Danielle Murdoch - Providing a More Engaging Learning Experience for Students with H5P

By Dr. Danielle Murdoch, Senior Lecturer, School of Criminology

I learned about H5P from John Born, CEE’s Manager of Educational Media, when I was participating in TILT’s Teaching and Learning Development Grant Series, New Ways of Teaching, New Ways of Learning: Supportive Learning in Online Environments.  

In total, I created seven interactive presentations for students enrolled in CRIM 343: Correctional Practice and CRIM 410: Decision-making in Criminal Justice. I compiled basic content in the short interactive presentations, including describing key takeaways from the weekly content and embedding short YouTube videos to illustrate concepts (where applicable). I recorded audio sound bites ranging from approximately 30 seconds through 5-minutes per slide. To provide students with immediate feedback on their comprehension of the content, I embedded true/false, multiple choice, and fill-in-the-blank questions in each presentation.  

I find H5P is a very user-friendly application. As someone who is not tech-savvy, I was surprised with how easily I was able to create such interesting and interactive content. Students have shared via seminar discussion and Student Hour conversations that they haven't seen this platform in their other classes, that they find it easy to navigate, and that they find the presentations engaging to 'watch'. One student commented that they could see why I and other instructors would like the platform: students can't download the presentation to post on other websites.

“I found the use of lecture slides integrated into Canvas very useful! Sometimes it’s hard to view lecture slides and listen to the audio separately. Having slides to click through with short clips of audio on each one made it easier to follow along and take notes.” (Student in CRIM 410)

I will definitely continue to use the H5P platform in the semesters ahead because it's both user-friendly for me as an instructor and it facilitates my development of pedagogically sound materials to support student learning.