materials. Gain insights into best practices for incorporating social annotation with AI tools and learn the practical steps to set up hypothesis-enabled readings in Blackboard.
Upon completion, participants will be able to:
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- Explore strategies for effectively working with ChatGPT output
- Leave with tangible assignment ideas for immediate implementation in your courses.
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March
7-Mar
3:00 PM – 3:45 PM
Introduction to Hypothesis in Blackboard
Instructor: Gloria Barron
In this workshop, we will discuss how instructors use annotation-powered reading to cultivate essential academic skills, including deep reading and persuasive writing, in students. In addition to sharing pedagogical best practices for social annotation, we will offer hands-on demonstrations of hypothesis in action with course readings on Blackboard. Participants will depart with a comprehensive understanding of seamlessly integrating social annotation into their courses, ultimately leading to enhanced student outcomes.
By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:
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- Explain the concept and benefits of social annotation through collaborative learning.
- Become familiar with the functionalities and features of the hypothesis annotation tool.
- Create a hypothesis assignment in Blackboard.
- Begin annotating web pages, PDFs, and other online content effectively.
- Create clear, concise instructions to foster a constructive and positive annotation experience for students who meet unit or course objectives.
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28-Mar
12:15-1 p.m.
Annotation and AI Starter Assignments
Instructor: Gloria Barron
This workshop caters to instructors who are keen on incorporating social annotation into their courses but seeking guidance on effectively guiding students. Participants will explore ideas for annotation starter assignments and receive ready-to-use instructions applicable across various disciplines and modalities. Regardless of the discipline or teaching modality, this workshop offers strategies that can be immediately integrated into your course assignments. Besides sharing pedagogical best practices for collaborative annotation, participants will also gain hands-on experience using hypothesis with course readings in Blackboard.
By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:
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- Create an assignment to annotate as a low-stakes assignment
- Begin incorporating collaborative annotation into a course to improve student success.
- Employ ChatGPT to enable students to critically review and analyze key course ideas through its output.
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APRIL
4-Apr
12:15 PM – 1:00 PM
Using Hypothesis with Small Groups
Instructor: Gloria Barron
In large classes, engaging every student can be challenging. Utilizing hypothesis for social annotation in small groups facilitates more meaningful and collaborative connections with students. This workshop addresses options for using hypothesis in small groups and explores how social annotation can enhance a collaborative learning environment.
By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:
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- Outline various use cases for implementing the Hypothesis small groups feature in your Blackboard course site.
- Demonstrate the creation of a Hypothesis-enabled reading in your Blackboard course site with small groups enabled.
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11-Apr
3:15 PM-4:00 PM
Grading and Feedback for Social Annotation
Instructor: Gloria Barron
While there are several grading options in hypothesis, emphasizing the importance of incentivizing participation is crucial. To ignite interest in annotation, instructors should offer clear guidelines that reward high-quality contributions. Social annotation provides an ideal format for assessing and promoting continuous learning. Join this session to gather ideas and tools that can elevate your grading and feedback practices to the next level.
By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:
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- Identify the foundational components for creating either an analytic or holistic rubric for annotation and establish a framework for delivering effective feedback.
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For information or to learn more about social annotation with hypothesis for Blackboard, send an email to: gloria.barron@montgomerycollege.edu