Students can participate in social annotations through the course reserves software.
Social annotations are only possible on PDFs. If you intend to use social annotations, please add a note to the item on your reading list that you need a PDF so we know not to link an ebook or online journal article when processing your request.
To add a note, hover over the item, click on “Full details,” click to the “library discussion” tab, type your message in the box at the bottom of the screen, and click “send.” You can also email us at preserve@temple.edu.
All PDFs are subject to copyright limits – 20% of a title or two articles from the same issue of a journal, per course, per semester.
To enable social annotations, open the PDF from course reserves and ensure that the “Public Annotations” toggle at the top right corner is switched on.
To add public annotations, click over to the “Class discussion” tab under the item’s name.
Highlight the text in the PDF that you’d like to annotate and click the “Comment” icon. A box will appear on the right side of the screen where you can write and publish a comment. You can also reply to others’ comments.
Students can also take private notes on the document in the “My notes” tab. These notes are only visible to that student unless they click the three dots to the right of the comment and select “Set as public.”
Social annotations are integrated with the Canvas gradebook, allowing you to create “Read and Respond” assignments where students annotate PDFs for a grade.
Watch the video below for instructions, then read on for important Temple-specific guidance.
In this video you’ll hear the word “Leganto,” which is the name of the course reserves software.
If you choose to use Read and Respond assignments, please keep the following in mind:
Canvas student view does not work with the reserves software. If you try to view the assignment as a student, you will get an error message. This is a known issue. If you want to know how the assignment looks to students, ask a student to look for you or add a colleague to your course as a student.
When creating a social annotation assignment, you can either upload your own file or use an existing file in your reading list.
If you upload your own file, students will not be able to view it until the library verifies copyright compliance and accessibility.
If you use an existing file in your reading list, you must build your list and send it to the library before creating annotation assignments and wait for the library to process your list and make PDFs available.
Please allow at least 1-3 business days for the library to review instructor uploaded files and/or make new files available in your reading list, and up to one week during peak processing times such as the start of a new semester.
Need help? Email us at asktulibrary@temple.edu
