Make your eLearning Courses Pop with Interactivity using H5P

As educators we are constantly looking for ways to make our courses more interactive, engaging and with better learner experience (LX). H5P is a plugin for the Moodle and Totara Learn that helps us to do this. In this blog post we will explore this innovative HTML5 authoring suite that is capable of adding interactive, mobile-friendly content to any Moodle or Totara course. But, before we do that, lets outline why you should consider using this plugin:

H5P is open source and free to use.
H5P content looks great on all devices. Content is HTML5 and mobile friendly.
H5P is very intuitive to use with no steep learning curve.
H5P content is created, edited and published right in your browser. This makes is easy for distributed teams to collaborate in real time.
Many of the H5P content types available support accessibility requirements.

H5P Stands for HTML 5 content package, which means that it runs on the latest version of the HTML language, rather than a proprietary technology like adobe flash. The advantage of this is openness and interoperability with other open systems. It is likely to remain this way in the future as modern browsers are being built around HTML5. The H5P project began development in 2013 & has released frequent updates since then, incorporating new features and interaction types.

This plugin allows you to create interactive videos, interactive images, full course presentations, question sets, multiple choice questions, drag and drops, board games, flash cards and more. These can be created very simply within your LMS. In addition you can choose to share editable versions of these with your team members, so they can edit or collaborate on the content, through localisation for example.

Several content types even allow you to create complete courses in one interaction like course presentation or timeline. The range of options is well thought out & fit together to create a comprehensive list of eye catching interactive content. There are almost different 40 types of H5P content currently on the site. More interaction types are being developed and will be added in the future. A complete listing of the content types of H5P can be seen on the H5P website.

In this video and article, I am going to provide you with an overview of what I call the fab 4!

Interactive video
One of the most compelling of the content types is the interactive video. This is definitely my favourite for engaging learners and something that up until now, we would have completed using a content authoring tool such as Articulate Storyline or Adobe Captivate. Typically with a video based elearning course, your learner will watch the video training, then afterwards take a quiz. Finally they will get some acknowledgement, perhaps in the form of a certificate.

With H5P, you can embed your knowledge checks and quizzing right in the video. This allows you to reinforce key learnings right away, and ensures that your learners pick up on the key messages in real time. Knowledge checks are not the only thing you can embed in your video. You can also add in text prompts such as summaries, lists, or web links at key points. You can choose to have the video pause for each interactive element you add, or have it continue playing & have the icon disappear after a few seconds. When you click on any of them the content animates in, and for quizzing, results are displayed clearly and with beautiful graphics. There is no doubt that this is a great way to allow learners to interact, explore and digest the content at their own pace.

Course Presentation
Course Presentation is another content type that you will love. It is exactly what it sounds like; an full interactive course contained in a H5P interaction. To this you can add all the standard content types, text (with formatting), images, audio video etc.

You can also intersperse with knowledge checks or quiz questions. Bookmarks help you navigate the course, and depending on the content you add, a summary screen is automatically added at the end to give learners feedback on what they have achieved.

There are several indicators underneath the content showing the slide count and your current position in the course. This also shows learners discreetly where they can find knowledge checks & data points without distracting from the main content.

Interactive Image
Much like the interactive video content type, the interactive image allows you to layer elements on top of a static image. These can be text, lists, videos or even more images! This type of interactive content will work great to demonstrate a building layout, various parts of a machine, or maps. With some imagination you could conduct a treasure hunt, or track historical events across a map of Europe.

Timeline
The timeline interaction works great for demonstrating a linear progression of an object. This will work great for anything that has set data points you want to highlight, like a company or product history, or a process diagram. For each date on the timeline, you can add all the standard content types, text (with formatting), images, audio video etc.

The pedagogical process associated with Moodle/Totara course design is contained in the activities and resources. Interactive eye catching activities is the key to bringing your courses to life. There are about 20 different types of activities available (forums, glossaries, wikis, assignments, quizzes, choices (polls), scorm players, databases etc.) and the H5P plugin is a welcome addition.

The main power of this activity-based model comes in combining the activities into sequences and groups, which can help you guide course participants through learning paths. Thus, each activity can build on the outcomes of previous ones.

I fundamentally believe in empowering clients through training to take ownership of developing courses that meet and exceed the pedagogical requirements for effective learning.