H5P the story so far…….
In February 2022, Anne Misselbrook the E-Learning/Multimedia Resources Developer in Library and Learning Services (LLS), was curious about the H5P (HTML5 package) software tool, and investigated the availability of this useful tool, which is used to create interactive content.

Anne familiarised herself with H5P, and in March 2022 Karl Downing, Digital Development Lead in IT, installed H5P on to the LearnTech blog site so that a trial could take place involving Rob Howe, Head of Learning Technology LLS, Richard Byles a Learning Technologist and Anne Misselbrook. The LearnTech team could also try H5P themselves.

An important requirement for usage of H5P by staff and students, is the single ‘go to’ place for student learning, and that place is the University Virtual Learning Environment, NILE (Northampton Integrated Learning Environment). To be able to scale this resource provision up to be available to all staff, integrating H5P with NILE was necessary.

By 6 April 2022, it was concluded that H5P.com integration with Blackboard was the solution. In June 2022 H5P was purchased and made available for staff to use. H5P training sessions, designed, developed and delivered by Anne began in August 2022 and a dedicated H5P Community Organisation ULTRA site developed by Anne was also made available. The number of staff enrolled on to that site is 148 as at date 16 March 2023.

Dr Mosavar Faharani is keen to provide online resources in NILE differently using H5P software.

In November 2022 Kelly Lea, a Learning Technologist introduced Mosavar Farahani to Anne Misselbrook, the E-Learning/Multimedia Resources Developer, to help Mosavar provide H5P interactive content for her students.

Mosavar says:
“I was looking for something to engage and motivate students during the lessons, for a while. I asked Kelly if she had any suggestions, and she introduced me to H5P training courses available, which were running by Anne. I was not able to attend those training sessions, but Anne gave me one-to-one training and I was excited to try them. She encouraged and helped me with creating activities. We enjoyed working together and we had a few sessions.

I have tried Interactive book, Interactive video, Quiz, and Chase competition. It takes some time to prepare the activities, but it could be a real game changer.

H5P make learning more interactive and increases the student engagement and motivation. It could be also used as breaks between the other learning materials. My student’s feedback is positive, and I would like to explore it further and create more activities.”

After the trials the students were provided with a questionnaire to complete. You can read a sample of answers provided by some of the students below.

Questionnaire for students

Q1. Does the format and progression when you do activity on H5P encourage you as a learner?

Replies:

“Yes, it is interesting.”
“Yes – it is interactive and stimulating.”
“It helped me stay engaged.”
“Yes, the videos are very good at explaining different topics.”

Q2. Are the ‘test your knowledge’ questions helpful and engaging?

Replies:

“Yes, it is very useful.”
“They keep me engaged and help clarify what I’m learning.”
“Yes – it makes it more enjoyable.”
“Definitely helpful, would be more so if more of the class engaged more.”

Q3. Overall, do you think that the H5P online resource is useful to your learning for Haematology module and why?

Replies:

“Yes, it is useful because you have to search for the answer and figure things out.”
“Yes, it’s different to just reading off a PowerPoint.”
“Yes, because it explains in more simplified manner.”
“Yes, because it is interesting and interactive.”
“Yes, because it is engaging and encourages us to interact and understand the content more.”
“It provides detailed information on a topic I am learning, and I enjoy how engaging it is.”
“Yes, it provides an interactive opportunity which works well for dense content.”
“Yes, summary questions help to consolidate learning.”
“Yes, the questions after the interactive video are useful, as you are not only watching the video, you are having to think further to answer the questions. If this module had an exam at the end, the questions would be useful to think of how to format and write answers to exam questions.”
“Yes, as it requires comprehension and understanding of what we’ve watched or read in order to answer the questions. Its active learning.”

Q4. Which activity is the most enjoyable for you during f2f or online session?

Replies:

“I enjoy each one that makes me learn new ideas.”
“Discussing the ideas, Q&A sessions in middle.”
“Online quiz”
“Most of it, the topic is interesting to learn. I enjoy the H5P way of learning.”
“H5P”
“I enjoy the questions asked in the middle of each new topic we learn as it helps me to understand what I am learning.”
“Any that involves testing the knowledge I have gained as it allows me to utilise my knowledge or to better it by hearing the answers from peers or seeing where I have gone wrong myself.”
“Having one each lesson is nice.”
“Interactive content helps me focus and apply myself to what I am being given in f2f. Online wise it is very useful for the same reasons.”
“Interactive videos/ time to work on a worksheet.”

Staff who have used H5P say:

“For me, it’s the fact that all of these features are together in the same place which makes it valuable – so much quicker, more intuitive and more streamlined than switching between different tools.”
Helena Beeson, Learning Development Tutor and Mentor Manager.

“H5P is convenient to use. I like the video tutorials at point of use. The Reports feature shows whether students have used the resources that they can access as an option in their independent study time.”
Liz Sears, Senior Lecturer in Health and Social Care.

“I think H5P is engaging. I will reuse. H5P interactive video content is better on the level of interactivity. Students can self-pace and self-test their comprehension while viewing the video. The chase competition quiz is also very engaging.”
Dr Mosavar Farahani, Senior Lecturer in Biomedical Science.

H5P

If you would like to deliver student resources differently using H5P, please contact Anne Misselbrook, E-Learning/Multimedia Resources Developer in the LearnTech team.

Training is available on software and tools, including H5P which can produce interactive content. To book a place visit the training link below: https://staffdevelopment-ac-uk.libcal.com/