Create a Course Presentation
What is a Course Presentation?
A H5P Course Presentation contains slides with multimedia, text, and additional types of interactions (interactive summaries, multiple-choice questions and interactive videos). Students can experience interactive learning material and test their knowledge and memory. Slides can be intuitively navigated progressively or students can jump to specific slides. A summary can be included at the end of the Course Presentation, which provides students with an idea of how they are tracking with key concepts.
What can a Course Presentation be used for?
Course presentations are a great way to package related content and multimedia, and provide students with the ability to check their understanding of the content being presented. The H5P Course Presentation template below provides examples of the interactions that can be included.
Using the SCU Course Presentation template
Reuse the template above by clicking on the reuse button in the bottom left, Download as an H5P file, and then importing it into your personal H5P library. See the article on Sharing and importing an H5P for more information.
Example: SCU Library - APA Referencing
The following Course Presentation was developed by the SCU Library to provide students with guidance on APA referencing. This course presentation was designed as a stand-alone resource to support students to apply APA referencing in different contexts (see slide 3). This example features clear instructions, an estimated time of completion, interactive and alternative media, and consistent formatting. Note how the interactive presents information, and then students apply the knowledge to check their understanding. You can include this H5P example in your own unit by clicking on the "reuse" button on the toolbar.
Example: English Education - Cross-curriculum priority areas
The following Course Presentation was developed to provide information about cross-curriculum priorities in the Australian Curriculum. Students are asked to develop a body of work for a primary English class that links to one of these cross-curriculum priorities as a summative assessment task for the unit. Using a course presentation provided a more engaging way of explaining these concepts through the combination of visual and text components. This particular course presentation uses Active Surface Mode, which supports buttons on the screen to navigate (instead of the default navigation bar). Try clicking on one of the three cross-curriculum priority buttons to test out the navigation feature.
Example: Hotel School - Effective Business Communication
The introductory course presentation below focuses on communicating for professional success. A character with a business background was introduced to provide situational learning and establish the professional context. The design and formatting included the Hotel School branding and a clear title slide to orient the student. A mix of text, visual, video, and interactive components is used to engage students. Approximate time for completion is also provided to assist students (particularly in introductory courses) in planning their studies. Notice how information is presented in a video, followed by a concept check using a 'drag-the-words' activity (slides 5-6).
Create a Course Presentation
The following video covers how to make a Course Presentation from scratch, a brief overview of the main features, as well as how to import the SCU Course Presentation template as a starting point.
Test it out!
Here is the H5P we made in the video above. Try out the interactive content!
Best practice recommendations
The following strategies will assist you to make the most out of an H5P Course Presentation.
Plan your slides
- Ensure you have an overall goal for the Course Presentation. What will students learn from this experience?
- The ideal number of slides ranges between 3 and 15.
- Simple slides that address a single idea or concept work best.
- If you are developing the presentation from a large PowerPoint slide deck, break slides into discrete topics and address each in an individual course presentation.
Check the resolution of images
- Large image files will affect the loading time of the interactive, and low-resolution images lack quality.
- As a rule of thumb, images should be no smaller than 800px wide or larger than 1200px.
- You can use https://www.befunky.com/ to resize images quickly.
Hiding key concepts within Course Presentations
Avoid placing key concepts or important information inside Course Presentations! Although it is possible to print the contents of a Course Presentation to a pdf (when enabled), Course Presentations are best used to reiterate information, add additional context, or to summarise key points. Where important information is hidden inside a course presentation, students scanning your unit may miss it entirely.
Remember to check accessibility
It is important to consider the accessibility of the interaction so that all students will be able to get the most from the experience. Some key ways to ensure accessibility:
- Keep the text large: Remember when the H5P is embedded in your unit site it may appear smaller than in the edit screen.
- Use high contrast: Avoid colours or images that blended into each other (instead opt for black text on a white background).
- Avoid images with text: Images that include text (such as PPT slides or diagrams) can't be read by screen readers. Instead, write the text into the course presentation, or use ALT tags.
- Provide alternatives: You can enable 'convert to pdf' so students can download the content, use captions on videos and ALT tags on images.
Incorporate interactive elements into a Course Presentation
The short video below provides more guidance on how to add additional elements to your H5P Course Presentation.
Step-by-step tutorial
More information about creating a Course Presentation H5P is available here: H5P Course Presentation Tutorial.
Using an existing PowerPoint
Want to create a Course Presentation from an already created PowerPoint presentation? See our article on How to create a Course Presentation from a PowerPoint.