Last December, we released the Hypothesis LMS app, a tool that enables you to integrate collaborative web annotation for course readings in any LMS with single sign-on and automatic private annotation groups for each class. In August, we announced the Hypothesis app’s first LMS gradebook integration for Instructure Canvas. We are now pleased to announce gradebook integration for any LMS that supports IMS Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI), including not only Canvas, but also Blackboard, D2L Brightspace, Moodle, Sakai, and Schoology.

We developed this feature at the request of our educational users who wanted to make annotation activity part of their formal assessment processes. As they’ve explained to us, teachers want to make annotations gradable both to incentivize students and to give them credit for the work they do. In addition, making annotation part of formal assessment enables educators and learners to focus on the skills and practices necessary to develop various literacies.

Gradebook integration will greatly enhance the workflow of assessing student annotations for those that choose to do so, as some users expressed themselves before we got this announcement out.

As in our Canvas integration, our model for gradebook integration in other LMS singles out each student’s contributions to a conversation on a document, both annotations and replies, and enables instructors to enter a grade for an annotated reading assignment.

IMS Global LTI Certification
We have also completed the steps to certify the Hypothesis LMS app for IMS Global’s Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI) 1.1 and LTI Outcomes Service 1.x standards. Like our work to establish and meet the W3C web annotation standard, we believe adhering to common standards like LTI will enable Hypothesis annotation to work as designed in as many contexts as possible with a minimum of technical configuration. We strive to meet standards to support the interoperability that is core to our mission to enable everyone to annotate everywhere.

Our next steps with the LMS app include meeting additional IMS LTI standards, like the newer LTI Advantage that is starting to be supported more widely by learning management systems and other educational tools.

Add Hypothesis to your LMS
If you don’t already have the Hypothesis LMS app installed at your campus, get credentials or send your local LMS admin to add the external tool to your LMS and course. If you already have the Hypothesis LMS app installed, browse our expanding set of tutorials for different LMSs to learn more about how the new grading functionality can improve your workflow for assessing student annotations. Read online.

Free Webinar: 4 December 2019
Educators can register now for our free webinar, Hypothesis Annotation in Your LMS, Now with Gradebook Integration, and receive a confirmation email with webinar connection information and handy links to add the webinar to your calendar on Wednesday 4 December 2019. Register now.

ENDS

About Hypothesis
Hypothesis is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the development and spread of open, standards-based annotation technologies and practices, enabling anyone to annotate anywhere. Our mission is to help humans reason more effectively together through a shared, collaborative discussion layer over all knowledge. Hypothesis is based in San Francisco, CA, USA, with a worldwide team.

Hypothesis has developed its open source annotation software in collaboration with many partners and sponsors, including specific projects to augment groups and authentication capabilities with eLife, to enable annotation on EPUBs with NYU, the Readium Foundation, Evident Point, and EPUB.js, and many others. We thank our partners and community for working with us to advance standards-based, interoperable annotation for all.

Contacts
Media: Nate Angell, Director of Marketing
Education: Jeremy Dean,  Director of Education
Web: hypothes.is
Twitter: @hypothes_is