Ungraded Social Reading (PDF Annotation)

Overview

Social Reading (PDF Annotation) allows instructors and students to have a discussion right inside the text. With  PDF annotations, you can:

• Encourage students to read by making reading itself a class activity.
• Increase content retention by inviting students to think and reflect while they read.
• Discuss a wide variety of documents. What can you turn into a PDF? Just about anything! In addition to course readings, you can invite students to annotate the course syllabus, assignment sheets for major projects or papers, sample assignments, lecture slides, and more.

Wondering what to do with PDF Annotations? Check out these Teaching Tips:

• Enhancing Content Retention with Polling and Social Annotations
• Enhancing Learning with Course Document Annotations

See also: Graded Social Reading (PDF Annotation).

Setting Up PDF Annotations for Your Students in Canvas

• Navigate to the Module to which you want to add Harmonize components.
• Click the "+" icon located to the right of the Module name.

• You will be presented with the Add Item to [Module Name] window.
• Select External Tool from the "Add" drop down menu.
• Select Harmonize.

• In the Link Resource from External Tool dialogue that appears, click Social Reading (PDF Annotation). 

• Choose Create New.

• Enter a Title and then click Create Social Reading.

• Click Add Item.

• The Social Reading (PDF Annotation) component is now added to your Canvas Module.
• Next, you will need to set up your activity using one of the following options:
  • Easy Wizard Setup for Social Reading (Recommended)
  • Manual Configuration and Editing (Advanced)

Setting Up PDF Annotations for Your Students in Blackboard, Brightspace, and Moodle

• Follow the steps for Adding a Harmonize Component to Your Course. Come back to this guide once you've reached the Harmonize Component Selector.
• Select Social Reading from the Harmonize Component Selector. 

• Choose Create New.

• Enter a Title, select Not Graded, and then click Create Social Reading.

• Next, you will need to set up your activity using one of the following options:
  • Easy Wizard Setup for Social Reading (Recommended)
  • Manual Configuration and Editing (Advanced)

Easy Wizard Setup for Social Reading (Recommended)

• After you add the social reading component to your course and launch the activity, you will see the setup wizard.

• [1] First, enter the due date for your activity. This should be the date when the last annotations or replies are due.
• [2] Choose to enable or disable milestones. You can choose how many annotations and replies students should complete and when.
• [3] Click Select Document.

• Upload your file for annotation. We recommend uploading fully accessible PDFs. You can also upload Word documents, PowerPoints, and other common file types, and we will attempt to convert them to PDFs.

 

• Click Write Instructions.

 

• You will see prefilled instructions for a basic social reading activity. You can review these instructions and choose to keep, edit, or replace them.

 

• Optionally, you can upload or create media to enrich your instructions, or you can put your students in small groups.

 

• Click Continue to Publishing.

 

• If you're happy with what you've created, you can click Publish.

 

• If you'd like to instead access additional settings, you can click Configure Additional Settings.

•  Additional Settings include:
  • Connecting to Canvas or Blackboard group sets.
  • Changing or updating the instructions or selected PDF file.
• To learn more about about these settings, go to Manual Configuration and Editing (Advanced).

Manual Configuration and Editing (Advanced)

• First, Add a Harmonize Component to Your Course.
• Next, navigate to your Social Reading activity and click the title to open it.
• If this is your first time opening the PDF, you will be presented with the Edit PDF Annotation window. If not, click the Edit button near the top right of the Harmonize window.

• From the Edit PDF Annotation window you may:
  • [1] Edit the Title as well as the Available From and Available Until Dates. 
  • [2] Add or update the Document for the activity.
  • [3] Update annotation Instructions.
  • [4] Update Annotation Settings.
  • [5] Update Milestone Due Dates.

Update Annotation Settings

• Click Annotation Settings to set Visibility Settings for your Social Reading activity. Depending upon your LMS, these options include:
  • Visible to Everyone
  • Students in Same Sections (Canvas only)
  • Students in Same Group
  • Private Between Students & Instructors

Update Milestone Due Dates

• Click Milestone Due Dates tab to access milestones. For each milestone, you can:
  • [1] Adjust the Complete By date.
  • [2] Change the Requirements.

• At the bottom, you can:
  • [1] Add Milestone to add as many milestones as desired.
  • [2] Check Total Requirements.
  • [3] Publish when ready.

What file types can I upload for social reading?

For the best user experience, we recommend uploading fully accessible PDFs. However, you can also upload common file types like Word Documents and PowerPoint slide decks, and will attempt to convert them to PDFs automatically.

Supported

• PDFs (recommended)
• Word Documents
• PowerPoint Slides

Not Supported

• Images
• Video

Alternatives for Annotating Images and Videos

If you want your students to annotate images, you will either need to convert them to PDFs yourself or use the image annotation tool inside a Harmonize discussion, peer review, or individual assignment.

Note: If the document contains no readable text, students will need to use pins instead of the highlighting tool.

If you want your students to annotate videos, you have two options:

1. Ask students to do timestamped video feedback inside a Harmonize discussion, peer review, or individual assignment.
2. Upload or record a video (or include a link to a YouTube video) in the instructions for your social reading activity. When prompted to upload a document for annotation, upload the video's transcript. Students will be able to view the video in the instructions and annotate the transcript either during or after watching.

Creating Annotations

Once the Social Reading activity is created, instructors and students can add new annotations as well as respond to the annotations of others.

Section 1: Navigation and Filtering Options

	Show / Hide Annotations
	Previous / Next Annotation
	Zoom In, Zoom Out, Select Magnification

Section 2: Annotation Tools

	Create a Highlight
	Drop a Pin
	Move / Pan

Section 3: Annotation Menu

Open / Close Annotations Panel

The Annotations Panel

Here is an example of how top-level student annotations and replies appear in the Annotations Panel:

	Previous / Next Annotation
	Annotation Action Menu Edit Annotation Delete Annotation
	Reply to Annotation

Frequently Asked Questions

Q. Can I use Milestones in social reading activities?

• Yes. You can set milestones for top-level annotations as well as replies to annotations.

Q. Can I use Harmonize's Group Visibility setting in a social reading activity?

• Yes. Click the Harmonize "Edit" button and click the Annotation Settings tab. Choose "Students in Same Group" and select your desired group set from the Group Set drop down menu.

Q. Can students upload their own PDFs for annotation by the rest of the class?

• Yes, but not in Social Reading. See Document Critique.

Q. Can this tool be used in a private mode where students don't see each other's annotations?

• Yes, but you might instead consider using Document Critique inside an individual assignment.

Q. Can I hide annotations from students who haven't annotated yet?

• Yes, but not in Social Reading. See Document Critique.