H5P

H5P is fast becoming one of my favourite tools for developing rich online educational content. From simple quizzes, timelines and drag and drop to more complex branching scenarios, interactive videos and course presentations. Take for example the interactive video below based on a BBC presentation about the aurora borealis and legends surrounding it.

So why H5P?

Rich content-type: It’s visually rich and interactive both of which help learners to be engaged and learn materials. Much of the materials are self-paced assessments like drag and drop, find the hotspot, flip cards, memory game etc.

Easy to create: H5P does not require coding knowledge. The user interface for creating content is relatively straightforward for each content type. You select the content type you want to create and from there follow the steps to add the teaching materials like images, audio files, videos you plan to use and then how you expect users to interact with it. You can also update content when you want.

Easy to share: H5P has the ability to share the content in two ways. If you want to share content you can either embed the content without H5P integration in the same way you can embed videos from YouTube, Vimeo etc using an embed code (the embed code for the above interactive video is readily accessible from the menu bar at the base of it), or you can export the content and import it to another location that supports H5P integration. H5P has the advantage of currently being supported by WordPress, Drupal, Moodle, Canvas, Blackboard and Brightspace platforms.

You can create a free account on H5P.org to create content on that site or use your own site if it’s compatible and supported. You’ll need to use a site if you want to monitor how content is used (scores etc) and/or if you want that content not to be generally publically accessible.

There are some things however to be aware of which makes life a bit easier developing H5P content.

In the same way as cooking, it’s helpful to have all the ingredients you need ready at hand. It is very difficult (impossible usually) to save a project halfway through the creation process. There are ways around this such as finalising a creation part-way through and then going back and updating it, but I have found this is not always possible. In a similar vein, make sure you have enough time to complete your creation. You can leave your composing window open, but if it closes nothing is saved.

H5P is great for creating rich content and self-assessment, but one of the things that would make it more useful is the ability to reward achievement. Currently, there is no ability to trigger or award certificates/virtual badges indicating completion or grade achieved. H5P relies on providing information to the CMS it’s integrated with and for the CMS to award any certificates or badges.

H5P is however being updated all the time with new content types from the community. Currently at the time of writing:

  • Accordion
  • Advent Calendar
  • Agamotto
  • Arithmetic Quiz
  • Audio Recorder
  • Chart
  • Collage
  • Column
  • Crossword
  • Dialog Cards
  • Dictation
  • Documentation Tool
  • Drag and Drop
  • Drag the Words
  • Essay
  • Fill in the Blanks
  • Find Multiple Hotspots
  • Find the Hotspot
  • Find the words (‘word search’)
  • Flashcards
  • Guess the Answer
  • Iframe Embedder
  • Image Choice
  • Image Hotspots
  • Image Juxtaposition
  • Image pairing
  • Image sequencing
  • Image slider
  • Impressive Present…
  • Interactive Book
  • KewAr Code
  • Mark the Words
  • Memory Game
  • Multiple Choice
  • Personality Quiz
  • Questionnaire
  • Quiz (Question set)
  • Single Choice Set
  • Sort the Paragraphs
  • Speak the Words
  • Speak the Words set
  • Summary
  • Timeline
  • True/False Question
  • Virtual Tour (360)
  • Interactive Video
  • Course Presentation
  • Branching Scenario
  • Advanced fill the blanks

Want to find out more about H5P and what it can do? Visit https://h5p.org/ and if you create an account you can start playing around and creating.

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