Would you like to add some spark to your online courses? Materia is an online tool that allows you to offer interactive learning activities – called “widgets” – in your Canvas courses. Materia makes it convenient and simple to engage your students with proven game mechanics, diversify your course content, and offer students interactive practice activities. Find a Materia widget that works for your course content, learning outcomes, and students, and easily customize and add it to your course. Available widgets include flash cards, branching scenarios, Jeopardy-style quiz and study games, diagram labeling, crossword puzzles, and much more. 

Integrated seamlessly with Canvas, Materia empowers you to create widgets, track their usage, and report on student progress, all without any required programming or advanced design skills. Each widget includes an interface that walks you through the steps to adapt it for your course. Use widgets as graded assignments that automatically sync to the gradebook. Or, offer them as ungraded instructional aids or study tools.

Materia is available now to all faculty, staff, and students at no cost. Refer to the Materia page for all the details, including instructions for getting started, video tutorials for building and deploying widgets, and additional information. For a full list of available widgets, along with working demos, visit the Widget Catalog. Stay tuned for opportunities in the spring to join OIT for live demonstrations and Q&A sessions.