It’s a leap of faith: Assign students 30 pages of a novel and hope they’ll read it deeply. While in-class discussions are an opportunity to hear their thoughts, there’s rarely enough time for everyone to participate. To boost engagement, try using social annotations—comments and responses that can be shared virtually among students—researchers suggest in a 2022 study.

Moving some conversations online not only opens the door for greater participation, but can improve the quality and quantity of student annotations, the researchers found. In the study, college professors uploaded reading materials and asked students to use a social annotation tool—Perusall or Google’s comment feature, for example—to analyze key ideas, share real-life applications, or provide insights.

Not only were the discussions “more dynamic than static,” with participants tagging each other as conversations progressed, but students reported that they learned more, since developing insights in concert with others “helped them understand the content and connect with their peers,” the researchers concluded.