How H5P Transformed My Approach to Online Course Design
How one chance discovery in 2016 transformed the way an instructional designer builds online courses — and sparked a book.
Author: Christophe Coussement
From HTML5 to H5P, a welcome relief
The open-source philosophy and the simplicity of designing an interactive resource immediately captured my enthusiasm. At the time, I was developing my training materials directly in HTML5 using applications such as Tumult's Hype — excellent tools, to be sure, yet remarkably time-consuming. Each animation, each interaction demanded a considerable investment in development effort. With H5P, a few clicks sufficed to produce content that was rich, visually polished and — most importantly — pedagogically sound, all seamlessly integrated within Moodle or WordPress.
As the years have passed, experience has taught me to appreciate the tool far beyond its ease of use. I now incorporate it systematically into the Moodle-based training courses I deliver, making extensive use of it as a formative assessment instrument at the end of each chapter. The research in cognitive science is unequivocal: responding to questions and receiving immediate feedback ranks among the most effective strategies for consolidating learning. The ICAP framework developed by Michelene Chi corroborates this view — interactive engagement substantially outperforms passive or merely active modes of cognitive involvement. H5P, through the diversity of its activity types, enables instructional designers to reach precisely these higher levels of engagement.
"With H5P, a few clicks sufficed to produce content that was rich, visually polished and — most importantly — pedagogically sound."
Beyond the multiple choice quiz
Although Moodle and LearnDash do offer certain interactive activities, they remain considerably below the sophistication of content types such as Interactive Video or Branching Scenario. The former transforms any video into an active learning experience by embedding questions, hyperlinks, and contextual information at designated points; the latter affords the possibility of constructing fully branched learning pathways in which each learner decision shapes the subsequent content. This is far removed from the conventional multiple-choice quiz.
What learners actually experience
I consistently observe highly positive reactions from learners: an H5P activity provides welcome respite within otherwise demanding subject matter and stimulates retention, at times leveraging the well-documented positive effects of gamification. The retention pyramid reminds us that we retain only 10 per cent of what we read, but up to 90 per cent of what we practise and communicate to others. The interactivity afforded by H5P aligns squarely with this principle — the more senses engaged in the processing of information, the more durable the memory traces formed in the brain.
"The more senses engaged in the processing of information, the more durable the memory traces formed in the brain."
Sharing the story
Over time, I naturally began sharing my experience by publishing articles on my technical blog, written in French. These practitioner accounts evidently found their audience, as the publishing house Éditions D-BookeR subsequently approached me with a proposal to write a comprehensive volume dedicated entirely to H5P. Thus was born H5P, le contenu pédagogique interactif à la portée de tous — the first francophone book on the subject, a 348-page guide designed to empower any teacher or trainer to master this remarkable tool and bring a new dimension to their instructional content.
