Milestone Documents

https://www.milestonedocuments.com/faq#faqs

The above link leads to a primary source reader (log in required, but you get the gist from the FAQ). The site includes over 1700 primary sources (and is constantly expanding). Each entry presents an image of the original document, a transcript, and an analysis and commentary.

These sources are divided into 8 topical units; i.e. African-American History, Ancient Near East, etc. Each unit includes a selection of core documents and is then customizable from there. Professors can  hide the commentary from students to encourage independent analysis, and then restore commentary following class discussion.

Each article features links to related primary source documents (each with their own analysis and commentary).  Students can highlight, annotate, and save their notes directly via their site account. Professors can do the same, either privately (for teaching notes), or publicly (to direct/instruct) students.

This online textbook/teaching tool exemplifies the elasticity of dynamic texts (holding a breadth of information to great to compile into print; customizable unlike print), and of interactive/hypertext (both students and professors can take and share notes directly via the site). The latter demonstrates the pedagogical advantages of hypertext.