The increase in online and blended learning at post-secondary institutions, as reported in the 2018 Canadian Survey of Online and Digital Learning, is creating a demand for technology training and learning opportunities. On June 18 of this year, Campus Manitoba welcomed representatives from its seven partner institutions to an ed-tech workshop at Red River College, to provide an opportunity for hands-on learning of the digital content tool H5P.

H5P is an innovative, open-source educational tool that the post-secondary community in Manitoba was excited to learn more about. The founder and CEO, Svein-Tore Griff With mentioned in a 2017 interview that the main benefit of H5P is its accessibility. “We want to empower everyone to create, share and reuse interactive content,” he said in the interview. “Sharing and reusing content is a unique element of H5P. As a result of this functionality, H5P content may be displayed and edited in identical ways on any publishing platform, making it convenient for everyone.”

Are you wondering if your courses could benefit from a digital content tool like H5P? Here are some of our key insights on H5P and the opportunities in the online learning space:

It’s time for online learning

According to the 2018 National Online Learning Survey, the landscape of post-secondary teaching and learning is changing. Content is increasingly delivered to students via online platforms or through blended learning structures, which involves combining online content with in-class lectures. More than two-thirds of Canadian post-secondary institutions offer online courses for credit, with 97% using a learning management system (LMS) to post content for students. Of institutions that were surveyed, 68% consider online learning very or extremely important for their long-term strategic plan, (compared to 66% in the 2017 survey).

Enhancing practice

H5P is a free, open-source digital content tool that allows users to:

• enhance existing course content with interactive elements
• collaborate on creating original interactive content
• store, edit, manage and distribute content on a variety of platforms

By using H5P, faculty don’t have to reproduce content each year or as their institutions change website platforms or LMS. H5P plugins can be added to many LMS and website platforms like:

• WordPress
• Moodle
• Drupal
• Canvas
• Brightspace
• Blackboard

While static content has often been a detriment to teaching and learning, instructors can use H5P to develop a foundation of interactive materials. Year-to-year course materials shift from a place of monotony (and photocopies) to a foundation of consistency and a commitment to quality instruction.

“In an increasingly diverse landscape of online teaching and learning, it is important for faculty to feel confident in the content they are creating for students,” said Kim Grenier Mintenko, Acting Executive Director of Campus Manitoba. “H5P eases the worry about content re-creation, but it also ensures that the learning experience is more interactive, and therefore more engaging.”

It’s good for students

Students stand to benefit from H5P technology, too. The online teaching and learning infrastructure has often been limited to posting lecture slides on an LMS. H5P allows instructors to easily build interactive digital content, and it affords students new ways of engaging with information that can enhance their learning in any program of study.

With H5P, instructors can enhance how they deliver course information, whether they choose to teach through games, dictation tools, or interactive presentations. This can increase the students’ success by allowing them to connect with the material according to their learning preferences—or in new ways altogether.

From the CEO

The informative keynote of the CMB workshop was delivered by founder Griff With. He outlined some key features of H5P (like 360-degree image use) and demonstrated a few ways to apply the technology, including how to build course presentations and interactive fill-in-the-blank questions. He also spoke to the future, and how H5P will only lead to more success for both instructors and students.

As awareness of this ed-tech tool continues to grow, we look forward to seeing how it can enhance teaching and learning at our partner institutions, and in the overall post-secondary community.

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Campus Manitoba is a consortium of Manitoba’s public universities and colleges. Through collaborative projects and shared services, we facilitate student mobility and expand access to post-secondary programs for students in Manitoba. In addition to campusmanitoba.ca, our websites include ecoursesmb.ca, setyourcourse.ca, and openedmb.ca.