The responses below reflect the three surveys submitted so far.

Do you currently or have you ever done group annotation activities with students? If so, what modalities have you used?

• Screen sharing on a computer – 3/3 respondents
• Collaboratively edited documents (e.g. Google Docs) – 3/3
• Other online tools reported:
  • Hypothes.is
  • Jamboard

How could you imagine this functionality being useful beyond close reading, detailed writing feedback, writing and reading intensive courses?

The main benefit I see from annotating text online/digitally is getting the student to take charge of their learning, feeling like they have a voice in the conversation. More broadly fostering a sense of being part of a learning community and the ability to engage with the text, as well as return to the conversation later on because they can return to the marked up document(s) on a website/shared space.

Hmmm…

I think annotation could also be quite helpful in generating and recording conversation. I don’t teach right now, but I would use it to replace Google Docs as much as possible in my other work.

What is your interest level for using annotation with your students on the OpenLab, either in class or asynchronously?

• High – 2/3 respondents
• Moderate
• Low – 1/3
• None

What is your interest level for using annotation in your other work on the OpenLab?

• High – 2/3 respondents
• Moderate – 1/3
• Low
• None

If you could design your ideal annotation tool, what would you want it to do?

In addition to being able to mark up the document textually, I would be interested to see if there are other modes of engagement that could be utilized, for example: being able to leave a voice note (that then could be automatically transcribed), including images, or drawing.

Not sure offhand.

A few thoughts about what I would want in an annotation tool:

1. visual clarity regarding which part of a page or post is being referred to in the annotation
2. the ability to have threaded comments (also visually distinct in their nesting) in a discussion around a particular annotation
3. avoid users needing to log into a separate service (e.g. like Hypothes.is)
4. not sure about email notifications. Perhaps users might be able to opt in/out?
5. It would also be great to be able to annotate elements in a site beyond a post or page, e.g. items in the top nav or sidebar, maybe a header image. (Though this is probably a pretty niche request, and might be separate tool altogether!)

Hi everyone!

The shortlist of themes currently installed on the OpenLab dev site for testing are:

• Michelle
• Miniva
• Neve
• Period

We ended up eliminating a number of themes based on accessibility issues, using the WAVE browser tool to check them for issues. We didn’t choose any that had multiple color contrast or other accessibility issues (e.g. lack of labels that announce to a screen reader what a particular element is on the site).

Testing instructions

You’ll be testing themes on openlabdev.org, just as you did with the new features. You can use the same procedure to access the dev site. And just a reminder that you need to sign in twice! Once is with the dev site credentials so you have access to the site. The second time will be with your own username and password.

1. You can use the test course you created for testing the new features.
2. Activate one of the themes on your course site (here’s a refresher from OpenLab Help, if you need it).
3. As you’re reviewing the theme please think about the following:
   • Can you you imagine using this for your work on the OpenLab? Can you imagine your students or colleagues using it? Since the OpenLab is a community platform it can be used by college students, faculty, and staff, including alumni.
   • Can you think of any use cases for this theme? What kind of site do you imagine this theme would work well for?
4. Repeat steps 1-3 to test a second theme.

Please post about your experience / feedback in the comments below.

Instructions and tips for doing a theme search:

• Go to the WordPress Themes Directory
• You can use the feature filter to narrow by specific criteria, although sometimes that can be too limiting, so play around with it
• Things to look for on  individual theme info page:
  • Last updated: Find something last updated within 1 year
  • Active Installations: Look for something popular, ideally no less than 1,000 active installations.
  • Ratings: Generally stick to at least 4 stars, although there could be exceptions. Sometimes if there aren’t many reviews they can be skewed for reasons unrelated to theme quality.
  • Preview the theme to get a sense of what it looks like, although this isn’t a perfect tool. If the theme has its own site listed, check it out to see if there’s a demo. These are usually better than using the preview function.

Criteria for theme searching

Note: use your best judgement for the criteria below. Sometimes it’s difficult to tell based on a theme preview.

• Navigation (main menu) seems clear and easy to use
• Text is clear and easy to read
• Seems to integrate visual materials well
• Has good heading styles – clear and well-differentiated
  • In the theme preview, look for the post called ‘Elements’, which contains examples of different styles.
• In ‘Tags’ section, includes custom header or custom logo

Share the link(s) to the theme(s) you selected by replying to this post as a comment.

Due: 11/17 (before next working group meeting)