Graded Social Reading (PDF Annotation)

Overview

Social Reading (Graded PDF Annotation) allows instructors and students to have a discussion right inside the text. With Social Reading, 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 Social Reading? Check out these Teaching Tips:

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

See also: Ungraded Social Reading (PDF Annotation).

Interactive Tutorial

Use the interactive tutorial below to learn about Social Reading. Some tips:

• Turn the volume up! Alternatively, you can mute the demo to view captions.
• Get ready to interact! If you see a flashing purple dot, click it to move forward.

Set up Social Reading in Canvas

• Within your course, navigate to Assignments and click the + Assignment button. This will open the Create New Assignment Page in Canvas.

• Give the assignment a name and set the appropriate number of points.

• Scroll down the page until you see Submission Type. In this section, select External Tool from the drop down menu. Under "Enter or find an External Tool URL", click Find.

• In the Configure External Tool dialogue that appears, click Harmonize Assignment.

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

• In the next window, click +Add File to upload a single PDF for annotation. Once completed, click Create PDF Annotation.

• The dialogue window will close automatically and return you to the Configure External Tool dialogue. An automatically generated URL will appear in the URL field of this window. Please do not alter this URL in any way. Click the Select button.

• This dialogue window will close automatically. Scroll down to the Assign section. Set Due, Available From, and Until dates. Scroll to the bottom of the Create New Assignment page. Click either the Save or Save & Publish button located in the bottom right corner.

• Your graded Social Reading is now created and the Edit PDF Annotation page will open in a new browser tab. You may edit or replace the default instructions if you wish.

• Next, you will need to adjust your Social Reading Settings.

Set up Social Reading (PDF Annotation) 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 (PDF Annotation) from the Harmonize Component Selector. Click Create New to create a new Social Reading component.

• Next, do the following:
  • [1] Add a title. Enter a title for your Social Annotation activity.
  • [2] Upload PDF. Use the provided Add File dialogue to upload a single PDF for Annotation.
  • [3] Select Graded. Or choose "Not Graded" if the activity is ungraded.
  • [4] Assign points. Assign the number of possible points for your Graded Social Reading activity.
  • [5] Click Create PDF Annotation.

• Enter in any necessary details (such as due date or points) in your LMS, and then open the Social Reading activity to access the Edit PDF Annotation page. You may edit or replace the default instructions if you wish.

• Next, you will need to adjust your Social Reading Settings.

Social Reading Settings

• 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] View the Social Reading Due Date. (To change this date, please see Setting Assignment Dates.)
  • [2] Click the PDF file name to view the PDF file.
  • [3] Update annotation Instructions.
  • [4] Update Annotation Settings.
  • [5] Update Milestone Due Dates & Autograding.

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 & Autograding

• Click Milestone Due Dates & Autograding to access these settings:
  • [1] Participation Auto-Grading. Auto-grading is disabled by default. If enabled, we will grade students automatically based on completion of milestones.
  • [2] Late Participation. If you enable auto-grading, you can choose whether late participation earns points. By default, it does not.
  • [3] Milestone. Update milestones accordingly. For each milestone, you can:
    • Set Points (if auto-grading is enabled).
    • Change Requirements.
    • Adjust Complete By date.

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

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

Grading Social Reading (PDF Annotation)

Canvas SpeedGrader

To view SpeedGrader, click the action menu next to the title of your Social Reading activity and click SpeedGrader.

The Graded Social Reading will appear in the left window. Click the Annotations Panel button to open the annotations panel.

This is a summary of the individual student's activity for this graded social reading activity. It has the following components:

• [1] Student's Annotations. A summary of the student's top-level annotations will appear in this panel. You can click "View" to see any annotation in the context of the reading.
• [2] Student's Replies. A summary of the student's replies to peers will appear in this panel.
• [3] Student's Milestones. Here you can see whether a student completed their milestones and, if applicable, how points were awarded.
• [4] Student's Activity Totals. This panel will show the total number of top-level annotations and replies to classmates as well as the percent of annotations viewed.

When do annotations go the SpeedGrader in Canvas?

• Milestones configured
  • If a student completes all milestones: Harmonize sends student work to SpeedGrader immediately
  • If the due date passes: Harmonize sends student work to SpeedGrader immediately (even if milestones are not completed)
  • If a student does not participate in the activity: Harmonize sends nothing to SpeedGrader
• No milestones configured
  • If a student creates a top-level PDF annotation: Harmonize sends student work to SpeedGrader immediately
  • If a student creates a reply, but does not create a top-level PDF annotation: Harmonize sends student work to SpeedGrader when the due date elapses
  • If a student does not participate in the activity: Harmonize sends nothing to SpeedGrader

Blackboard, Brightspace, and Moodle

To grade your Social Reading activity, click the Grades & Activity button in the top right of the Harmonize window. Select a student from the list.

This is a summary of the individual student's activity for this graded social reading activity. It has the following components:

• [1] Student's Annotations. A summary of the student's top-level annotations will appear in this panel. You can click "View" to see any annotation in the context of the reading.
• [2] Student's Replies. A summary of the student's replies to peers will appear in this panel.
• [3] Student's Milestones. Here you can see whether a student completed their milestones and, if applicable, how points were awarded.
• [4] Student's Activity Totals. This panel will show the total number of top-level annotations and replies to classmates as well as the percent of annotations viewed.

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 I auto-grade my social reading activity?

• Yes! Auto-grading is now available in Social Reading (PDF Annotations).