A Quick Introduction to H5P

Last week the Educational Technology Users Group (ETUG) ran a Cooking with H5P webinar which gave participants a great overview of how H5P works, and how to get started exploring it on your own. I encourage you to check out the recording.

What is H5P?

H5P (HTML-5-Package; https://h5p.org/) is plugin tool that enables faculty, instructional designers, etc. to develop creative, dynamic and responsive web-based content, activities, and assessments without having to have advanced technical expertise. H5P is an open-source tool, which means faculty can share their H5P objects with anyone – or adapt H5P objects developed by someone else – without being limited to a specific proprietary tool or platform.

Some of the benefits of H5P include:

  • Increased student engagement. H5P allows you to develop a variety of responsive and interactive objects, including image Hotspots, Branching Scenarios, Flashcards, Dialog Cards, Interactive Video, and Speak the Words
  • Opportunities for students to develop their own interactive objects. H5P provides students the opportunity to create their own H5P objects for sharing back as assessments or as learning objects for their fellow students.
  • Open tool, open licenses. H5P objects can be Creative Commons-licenced, supporting the 5 Rs of Open Education Resources (OER) Reuse, Retain, Revise, Remix, Redistribute.. You can access templates, and adapt & reuse freely shared, CC-licenced H5P objects and resources from institutions world-wide, including from a wide network of users right here in British Columbia.
  • Accessibility compliance. H5P is dedicated to ensuring that all its objects meet, or are on track to meet, Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). A complete list of content-type accessibility is kept up-to-date by H5P.com at Content Type Recommendations.

H5P Resources

Using Short Answer versus Written Response Questions in D2L

There is often confusion in the world of D2L Quizzes: when to use Short Answer questions, and when to use Written Response questions.

To sort out this confusion a bit, thinking of Short Answer questions as questions with one or two word answers. Not sentences! This is because Short Answer questions are set up to be graded by D2L, and it is very hard to accommodate the number of potentially correct answers if there are more than two words.

In the example here, we have two possible answers listed, one with two words (Justin Trudeau), and one with just one word (Trudeau). Use a Short Answer question for this kind of question.

Short Answer question

Have a question that requires a longer response? Use a Written Response question. The downside is that you need to grade Written Response questions yourself, but if you use a Short Answer question for multi-word answers, you will likely need to grade those questions yourself anyway since students will likely give correct answers you have not accounted for.

In the example here, we are asking a question that would require multiple words which could be presented in any order, making it impossible for the system to grade easily. Use a Written Response question for this kind of question.

Written Response question

If you have questions or want to run a scenario past an instructional designer in eLearning, email elearning@camosun.ca to arrange for a consult.

Finding Online Images to Supplement your Course Materials

Last week, I was excited to see on the Open Education Challenge site, a challenge called “How do I find a Creative Commons licensed image to use in my course materials or presentations”.

I wanted to share with you here the resources presented on this site, and to give you a few more.

  • Creative Commons image search – to search for licensed and public domain works
  • Unsplash– photos that are free to use, no permission required but attribution appreciated
  • Pexels– stock photos that are free to use, attribution is not required, adaptation is permitted
  • The Noun Project – Creative Commons-licensed icons

In addition to these resources, our Camosun Library also has some great resources and tips for finding and using images online.

  • Start with the Open Culture tab on the Open Libguide. Here you will find links to sources of copyright-friendly images and music.
  • And explore the Art History Libguide, but make sure to know what the copyright licencing is for any images you find – ask one of our friendly librarians if you’re not sure!
  • Find some guidance on how to use images under Fair Dealing at the Copyright Libguide.
  • And also on the Copyright Libguide, you will find some tips for posting images (etc.) on D2L.

Have other sources? Add to the comments!

ETUG Workshop – Online November 6th

This year ETUG proudly presents its Fall Workshop online! Join us on Friday, November 6th (8:30am – 5:00pm) for COVID and Beyond: What’s your Metaphor? Registration is Free, and you can attend all the sessions, or come and go as it works for you.

Join presenters from across the province who will talk about some of the challenges and opportunities from the past 8 months. We will also have space for informal conversations, and to reunite with your fellow ETUGgers.

Check out the program and register ASAP to ensure your spot!

In addition, we will be continuing the conversations from various presentations on our ETUG Slack. Join the ETUG Slack to get in on the action.

New feature coming to Quizzes – Import from Question Library into Quiz Section

As some of you may know, the newer Quiz Creation interface has at least one feature that has been driving me personally crazy:   If you create a Section in a Quiz, you can’t import questions from the Question Library directly into that Section. Right now you have to import questions into the root directory (the main page) of the quiz, and then move them into a section. How cumbersome.

Well, no more!

In our next upgrade, happening at the end of this week, you will be able to import questions from the question library into a Quiz Section. Here’s how:

  1. Go to the Quizzes tool in your D2L course, and go to Edit a Quiz.
  2. On the Properties tab, click Add/Edit Questions.

    Click Add Edit Questions

  3. Make sure you have added at least one Section (Add a Section).
  4. Click Import and select Browse Question Library.

    Browse Question Library

  5. Select the questions you want to import into your Section in the quiz, then click the arrow next to Import and select Import to Section.

    Import to Section

  6. Select the Section you want to import the questions to. They will automatically be imported into that section.

    Select section

  7. Finish adding questions to your quiz, then click Back to Settings for Quiz …

    Go back to Settings

  8. Finish creating your quiz, and click Save and Close.

 

eLearning Drop-in Sessions – New Dates!!

The eLearning team will be offering scheduled drop-in sessions for faculty needing support with D2L, Collaborate, Kaltura, Assessments, and Final Grades. Come to the sessions with your questions, curiosities, and dilemmas and we will be happy to help you with them. These sessions are not formal workshops; instead, sessions will respond to the needs of those who participate. The sessions are organized around specific tools, but we will do our best to answer any questions that participants have. No registration is needed.

You can join the sessions through the Collaborate link on the nav bar in the D2L On-Demand course or email Emily Schudel for a link.

Drop-in Dates Times Topics
Thursday, October 15 2pm-3pm Kaltura Questions
Tuesday, October 20 2pm-3pm D2L Dilemmas
Thursday, October 22 10am-11am Collaborate Curiosities
Tuesday, October 27 2pm-3pm Kaltura Questions
Thursday, October 29 10am-11am D2L Dilemmas
Tuesday, November 3 11am-12pm Alternate Assessments
Thursday, November 5 2pm-3pm Collaborate Curiosities
Tuesday, November 10 10am-11am D2L Dilemmas
Thursday, November 12 2pm-3pm Kaltura Questions
Tuesday, November 17 2pm-3pm D2L Dilemmas
Thursday, November 19 10am-11am Collaborate Curiosities
Tuesday, November 24 10am-11am Final Exam Set Up
Thursday, November 26 10am-11am Alternate Assessments

eLearning resources

Facilitating Learning Online: Summary of Defining Online Community Discussion

So, right now I am co-facilitating the Facilitating Learning Online (FLO) Fundamentals course at Camosun.  And this first week our participants had a full plate of orienting themselves to the online FLO environment, learning how to make video introductions, learning about their co-participants, AND engaging in a couple of lively discussions around online community.

I thought I would take a moment to share a summary/synthesis of the conversation in the Defining Online Community discussion, which was one of their activities this week, as well as add a few additional optional resources you may want to explore.

Some common ideas that leapt out at me in the discussions around what online community is:

  • Conversation/communication
  • Participation and interaction
  • Supportiveness, comfort, safety, trust
  • Co-operation, contributing, and sharing (shared knowledge space)
  • Co-creation and collaboration
  • Growing circle of knowledge/building of knowledge (peer to peer learning)
  • Interconnecting/convergence
  • Common interest, purpose, working together to meet common goals
  • Inclusiveness and belonging, connection
  • Diversity of people coming together to build knowledge (not bound by geography/fewer borders)
  • Mix of learning and social

Certainly, like any community, online community is about all these things. The question then becomes how do we create an online community with/for our learners that helps them balance the benefits of an online learning community with the pitfalls of being too connected (leading to exhaustion and stress), or feeling isolate and disconnected, or just having too many choices you don’t know where to turn.

I don’t have easy answers to this. Some participants talked about starting small – both with the amount of technology you use, and also with the kinds of activities you integrate (i.e., a lot of online group work can lead to stress, both from an exhausted by being online all the time perspective, and a trust perspective if you are thrown too soon into a large group project.) I am always happy to talk more about strategies, and have developed some that I present in my Creating Community Online workshop.  If anyone would like more information about this workshop, drop me an email (schudele@camosun.ca).

To close this summary/synthesis, I would like to give you some optional readings on online community specific to the online classroom space.

I hope you all have a great long weekend!

Emily

Open Education Challenge Series

New to open education? Want to learn more and find out how you could use open educational resources (OER) in your teaching? Follow along with the Open Education Challenge.

While it’s too late to register for official participation (meaning you won’t get regular email reminders), the challenge is, as the title would suggest, open, so follow along and give the bi-weekly challenges a try!

Want to know more about open education at Camosun College, or just want to talk more about OER and how they might work in your teaching? Email Emily Schudel (schudele@camosun.ca).

 

Some Resources to Help Students Learning Online

Looking for resources for your students with tips for learning online? Wondering where to send students to find support at Camosun College? We have some resources for you!

First, check out a collection of links for students on our Tutorials site.

Here you will find links to the Student Learning Success Guides put together by Camosun’s Learning Skills which includes tips for remote learning, stress management, and time management. Also, a link to Online Learning at Camosun College, which contains information about what kind of technologies students should have, and how to access it.

In addition, if you are wondering how students can access Office 365, the link for this is on this page as well as the link to Student Technical Support. You will also find direct links to Student Affairs and the Centre for Accessible Learning at Camosun.

If there are other links you would like us to include on this page, email Emily Schudel.

Looking for resources specific to learning online?  Check out Kwantlen College’s open textbook Learning to Learn Online,  or eCampus Ontario’s identically named Learning to Learn Online which was co-written by students, for students!

And finally, more for you as online instructors, also from eCampus Ontario, a chapter from their open textbook Remote Teaching: A Practical Guide with Tools, Tips, and Techniques called Helping Students Become Effective Online Learners with some strategies you can try yourself.

Reminder of eLearning Drop-ins

The eLearning team is offering scheduled drop-in sessions for faculty needing support with D2L, Collaborate, and Kaltura!

Come with your questions, curiosities, and dilemmas and we will be happy to help you with them. These sessions are not formal workshops; instead, sessions will respond to the needs of those who participate. The sessions are organized around specific tools, but we will do our best to answer any questions that participants have.

No registration is needed.   You can join the sessions through the Collaborate link on the nav bar in the D2L On-Demand Training course or by emailing Emily Schudel for the Guest link, or if you have any questions.  We will be adding more drop-ins and workshops for October/November, and will announce those here on the blog as they are scheduled.

Drop-in Dates, Times and Topics:

  • Tuesday, October 6, 10am-11am: D2L Dilemmas
  • Thursday, October 8, 2pm-3pm: Collaborate Curiosities

eLearning Supports