Hypothesis helps institutions make learning active, social, and human. In a world where AI can generate any answer instantly, authentic engagement has become the most valuable part of education. Hypothesis is the social annotation platform trusted by 350+ institutions to: • Increase student engagement and reading completion • Improve retention and course outcomes • Strengthen digital literacy and critical thinking • Build community through active, visible discussion Our tools integrate with every major LMS and support millions of students in higher education, research, and professional learning. Because in the age of AI, the most powerful thing we can teach students is how to think: together.

Industry

Education

Company size

11-50 employees

Headquarters

San Francisco, CA

Type

Privately Held

Founded

2011

Specialties

Annotation, Peer Review, Web, Collaboration, Education, EdTech, Student Success, Student Engagement, and Teaching and Learning

• Hypothesis reposted this

  1w

  Great timing on this Boston Globe Media piece talking about AI degrees rolling out at Suffolk University and others. This spring Hypothesis saw this demand playing out in real time. Our free AI literacy course pack was downloaded by faculty from 600+ global institutions since we launched it in March. Educators aren’t waiting for formal degree programs to launch: they’re integrating AI skills into their existing courses and workflows right now. The conversations I have aren’t about whether schools should teach AI. The focus has been on how to do it responsibly and at scale. These degrees are one piece of the puzzle, but embedding technologies like our universal annotation layer help all students develop the critical thinking skills they’ll need to evaluate the output coming from the prompts they are generating. Proud to see Suffolk leading here as an alumni. Interdisciplinary AI literacy is going to be key to developing career skills after graduation.

  Boston-area colleges are looking to make students ‘AI natives’ with new majors - The Boston Globe bostonglobe.com

• 3,901 followers

  1w

  📣 Today! Join our Learning Lab: Activating Annotation — a free workshop on using social annotation to build foundational skills like close reading and persuasive writing. We'll cover pedagogical best practices and show how Hypothesis works with your course readings right in your LMS, including setting up annotation assignments. 🗓️ Thursday, August 13 – 2:30 PM ET Register here: https://hubs.li/Q04sLFVK0 #SocialAnnotation #EdTech #HigherEd #ActiveLearning #Hypothesis

• 3,901 followers

  1w

  Today at 1pm EDT. Join Hypothesis CEO Joe Ferraro and Head of Product and Support Michael DiRoberts live for Think First, Talk Later: Introducing Paced Social Annotation. AI makes it easy for students to see summaries, generated answers, even their classmates' ideas before forming their own. This webinar introduces a new instructional mode that protects space for original thinking first, then reveals peer annotations at a checkpoint you control. Seats are filling up. Register now to save your spot: https://hubs.li/Q04sK0vy0 #HigherEducation #SocialAnnotation #HypothesisAcademy #FacultyDevelopment #EdTech

• Hypothesis reposted this

  2w Edited

  I have met with campus administrators, academic leaders, faculty and instructional designers from over 150 institutions this year so far and topic of finding ways to drive real engagement always entered the conversation. I’ve heard stories of AI bots completing exams in real time, countless examples of AI generated essays and assignments, and while AI detectors were seen as the first line of defense, many folks were uneasy about the idea of “policing” their students. Trust is earned and goes both ways. Today’s Inside Higher Ed piece confirms what we have been hearing on the ground: at least a dozen universities have now disabled AI detection tools outright over reliability concerns, and schools like Indiana and Yale are telling faculty to stop trying to “catch” AI use and start designing for authentic engagement instead. Finding ways to meet this moment mean we can’t simply wield a hammer. There need to be many tools in a toolkit.

  AI Detectors Are Out, New Approaches Are In insidehighered.com

• Hypothesis reposted this

  1mo

  For years I've highlighted PDFs in isolation. This week, that changed. BlindianProject has just launched the first cohort of Reconstruction Lab—a small experiment in collective reading using Hypothesis. Instead of reading alone, participants annotate directly in the margins of a shared text. Questions lead to questions. One person's observation becomes another person's starting point. The paper slowly becomes a conversation. Our inaugural cohort is reading Carissa C. Remembering Interracial Intimacies: South Asian Perspectives on Black/Brown Sex and Romance in Colonial East Africa. Already, readers from Atlanta, Brooklyn, London, Mauritius and Rotherham are reading alongside one another, leaving traces of their thinking in the margins. The goal isn't to reach consensus. It's to slow down, read generously, and build an archive of questions, connections and lived experience around important scholarship.

• 3,901 followers

  4w

  Most assignments aren't broken because students stopped caring. They're broken because they don't require engagement. In our latest post, we break down why traditional assignment design falls short in the AI era and what a more intentional approach actually looks like — with specific examples faculty can use right away. If you've been wondering why completion and learning feel like different things, this one's worth a read. Read it here: https://hubs.li/Q04qPhB-0 #HigherEducation #SocialAnnotation #FacultyDevelopment #EdTech #HigherEd

• 3,901 followers

  4w

  Back-to-school season is almost here — and so are our August Learning Labs. 📚 Two free sessions this August to help you hit the ground running with Hypothesis: Aug 13 – Activating Annotation Learn how teachers are using annotation-powered reading to build foundational skills like close reading and persuasive writing. Includes a live demo of how to set up annotation assignments directly in your LMS. Aug 20 – Annotate Your Syllabus Start the term strong by having students annotate the syllabus — a low-stakes way to introduce Hypothesis while getting students engaged with course expectations from day one. Free for faculty at Hypothesis partner institutions. Register for one or both → https://hubs.li/Q04qP8XG0 #HigherEducation #SocialAnnotation #HypothesisAcademy #FacultyDevelopment #EdTech

• Hypothesis reposted this

  3,901 followers

  1y

  Beyond grades, today’s students need workforce-ready skills. With Hypothesis, social annotation inside the LMS builds: ✔️ Critical thinking ✔️ Clear communication ✔️ Digital collaboration ✔️ Accountability These aren’t “soft skills.” They’re career essentials. And students can start practicing them now—inside course readings. Read how Hypothesis helps build real-world skills that last — link in comments. #HigherEd #EdTech #DigitalLiteracy #ActiveLearning #WorkforceSkills #FutureOfWork

• Hypothesis reposted this

  1mo

  72% of students don't think their current assignments prepare them for an AI-enabled workplace. This is getting covered as an AI story. It's not. The Digital Education Council's 2026 global survey spells it out: only 28% of students feel their assessments reflect the skills they'll actually need in an AI-enabled workplace. To me, this feels like an assignment design problem. Most assignments were built for a world where the hard part was getting students to do the work. Now the hard part is getting them to think. AI didn't create that gap — it just made it impossible to ignore. 72% of students don't see their assignments as real-world relevant. AI didn't cause that, but it's making it easier for students to find workarounds than before. What's one assignment type you think still holds up in 2026? 🔗 Digital Education Council, AI in Higher Education Global Survey 2026: https://lnkd.in/gsTq9NhK

  AI in Higher Education Global Survey 2026 digitaleducationcouncil.com