Welcome back to our H5P series! Chris Richter here from Ricoshae.com.au, and today we’re tackling an engaging interactive content type: “Drag the Words.” While H5P offers incredible versatility across various Learning Management Systems, we’ll be demonstrating its seamless integration within Moodle 4.0, utilizing the Bush theme.
What is “Drag the Words”?
At its core, “Drag the Words” is an interactive activity where users complete sentences or phrases by dragging missing words into their correct positions. It’s a simple yet highly effective way to test comprehension and vocabulary.
Imagine this: “My favorite band is ______.” You’d then drag the correct band name, say, “Empire Between” (my own band, incidentally – check us out at EmpireBetween.com/YouTubeMusic!), into the blank. The beauty of this activity is that the order of the draggable words is randomized with each attempt, ensuring a fresh challenge every time.
Beyond just bands, you could see questions like: “My favorite singer is ______” (shout out to Jasmine Alicia, my daughter and also the singer for Empire Between – find her music at facebook.com/JasmineAlicia!), or “My favorite YouTube channel has to be ______” (of course, Ricoshae – youtube.com/Ricoshae!). Once all the words are dragged into place, simply hit “Check” to see your results.
Building Your Own “Drag the Words” Activity
Let’s walk through the process of creating your own “Drag the Words” activity in H5P.
1. Accessing the Content Bank
Navigate to your Moodle instance and go to your “Content Bank.” This is where all your H5P activities reside. From there, select “Add” and then choose “Drag the Words” from the list of content types. Give your activity a descriptive title, like “Drag the Words Experiment.”
2. Crafting Your Questions
The magic of “Drag the Words” lies in its simple text-based authoring. To designate a word as draggable, simply surround it with asterisks (word). For example, if your sentence is “What type of program is Chrome?”, and you want “browser” to be the draggable word, you’d type: “What type of program is browser?”
3. Adding Tooltips and Feedback
H5P allows for enhanced interaction with tooltips and immediate feedback.
- Tooltips: To add a tooltip to a draggable word, follow the asterisk-enclosed word with a colon and then your tooltip text. For instance: “browser: What type of program is Chrome?“. This provides helpful clarification for the user.
- Immediate Feedback: You can also provide instant feedback for correct or incorrect answers. After the draggable word (and optional tooltip), use /+ followed by the feedback for a correct answer, and /- followed by the feedback for an incorrect answer. For example: “interactive:/+Correct!/-Incorrect, try again.” Remember, you can customize the “Correct!” and “Incorrect, try again” text to anything you prefer.
4. Overall Feedback and Behavioral Settings
You can configure overall feedback based on the user’s percentage score, allowing you to provide different responses for different performance levels (e.g., “Great job!” for 100%, “Keep practicing!” for lower scores).
Under “Behavioral Settings,” you have control over:
- Allow Retry: Decide if users can attempt the activity multiple times.
- Show Solution Button: Enable a “Show Solution” button if you want users to see the correct answers after an attempt.
- Instant Feedback: Turn this on to provide immediate feedback as the user drags and drops words, or turn it off to wait until all questions are answered.
You can also customize the text for buttons and messages under “Text Overrides,” allowing you to tailor the terminology to your specific needs.
Embedding Your Activity in Moodle
Once your “Drag the Words” activity is created in the Content Bank, the final step is to embed it within a Moodle page or activity. Go to the desired Moodle course section, add an H5P activity, choose “Package file,” select “Content Bank,” and then pick your newly created “Drag the Words Experiment.”
See It in Action!
With instant feedback enabled, you’ll immediately see if your answer is correct or incorrect. If you make a mistake, the “Show Solution” and “Retry” buttons will appear, offering opportunities for learning and re-engagement.
“Drag the Words” is a fantastic tool for creating engaging and effective learning experiences. If this has been helpful, please check out our courses in the comments. My name is Chris Richter, and I’ll talk to you again soon!