Insights from the FLO EdTech Sandbox Sessions
3.5 Creating Active Learning Experiences Using H5P
John Cheng
As part of the BCcampus FLO EdTech Sandbox Series, John Cheng presented on H5P and how it can be used to create active and engaging online learning experiences. In this session, participants had an opportunity to explore some of the affordances of H5P in teaching and learning, review some considerations when building with the tool, browse through different H5P content types, and build content through a hands-on, online demonstration.
John Cheng is an educational consultant at the University of British Columbia
What Is H5P?
H5P, which is short for HTML5 Package, is a flexible, open-source, online content-authoring tool. It can be used to create dynamic, interactive web content (also known as content types), including interactive media, content presentations, quizzes, and games. It’s free to use, and the content can be shared and reused by others. H5P content is mobile friendly, can be delivered as an open education resource, and can be integrated into various learning management systems, Pressbooks, or websites.
When Can You Use It?
H5P can be used for:
- Creating formative assessment such as quick knowledge checks or quizzes,
- Structuring text-heavy content into dynamic, interactive experiences,
- Reusing and updating content across various courses/sections, and
- Enhancing the engagement and interactivity of online course materials.
Benefits and Challenges
The literature suggests that H5P fosters active learning experiences by offering immediate, formative, and personalized feedback, alongside low-stakes assessments and increased engagement. It is distinguished by its capability to boost student engagement through interactive and accessible content. H5P is open source, free, scalable, versatile, and portable across a wide array of teaching and learning scenarios. However, users of H5P should be ready to face certain challenges; it may require some technical expertise and creating high-quality content can demand significant time and resources. There are also restrictions on how much H5P content can be customized. When using the tool, you need to consider how often you plan to maintain and update H5P content, and how you might be able to reach out to the H5P community, or your network of learning designers and educational technology specialists, for support.
Content Types and Design Considerations
During the session, we previewed a few of the most popular content types developed through H5P.org. We also spent some time building a question set and content presentation. These demonstrations highlighted a few key aspects to consider when developing content with H5P:
- Think about pedagogy and function when selecting content types. Kwantlen Polytechnic University, University of British Columbia and University of New South Wales in Australia offer some different perspectives.
- Choose H5P content types based on the learning outcomes aligning wit