Low-stakes practice activities (also called formative assessments) are a great way to support student success by testing their knowledge and building their confidence before a major assessment. These activities can be an impactful way to “improve student confidence,” “help students revise and challenge their misconceptions” about the material, and “provide prompt and meaningful feedback” that keeps students motivated as they study (Ogange et al., 2018). One easy way to build impactful practice activities is with H5P, a free tool in Moodle that allows you to create all kinds of interactive content types to help your students learn and study better, such as question sets, interactive presentations, memory games, crossword puzzles, and more. 

Step 1: Identify Your Objectives and a Suitable H5P Content Type

When planning what kinds of activities would be most helpful to your students, consider your learning objectives. What specific tasks do you want your students to be able to do at the end of your assessment? Consider Bloom’s Taxonomy: Do you want students to remember knowledge, demonstrate understanding, apply the material to new situations, draw connections between ideas, evaluate an idea, or create new work (Armstrong, 2010)? 

Once you have your objectives identified, you can explore the available H5P content types and determine which would work best for your needs. For example, 

• if you wanted to students to write out the names of mental health diagnoses after reading their definition, you could use flashcards. 
• If you wanted students to explore the impact of different counseling treatments on a client's mental health, you could create a branching scenario where students make various treatment choices and see their outcomes. 
• If you wanted students to practice writing a treatment plan, you could use an essay question that automatically provides feedback based on keywords. 

Many of the content types can help assess a variety of learning levels depending on how you structure your questions, so don’t be afraid to experiment! Some commonly used content types are true/false, question sets, and interactive videos, but we encourage you to try out others. Some of our personal favorites include crossword puzzles, image hotspots, and fill in the blank activities.

Step 2: Create Your H5P Activity

Once you know what H5P content type you want to use and why, you can start making the activity. To get started, click the More tab at the top of your Moodle course page, then select Content Bank. From the content bank, you can click Add and start building any available content type. To learn more about this step, watch the e-LIS video tutorial on creating H5P content. You can also review the H5P.org tutorials for in-depth guidance on each content type.

When designing your activities, don’t forget to add automatic feedback so students can instantly identify their weaknesses when studying (see example in the Google Doc version of this blog) . There are multiple ways to incorporate feedback into your H5P activities. Some content types will just display if a student’s answer is right or wrong; others allow you to provide more complex feedback and sample solutions. It may take trial and error to get your feedback to display exactly how you want, so be sure to practice the activity yourself and see what results different settings produce. You can also schedule a 1 on 1 appointment with an instructional designer at e-LIS to help you build your H5P activities.

Step 3: Add the H5P Activity to Your Course Page

Once you’ve created your H5P activity, you can add it to your course page using the “add an activity or resource” button. To learn more about this step, you can watch the e-LIS video tutorial on adding H5P content to Moodle. When sharing these activities with your students, be sure to explain their intended use. If they are not graded, make sure they are clearly labeled as optional. You can also choose to review student attempts if you want to see where your students are at with their learning, or you can just leave them unmonitored but available for students to practice with.

Conclusion

If you want to maximize students’ success, consider where H5P formative assessments might have a place in your course. With H5P, you can create a wide variety of engaging, interactive study tools and activities for your students, so on test day, they can show up feeling confident and prepared. 

And as always, remember that you are not alone in your teaching! If you would like assistance using H5P in your course, reach out to the e-LIS Instructional Design Team at [email protected]. 

References and Resources

Resources:

• Creating and Editing H5P Content e-LIS Help Video
• Adding H5P Content to Moodle e-LIS Help Video
• Adding H5P to your Moodle Course e-LIS Help Document
• e-LIS Instructional Design Team Appointments
• e-LIS eSpace: How to Build Engaging H5P Content
• H5P.org Content Type Examples
• H5P.org Tutorials

References:

Armstrong, P. (2010). Bloom’s Taxonomy. Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching. 

Ogange, B. O., Agak, J. O., Okelo, K. O., & Kiprotich, P. (2018). Student perceptions of the effectiveness of formative assessment in an online learning environment. Open Praxis, 10(1), 29–39. 

Save and adapt a Google Doc version of this teaching tip.

About the Author

Danielle Nicholson (she/her) is an Instructional Designer at e-LIS. She helps faculty use technology to make their online teaching experience easier, more efficient, and more enjoyable. She also hosts workshops on tech tools like Gmail, Google Drive, and YouTube. In her free time, she enjoys reading and nature walks.

Image credit: Davis, J. (2016, October 29). 5 H5P Libraries To Use In Moodle For Adult Learners. eLearning Industry. https://elearningindustry.com/h5p-libraries-moodle-adult-learners 

Others may share and adapt under Creative Commons License CC BY-NC.

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