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BOOKSHELF® BY VITALSOURCE AND HYPOTHESIS


MAKING DIGITAL TEXTS COME ALIVE WITH SOCIAL ANNOTATION

Like many colleges and students across the country, the University of Minnesota
and The University of Texas at Austin have turned to Bookshelf by VitalSource to
provide students with access to affordable, accessible, and impactful digital
course materials.

To foster engagement, community, and critical thinking skills, both institutions
leveraged Hypothesis’s integration with Bookshelf to engage students more deeply
with texts in a digital environment.

 


CASE STUDIES: BOOKSHELF BY VITALSOURCE AND HYPOTHESIS INTEGRATION

 



 


CHALLENGE

No matter the discipline, reading isn’t just one piece of the learning
experience, sitting neatly alongside activities like class discussion,
assignments, and student-instructor interaction. Rather, reading is the fuel
that powers the entire journey.

“Reading isn’t just a bonus — it’s a fundamental part of being an educated
person,” says Viranga Perera, Assistant Professor of Instruction in the
Department of Physics at UT Austin.


“MAKING ANNOTATIONS EVEN A SMALL PERCENTAGE OF THE GRADE IS ENOUGH TO GET
STUDENTS TO PAY ATTENTION AND DO THE READINGS.”

 

– Viranga Perera, Assistant Professor of Instruction in the Department of
Physics at UT Austin

To Perera, reading’s importance goes beyond being a necessity. It determines
what teaching and learning look like in the classroom. “Reading prepares
students for the lecture. We have a lot of material to cover. When they’re
reading, we’re a step ahead; we can focus on solving more challenging problems
and getting into real-world applications,” he says.

Perera’s not alone. “Getting students to engage with the text sets the tone for
everything else in the course,” says Allison Brenneise, professor in
the Department of Communication Studies at the University of Minnesota, Twin
Cities.

Despite teaching in vastly different disciplines, Brenneise and Perera share
something else in common: they recognized that students weren’t doing the
reading, and they decided that something would have to change.

“A lot of students say, ‘Oh, I’m just going to go watch a YouTube video.’ But
critical details get missed when students don’t read technical material from a
textbook,” says Perera.

 



An analysis of courses at UT Austin revealed that students had a much greater
tendency to engage with the text in sections that used Hypothesis compared with
students in sections that did not.


SOLUTION

Like many institutions, the University of Minnesota and UT Austin partner with
VitalSource to provide students with affordable, accessible digital course
materials. With more than 18 million users annually, Bookshelf is The Premier
Global Digital Content Platform.

Brenneise and Perera each saw the potential impact of using the Hypothesis
social annotation tool in tandem with Bookshelf by VitalSource — something that
became possible in 2022 when the organizations launched their integration.

Implementing Hypothesis and Bookshelf by VitalSource

At the University of Minnesota, Brenneise made sure her students got off on the
right foot by having them annotate the syllabus. “Everyone’s a social annotation
champion after this assignment,” she says.

Then, she has her students move on to annotating Bookshelf by VitalSource texts.
Two of her favorite use cases: Conducting “silent discussion” by having students
synchronously annotate the text, and bringing questions to her attention by
using Hypothesis’s tagging feature.

“The tags tell me whether a question is for me, or if it’s something the student
wants to bring up during class discussion,” she says.

At UT Austin, Perera took advantage of Hypothesis’s streamlined user interface
as well as its integration with his institution’s LMS, Canvas. “Setting up the
readings is easy, and from there, Hypothesis does a good job of staying out of
the way while students engage with the text,” he says.

Wanting to drive usage, Perera decided to give students some incentives.

“Making annotations even a small percentage of the grade is enough to get
students to pay attention and do the readings.”


RESULTS

Both UT Austin and the University of Minnesota achieved incredible results with
the help of the Hypothesis and Bookshelf by VitalSource integration.

UT Austin

In any course, students engage with the text with varying degrees of frequency.
A “power user curve” offers a way to visualize engagement with the text not only
across this spectrum of students but throughout the term. A power user curve of
Perera’s course reveals that his students showed a much higher level of
engagement over time than students in sections of the same course not using
Hypothesis.

In Perera’s sections using Hypothesis, the median number of days that students
engaged with the text was more than 3 times higher than in sections of the same
course that did not use Hypothesis.

 



 

“The amount of engagement in this course is outstanding. It’s in the upper
echelon looking across every course at every institution we power. I love to see
how much these students are getting out of their textbooks,” says Nick Brown, VP
of Product, VitalSource.

 


IN ADDITION TO THE DATA, PERERA OBSERVED A NUMBER OF KEY BENEFITS AND OUTCOMES:

 

Hypothesis helped students understand course material more deeply. “Because
students came to class knowing the basics, we could spend class time talking
about the meaning of what they read,” says Perera.

Students took charge of their learning. “There are certain things that I want
students to learn — things that are part of education but not directly part of
the course. This is one of them.”

Students saw the purpose of reading. “Hypothesis gives students the chance to
see how reading can give them an advantage. They learn that, by engaging with
the material before they come to class, they can use the lecture to solidify
their understanding.”


UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA

In Brenneise’s sections that used Hypothesis — across multiple years and
multiple texts — students were more likely to engage with the text than in
sections of the same course taught by Brenneise that did not use Hypothesis.

On average, in sections using Hypothesis, the median number of days that
students engaged with the text was 10, compared to an average median of only 4
days in sections not using Hypothesis.

 



 

To Brenneise, the impact of using Hypothesis and Bookshelf by VitalSource
together was clear.

 * Students didn’t just read the text — they took positions on it. “The exciting
   part, to me, is how students feel more comfortable taking different positions
   in their annotations. They learn how to disagree with each other without
   shutting down,” Brenneise says.

 * Improved writing and critical thinking skills. “Hypothesis leaves students
   with a clearer idea of what makes a good argument, and how they might be able
   to leverage that in their own writing.”

 * Learning took on more meaning. “With Hypothesis, students learn how powerful
   it is for their peers to read their work and give feedback. They become more
   invested in what they’re doing.”

 


WANT TO LEARN HOW SOCIAL ANNOTATION CAN DRIVE ETEXT ENGAGEMENT?

Visit web.hypothes.is or email education@hypothes.is to schedule a brief demo
and learn more about our integration with Bookshelf by VitalSource.


ABOUT HYPOTHESIS

Hypothesis is a new effort to implement an old idea: A conversation layer over
the entire web that works everywhere. The Hypothesis social annotation tool is
used by over a million people around the world who have made over 45 million
annotations. In higher education, more than 400 colleges and universities use
Hypothesis.


ABOUT VITALSOURCE

VitalSource is the leading education technology solutions provider committed to
helping partners create, deliver, and distribute affordable, accessible, and
impactful learning experiences worldwide.



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