H5P is an amazing platform for easy creation of interactive activities, but it's not without weaknesses. There are grading and security issues that you need to be aware of when using H5P in Moodle:
Don't use H5P for Major Exams
Due to aspects of its design, H5P should not be used for summative assessments or major exams, like mid-terms or final exams.
Here are the specific risks to be aware of in H5P:
- H5P activities allow unlimited attempts, and the most recent attempt will be recorded in the gradebook. This may not be ideal in some cases.
- Not all H5P activities will register in Moodle's gradebook (see https://h5p.org/comment/9856#comment-9856)
- The "download" link in H5P activities gives you an .h5p package file, and the source code inside could be inspected to reveal the correct answers to questions.
Read on to see what you can do about these risks:
Use Automatically-graded Questions to ease your marking load
When planning your assessment activities, keep in mind how much (or how little) time you will have to mark student assignments. While asking a student to submit a freedorm written answer can provide you without a very personal and specific response, if there are a large number of students in your course, you end up spending too much time reviewing and marking unstructured text or media submissions.
Alternatives could include:
- Multi-choice, or drag and drop answers (with interesting challenges and distractors to make the answer set more interesting).
- Test terminology retention using flashcards or a word search game, instead of asking the learner to just type in each term.
Adjust Your H5P Activities for Security and Grading Issues
- To prevent Students from inspecting the source code of your H5P activities, disable the action bar and frame in the activity settings so that the "Download" option is not available.
Some H5P activities cannot be graded (such as the Accordion control or Dialog Cards), but may still show up in the Moodle gradebook. This may confuse Students or you and your teaching colleagues.
Grade Publishing "Triggers"
Not every H5P activity registers grades in Moodle's gradebook, and of those that do, they may each use different events to trigger the recording of grades.
| Activity |
Trigger for Grade Publishing |
| Course Presentation |
Publishes grade once user has viewed the Summary Slide, and clicked "Submit". |
| Drag and Drop |
Publishes grade once user has completed the activity or clicked "Check" button. |
| Essay |
Publishes grade once user has completed the activity or clicked "Check" button. |
| Drag The Words |
Publishes grade once user has completed the activity or clicked "Check" button. |
| Fill in the blanks |
Publishes grade once user has completed the activity or clicked "Check" button. |
| Find the hotspot |
Publishes grade once user has completed the activity or clicked "Check" button. |
| Image Pairing |
Publishes grade once user has completed the activity or clicked "Check" button. |
| Interactive Video |
Publishes grade once the the submit button is clicked, or when the video has been watched right to the end. |
| Mark the words |
Publishes grade once user has completed the activity or clicked "Check" button. |
| Multiple Choice |
Publishes grade once user has completed the activity or clicked "Check" button. |
| Single Choice Set |
Publishes grade once user has completed the activity or clicked "Check" button. |
| Summary |
Publishes grade once user has completed the activity or clicked "Check" button. |
| Quiz (Question Set) |
Publishes grade once user has completed the activity or clicked "Check" button. |
| Memory Game |
Publishes grade once user has completed the activity or clicked "Check" button. |
Note: Any H5P activities not listed above will likely use the most common triggers (e.g. completion of the activity or the "check" button).
Dealing with H5P Grading Issues
There are a few tactics you can use to remove any unwanted H5P gradebook entries from your Moodle course:
- Delete the gradebook item for the H5P activity.
or
- Change your H5P activity's maximum score by editing the activity's "Max Grade" field. For no-stakes practice activities, setting the activity's maximum grade to zero should have no impact on the Student's total marks.
Related Resources: