Adopt useful learning features from Hot Potatoes

I would like to suggest adding several features that have long been available in Hot Potatoes. In my experience, they improve learning outcomes considerably and would make H5P even more effective (ideally as optional settings).

1. More sophisticated scoring
   Instead of simply marking answers as correct/incorrect and awarding full score despite mere trial-and-error guessing, award partial credit based on factors such as the number of attempts and how close an incorrect answer is to the correct one. This provides more meaningful feedback for both students and teachers and discourages trial-and-error guessing.
2. Incremental hints instead of only "Show solution"
   Allow students to reveal small hints (e.g. the next correct letter) with a score penalty instead of only showing the complete answer (and awarding full score despite mere copying of the solution). This encourages independent problem-solving while still providing support.
3. Feedback on incorrect input
   Highlight the incorrect part of a text entry (e.g. the plural the ladys → highlight only the incorrect y) instead of only marking the whole answer wrong. This helps students identify and correct their mistakes on their own.
4. Review of attempts
   Allow teachers and students via Moodle plugin to review previous attempts, including the exact answers entered and the score for each attempt. This is useful for feedback, assessment, and (if you want to use an exercise e.g. for formal assessment) resolving grading questions.
5. Grading options
   Allow activities to be graded by either the highest attempt or the first attempt. This encourages repeated practice without penalizing students who want to improve.
6. Built-in time limits
   Add an optional time limit (similar to the Hot Potatoes Moodle plugin). This is useful for exercises that assess recall (e.g. vocabulary) or simulate test conditions.

I believe these features would significantly improve H5P for both teachers and learners while remaining optional for authors who prefer the current behaviour.

(Since Hot Potatoes is an open-source project, some of its implementation might be reusable or adaptable, which could reduce the effort required to implement these features.)

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More detailed explanations of the different features:

1. More sophisticated percentage-based scoring
Hot Potatoes uses a very sophisticated percentage-based scoring system, which provides students with a much more accurate assessment of how well they know the material. For example, in text-entry exercises, the fewer attempts a student needs to reach the correct answer—and the closer each incorrect answer is to the correct one—the higher the percentage awarded for that question.

In H5P, however (at least in the Fill in the Blanks content type), answers appear to be evaluated simply as either correct or incorrect. This means that a student can arrive at the correct answer merely by trial and error, and still receive full marks.

Why this is important:

• A differentiated assessment gives students meaningful feedback about their actual level of understanding and helps them identify what they still need to practice.
• In my experience, it also motivates students to repeat the exercise in order to improve their score. As a result, they work through the exercises multiple times to achieve with each attempt a higher percentage. (If the question pool is larger than the number of questions presented and the questions are selected randomly, this is not merely memorization, since students continually encounter new examples that they have to understand.)
• A differentiated assessment also provides teachers with a quick indication of how well a topic has been understood. They can immediately see the percentage scores students typically achieve. If every student receives 100% simply because they arrived at the correct answer by trial and error (or by copying the complete solution (see point 2)), teachers receive virtually no meaningful feedback.

2. Small hints that encourage independent thinking

In Hot Potatoes, students can request the next correct letter as a hint. However, using hints lowers their score, so students use them only as often as necessary.

In H5P, it appears that the only available option is to reveal the complete solution.

Why this is important:

Providing only a small hint encourages students to think for themselves and gives them the opportunity to solve the problem independently. Revealing the entire answer, on the other hand, allows students to copy it without any real thinking or learning, while still receiving full marks.

3. Feedback on incorrect input encourages learning

In Hot Potatoes, text-entry exercises clearly indicate which part of an answer is incorrect. This allows students to identify exactly where they need to make a correction.

For example, if "the ladies" is the correct answer but the student enters "the ladys", only the incorrect "y" is highlighted.

This feature appears to be missing in H5P. Instead, teachers can only provide predefined hints in advance.

Why this is important:

As in the previous example, identifying the location of the mistake helps students correct it themselves because they are guided in the right direction without simply being given the answer. This promotes active problem-solving instead of passive copying.

4. Review of attempts

In Moodle, Hot Potatoes attempts can be reviewed in detail afterwards. Teachers and students can see exactly what was entered, what percentage was achieved on each attempt, and other relevant information.

In H5P, by contrast, only the final score appears to be available in the gradebook.

Why this is important:

Teachers and students can review exactly which mistakes were made and which parts already work well.

An additional advantage is that such exercises could also be used for formal assessment, for example vocabulary quizzes. Teachers need to be able to verify whether a student's answer should actually be accepted, even if that particular wording was not entered beforehand as an accepted answer. The same applies if spelling mistakes or typing errors are not supposed to count as incorrect. This is only possible if the teacher can see the student's exact input.

5. Grading options: "Highest attempt" or "First attempt"

Hot Potatoes allows teachers to choose whether the highest attempt or the first attempt counts for grading.

This option also seems to be missing in H5P.

Why this is important: 

The Highest attempt counts option is particularly useful when an exercise is assigned (for example as homework) and completion with a certain percentage is required.

If only the most recent attempt counts, students may be reluctant to repeat an exercise for additional practice because they fear that a later attempt could lower their recorded score.

6. Built-in time limits

The Hot Potatoes Moodle plugin includes a very simple option to set a time limit with second-level precision.

As far as I can tell, H5P does not currently offer this functionality, except through what appears to be an unofficial additional library:
https://h5p.org/node/24930

Why this is important:

Some types of knowledge are meant to be recalled from memory. If students have unlimited time, they can simply look up the answers instead of training their memory (for example, vocabulary translations).

In addition, a time limit gives students a clear indication of the speed at which they are expected to complete certain tasks—for example, under the conditions they will encounter in a test or exam.