16 October 2025
What is H5P and Do You Need It for Your E-Learning?
Explore H5P and see whether adding H5P content to your courses could increase engagement levels among your learners.
H5P is rapidly increasing in popularity as a form of multimedia content in various online settings. In this article, we’ll explore what exactly H5P is and what it does.
We’ll also look at how this impacts e-learning, so you can make an informed decision on whether you need it for your organisation’s e-learning programme.
What is H5P?
H5P is short for HTML5 Package. It’s a free, open-source content authoring tool that enables you to create and share responsive multimedia content. This includes interactive content such as presentations, videos, quizzes, animations and games.
How is H5P used in E-Learning?
H5P in e-learning is effectively an e-learning content framework. While it’s not quite a set of e-learning content standards in the way that SCORM is, it does perform a similar function in providing the foundation for the creation of interactive learning content.
As you probably considered when we mentioned its use for making interactive presentations, videos and quizzes, H5P is very effective for creating engaging learning content.
As such, if you’re currently using SCORM, it’s worth exploring whether H5P would be a better way of achieving the outcomes you want from your L&D programme.
What are H5P activities?
There is a wide range of H5P activities you can deploy to enhance your e-learning content. Some of the most popular H5P activities include:
✳️ Interactive videos
Create an H5P overlay on new or existing video content to make it more interactive. This could include quizzes, links, text or images that appear during the video.
✳️ H5P course presentation
Enhance any presentations by adding H5P elements to your slides. This could include incorporating multiple-choice questions, interactive videos and other multimedia features within the presentation.
✳️ H5P flashcards
H5P is well-suited to creating flashcard activities. Images can be combined with question and answer fields to provide a quick, visual check on learning retention.
✳️ Branching scenario
It’s simple to create engaging, personalised and adaptive learning experiences using H5P branching scenarios. The information displayed or where a learner is directed next will change based on their previous engagement.
H5P benefits for e-learning
Some of the key benefits of using H5P in e-learning include:
✅ Easy to create learning content with no technical knowledge
H5P is very easy to create. You can author learning content without any programming knowledge and just basic technical skills. This sets it apart from many other e-learning content standards.
✅ Highly engaging content
The adaptive and multimedia elements we’ve already discussed make H5P content incredibly interactive and therefore very engaging.
✅ Seamless integration
H5P is compatible with most learning platforms, devices and browsers. These high levels of interoperability and accessibility make it easy for your L&D team to use. It also makes it straightforward for learners to access learning content.
✅ Upcycle existing learning content
Adding an interactive H5P layer to an existing video or presentation can give your existing learning content a new lease of life. A run-of-the-mill course can be quickly transformed into a responsive, multimedia, feature-rich resource.
✅ Popular formats ready to use
Many widely used e-learning formats already exist in H5P packages. These are often already available for use within learning management systems. This makes it simple to edit activities or populate existing templates with your content.
✅ Straightforward tracking
With H5P learning content, you can easily track completions and other key learning data. Some H5P activities can record a grade, while others allow learners to self-grade at the end of the activity.
✅ Cost-effective learning creation
Since H5P is an open-source technology, it’s a very cost-effective way of creating and delivering interactive learning content. There are no licensing fees or other overheads that impact content creation.
See H5P for e-learning in action
Many of our customers use H5P to create engaging, interactive learning experiences. A good example of this is the EU-funded Girls Go Circular project, which is challenging the gender gap in STEM professions.
Given that the project’s target audience is schoolgirls aged 14 to 19, the content needs to engage young, digitally-savvy learners. To achieve this, EIT RawMaterials — the project coordinators — have relied heavily on H5P content.
Using its Moodle Workplace LMS, Girls Go Circular creates an engaging blend of activities, animations and resources to hold the attention of young learners.
Does H5P work with Moodle?
Yes, H5P works very well with Moodle. In fact, Moodle is one of the most popular platforms for H5P use. Moodle’s content bank is used to store, create and edit H5P content. This makes it simple to use H5P content in Moodle.
As well as creating H5P content in Moodle, you can also import H5P content to Moodle. This is useful if you’re already using an H5P authoring tool or if you’re buying off-the-shelf learning content that uses H5P.
How to use H5P in Moodle
To use H5P in Moodle, you need to add or edit it within the content bank. H5P content contained in the content bank can then be added to any course as an activity.
Alternatively, you can embed H5P content within another activity or resource by clicking the H5P button in the text editor.
Does H5P work with Totara?
Yes, H5P integrates fully with Totara. The Totara and H5P integration has been available since Totara 18. It enables H5P to be used to:
- ✳️ Create and edit H5P content in Totara
- ✳️ Download and upload .h5p files
- ✳️ Backup and restore H5P activities
- ✳️ Track interactions and scores in Gradebook
- ✳️ Reuse H5P activities saved in the H5P Hub on other courses.
How to use H5P in Totara
H5P is fully supported as a course activity in Totara. You can add an H5P activity to any course just as you would any other activity.
In the editor, you’ll see the full selection of more than H5P content types available to add to the course. You can create H5P content directly in Totara or upload content created elsewhere.
Ready to explore H5P?
Book a demo with our learning technology experts to see H5P learning content in action and find out how it could benefit your L&D programme.
