H5P^[1] is a free, easy-to-use software tool which allows anyone to create interactive learning activities on the web. It works as a plug-in for web-based platforms such as WordPress, Moodle and Drupal.

H5P activities – such as quizzes, crosswords and games – give learners the opportunity to apply or test their learning on their computers or smartphones. The automated marking gives learners immediate feedback on their responses and the opportunity to review the learning materials and try again.

Getting started with H5P

To start creating learning activities in H5P, you simply need:

• some time to learn how to use it, and
• access to one of the types of website that supports an H5P plug-in, such as WordPress, or a paid account on H5P.com

If you are enrolled in this course, you have free access to a WordPress multisite, so the instructions in this course will focus on H5P in WordPress. However, most of the instructions also apply to H5P on the other platforms (see Getting started on the H5P website for information about these).

What can I create in H5P?

The best way to find out what you can do with H5P is to look at H5P’s own Examples and downloads page. (It is a good idea to bookmark this page in your browser, as you will probably use it often.) There you will see an alphabetical list of all the different types of learning activities that are available. If you click on one, you will see some examples and a description.

Some of the tools listed are single activities, while others are ‘containers’, where you can combine different activities together. Here are some examples of each:

We will learn how to make single activities in Creating activities and how to use containers in Combining activities later in this learning pathway.

Activity: Identify H5P activity types

1. Visit H5P’s Examples and downloads page and explore the different types of activity available.
   • At this stage, just explore a few activity types that interest you and look through the examples supplied – don’t spend time on the instructions. We will work with the instructions later in this learning pathway.
2. Now answer this multiple choice question about H5P activities. (Note that this question has been created using H5P!)

1. ↑ “H5P” is an abbreviation of “HTML5 Package”, because it is an open source software package based on HTML5, a widely used coding language for creating web content. Don’t worry – you don’t need to do any coding to use it!