What is H5P

H5P is an online authoring tool that has over 50 interactive content types: https://h5p.org/content-types-and-applications. Some activities are designed to give students information, but the activity does not have a correct answer, for example: 

• branching scenario: https://h5p.org/tutorial-branching-scenario
• hotspots: https://h5p.org/tutorial-image-hotspots

In contract, some activities are designed to give student feedback through interactive elements with correct answers, for example: 

• fill in the blanks: https://h5p.org/tutorial-fill-in-the-blanks
• drag the words: https://h5p.org/documentation/content-author-guide/tutorials-for-authors/drag-the-words
• drag and drop: https://h5p.org/tutorial-drag-and-drop-question

What is the difference between the free version and the licenses version of H5P

There are two ways to use H5P. Activities created in the free version, available through the H5P.org website, can be embedded in Canvas for students access. These activities will not transfer student scores to the Canvas Grades area. If you plan to create activities that do NOT have a correct answer, the free version is the best choice.

H5P also offers a licensed version, uwm.h5p.com. The difference between these tools is that activities developed with uwm.h5p.com will transfer student scores to the Canvas Grades area. Currently, there is no funding for a campus-wide license. However, CETL has purchased a limited number of H5P licenses for programs that can demonstrate the need for graded interactive content. 

To obtain a H5P, please contact Amy Mangrich (amangric@uwm.edu) with information on the type of graded activities you plan to use and the pedagogical benefit for these activities to flow to the Canvas Gradebook. If there are licenses available, an account will be created for you on https://uwm.h5p.com/ and the tool will be made available in the Canvas course site.

Account setup instructions

Once an account is setup on https://uwm.h5p.com/, you will recently received an email prompting you to set a password. You may wish to set the password to match your ePanther password. The https://uwm.h5p.com/ tool does not have "single sign on” with Canvas. This means that the password is independent from your ePanther password and will not update automatically like other UWM supported tools. As a result, you may want to change your H5P password as your UWM password changes.

Once the tool is turned on in your Canvas course site, scroll to the bottom of the Home page of the course site. You’ll see an unpublished module called "H5P (please keep unpublished)” and an "H5P Authoring Tool” link. This will take you to https://uwm.h5p.com/.

Please note that if you haven’t logged into your H5P account for more than 3 months, you may need to have the account re-activated.

How do I create H5P Activities

Most find it easiest to create the activity in https://uwm.h5p.com and then link to a Canvas assignment after. When you log in at https://uwm.h5p.com/ (using your UWM email address and the password created in the above step), you can also access a library of all the H5P activities you’ve created across courses, and any activities that have been shared with you. 

To create activities, the H5P.org site offers great tutorials: https://h5p.org/documentation/for-authors/tutorials

How to link Canvas Assignments to H5P activities

Once activities are created, if these activities have a correct answer, and you want student scores to flow to the Canvas grade book, they can be added to the course site as Assignments.

It's important to differentiate if the activity has a correct answer, if the activity does not have a correct answer, or you do not want scores to be imported into the Canvas grade book, it can be added to the course site as an External Tool using the "How to embed an H5P activity" instructions in the section below. 

In Course Navigation, click the Assignments link.

Click the Add Assignment button.

In the Submission Type drop-down menu, select the External Tool option, and click Find.

In a "Configure external Tool" popup Select H5P.

IMPORTANT NOTE: If there are two H5P tools listed, you may receive an error. If you receive an error by selecting one, select the other.

Identify the activity and click the Insert button. 

When you return to the "Configure External Tool" menu, click the Select button.

Complete Assignment Settings 

• Enter Points
• Add to the correct Assignment Group
• In most cases, UNSELECT the "Load This Tool In A New Tab" checkbox.
• Set Assign Access dates.
• Click the Save or Save and Publish button.

How to embed an H5P activity

If the activity does not have a correct answer, or you do not want scores to be imported into the Canvas grade book, it can be added to the course site as an External Tool. To add an H5P activity through the External Tool feature, go to Home in your course site:

• Identify (or create) the module in which you’d like to add the H5P activity. 
• Click the "Add New Item" icon (displayed as a plus + symbol) to the right of the module. 
• The "Add Item” window will display. Select External Tool from the dropdown, and then scroll down to choose H5P. 
• The H5P tool will display as the "Link Resource from External Tool" window. From here, you’ll see a list of all your H5P activities. If you don’t see this list, be sure to select "My Content” from the "Manage Content" menu. 
• When you locate the activity you’d like to add to your module, click the “Insert” button. 
• From the "Add Item” window, click the “Add Item” button. 
• Be sure to “Publish" the module, to release it to students’ view.