Please join us for the third webinar in GSOLE's 2026-2027 series, led by Janine Morris, Logan Bearden, Kevin DePew, and Meghan Velez: 

"Fostering a Community of Readers through Social Annotation Tools"

Born from a well-attended Engaged Experience session at the 2026 CCCC, this webinar responds to the increasing need to teach students across all levels and modalities how to engage with texts, both in general and as artifacts of their disciplinary conversations. While there is a long history of reading instruction in writing studies (Haas; Sullivan, et al.; Lamb and Parrott; Carillo, and Horning), the increased literacy load in online writing courses suggests a need for teaching reading specifically in digital modalities; one way to do this is by leveraging the affordances of social annotation applications (e.g., Perusall, Google Docs).

This webinar will focus on social annotation activities facilitators have used with Google Docs and Perusall for literacy instruction in face-to-face, hybrid, and fully online courses. Social annotation practices have encouraged students to engage in Haas’ rhetorical reading–or going beyond just reading and deciphering the words contained in the text and understanding how text works to impact the context from which it was created. Moreover, social annotation activities can productively disrupt traditional discussion board or reading response pedagogies in which discussion prompts feel removed from the text or the ways that students have engaged with the text. Rather than searching for “the correct reading,” social annotations can encourage authentic, dynamic reading practices and foster collaboration and social presence in online courses, contributing to a community of practice.

The webinar will begin with a brief discussion of participants’ experiences assigning readings and annotations in their classes. Then, facilitators will provide participants with a comparative introduction of popular social annotation applications (focusing on Perusall and Google Docs) with a focus on how their affordances enhance literacy learning in online contexts.

Following this overview, the second half of the webinar will provide participants with different strategies that the presenters have used in their own classes. Topics covered in these brief pedagogical showcases include:

1. Getting started with social annotation
2. Making reading visible
3. Fostering community
4. Disrupting discussion boards

Guided by the facilitators, participants will have an opportunity to socially annotate a document in a chosen platform to experience what their students will do when using this tool. After using one of the tools, the participants will be given the opportunity to reflect on what they have learned and experienced in the webinar about social annotation tools and how they would specifically adopt them for the media in their courses. The webinar will end with participants sharing out their reflections and asking questions of the facilitators.

Participants Will Gain:

• A comparative introduction to the affordances and limitations of various social annotation platforms, including accessibility and multimodal features
• Ideas for innovating the way reading is included in their online writing courses
• Connections with other instructors using similar technologies
• Practical assignments and activities that they can include in their own courses
• A sketch of how they will adopt social annotation tools to their courses

Registration Information:

• Free for GSOLE members
• $15 for non-members 
• Become a member! ($30 regular; $20 students/contingent)