Hypothesis Using Bb Groups
Using Blackboard Groups to Create a Hypothesis Reading
Scenario:
A Political Science instructor has assigned an article from the Economist Magazine. Students will read and analyze the article for discussion at the next virtual meeting.
Pablo, an international student, feels overwhelmed. He thinks the article is too long, and to make matters worse, it contains advanced vocabulary and tiny print. As he read the article, he found that he did not know the meaning of many words and so it became difficult to make sense of the reading. He becomes frustrated because, after 30 minutes, he still doesn’t understand the point of the article. He feels lost and is ready to quit. He wishes that he had a partner for this assignment.
Question: How do you know that your students understand the assigned reading?
Hypothesis for Blackboard is a social marking tool that provides a collaborative space for students to annotate a reading assignment, allowing everyone in the class to annotate the same reading assignment.
Create a hypothesis assignment to help students understand the reading. Hypothesis allows students to comment on statements made in web-accessible content or electronic PDF documents while developing digital skills through page annotation and highlighting.
With hypothesis, instructors can:
- Create hypothesis assignments from web content or PDF documents.
- Assign a hypothesis reading to ensure that all students read and understand the content.
- See comments made by individual students in a course.
- Filter and rank student comments about statements made.
- Grade student activity for quality and quantity of annotations made.
- Create groups in Blackboard to annotate a hypothesis assignment in smaller groups.
Providing detailed instructions to students to annotate a reading properly provides a higher level of responses through comments and replies to other students with well-constructed opinions that could include links to web resources and media to support their arguments.
Many struggling readers lack strategic reading skills and the metacognitive awareness needed to effectively develop, choose, and utilize comprehension-enhancing strategies. Additionally, some may struggle with reading fluency, either reading too slowly or lacking smoothness.
By engaging with comments from peers, struggling students gain an additional chance to decode the text, bridging ideas with the content. Moreover, each interaction ties back to the student, enabling instructors to monitor participation and intervene with grading when needed.
A Blackboard Hypothesis reading assignment doesn’t have to be an entire class activity. It can be assigned to students in groups. Private groups allow students to annotate together and privately on a hypothesis assignment. When students work in groups, only the members of each group can see the comments and replies made by the group members.
Steps to create a hypothesis group assignment:
- Create groups in Blackboard (Instructions below)
- Create a hypothesis assignment
- Paste a URL or link to a PDF document
- Check the Groups Checkbox and select the existing group from the list
Creating a Group in Blackboard
Instructors must first create the groups in Blackboard to assign a hypothesis group reading assignment.
To create groups in Blackboard:
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Turn Edit Mode to ON
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Go to Course Management>Users and Groups> Groups
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Create a Group Set and determine how students will be enrolled: Self-Enroll, Random-Enroll, or Manual-Enroll.
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Add a Group Set name |
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Determine how to assign students to the groups.
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MEMBERSHIP
Number of Students per Group
Distribute the remaining members amongst the groups. Put the remaining members in their own group. Manually add the remaining members to groups.
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Submit |
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Determine the Number of Groups by
Determine how to enroll any remaining members