Two years ago, I created a document viewer as an H5P content type for a client. That document viewer is able to display a PDF document in a web page (and prepared for others), but it will never see the light of the open web. In contrast to what I normally do, I did not try to convince my client to allow this to be used by everyone. Quite the contrary, I only accepted the job because the content type will stay on my client’s platform. While many people might love to have the option to include PDFs in H5P content, I don’t like it:
- PDFs are not necessarily meant for allowing a pixel-perfect fixed layout of a document, but that is how they are used. That’s not how the web works – and nobody needs to code HTML directly nowadays to add an image or similar shenanigans …
- PDFs are rather meant for being printed, not for being displayed on a screen.
- PDFs can in theory be pretty accessible, but in practice they are not.
But first and foremost: There are too many platforms out there which are nothing but PDF dispensers. Educators often just dump their materials that they have created elsewhere, e.g. Word documents or PowerPoint documents in PDF format. That’s not what I want to encourage.
So, why do I bring this topic up now? I just recently found a proof-of-concept for a PDF viewer for H5P and raised the question with the maintainer whether it was really a good idea to create one considering the arguments that I just mentioned. In theory, I could still ask my client to make their version available. It is already done and working nicely and why should work be done twice, right? But my “conscience” kicked in again and I asked here and there on the web for thoughts. Valid points were made for and against a PDF viewer in H5P.
Long story short: I stick with my previous opinion. The idea of H5P was to embrace HTML and web standards. I don’t think PDFs fit in here despite being kind of an open standard. And I do not want to encourage people to use PDFs for creating web based content for teaching and learning, regardless of whether there might me some legit use case or not.
That said: If you do not agree with me and would welcome a PDF viewer content type for H5P, then that is totally fine. No need for discussion. I am sure others don’t share my concerns either and are going to create their own solution for their own reasons. No need for me to try getting permission to spread the existing version. It’s about a day’s work only, so really not a big obstacle. And I think that H5P ambassador David Lohner has some valuable ideas on how this should be implemented, so hopefully people are going to listen to him!
Thanks for linking to my comment. For convenience, I leave my comment in english here on your blog:
An integrated PDF viewer could be useful: learners then remain *in* the H5P environment and are not pulled out because a new browser window opens, or they have to search for it in their download folder.
But I share the concern that H5P could become a PDF dispenser, thereby making a mockery of its own right to exist. At the same time, I see a selective need to have to/be able to integrate PDFs into online learning settings.
As mentioned, the maxim should be not to have to leave the H5P element.
In this respect, a possible solution could be:
1.) Integrate a rudimentary PDF viewer into H5P: Yes.
2.) But “hide” access to the PDFs behind one or two clicks (aka “do you really want to view document.pdf?”: yes/no); and if the PDF should be displayed, the PDF viewer hijacks the entire window containing the H5P element.
This allows PDFs to be displayed, but does not tempt you to use them as an integral part of the *design* of H5P content, But rather as *additional material* that can be distributed via H5P for convenience. In this case, the viewer should also have an prominent “download” button.
Hi Oliver,
I don’t see how h5p could ever become a method to distribute pdfs. As a teacher I don’t see that pdfs going away anytime soon. There are a lot of reasons to use PDFs then just printing in the classroom. For example during Covid times and the online learning that took place a lot of teachers relied on PDFs and PDFs annotating software to help move the learning along.
Also any learning management system (lms) that integrates h5p has its own file distribution system. It is just added steps to make them available. As mentioned by David a simple pdf viewer will keep the students within the h5p environment instead of having them leave to another tab or browser.
Further to this, it is counter intuitive to code the same content type twice, or even maintaining both. If the code already exists. I personally would appreciate it, if it were available to people for use.
As a teacher I am aware that k-12 schools try their best not to purchase books and buy more tech/devices for students but that doesn’t mean books aren’t available. (One device is always more valuable than 1 book)
Another scenario is novel studies, when we have English Language Learners in a classroom of English speaking students, it becomes easier to have a digital copy in the student’s native tongue, this would help them with comprehension. As the students have access to relevant learning materials.
With all this being said, if a person is only using h5p to distribute PDFs that person will probably have other options than using h5p, it makes no sense whatsoever! All teachers who use h5p come for the interactive engaging learning experience for their students. You are probably aware of all these points, just thought to share my two cents on the matter!
Cheers,
Farrisimin
I didn’t dispute that PDFs are used, but I disputed that they make sense in a web page context. I also explained that I only thought about this again, because the code already exists. But sure, why shouldn’t now I invest my free time for something that I don’t want only so some other people are happy?
Apart from that, as mentioned in the post: I don’t feel a need for discussion.
Totally fair! I respect your decision. I was only contributing some thoughts on the matter.
Cheers,
Not sure if you know I am one of your biggest fans, always checking up on new developments you share!
Cheers,
I really appreciate all that you do and share with us.
No worries, I was not offended or similar. Just need to state once in a while that I can’t do the heavy lifting alone or for free all the time – a lot of things that I do happen in the background and the public doesn’t even notice. And sometimes I just don’t want to stuff 🙂
Rather than an viewer, it would be useful to extend the Interactive Book “Link” content-type with a PDF download feature. This would allow accessibility alternative format to be included, next to other content types.
Especially for the H5P.com instances: hard linking to LMS files is problematic as old courses are rolled over into new ones every year. This breaks links embedded in a H5P.
I can also see other applications for a PDF Download link feature in Interactive Images, Virtual Tour 360, Interactive Video.