Learning Materials

Curating Resources That Support Meaningful Learning

Learning materials shape how students first encounter ideas, engage with concepts, and prepare for learning activities and assessments. Learning materials not only deliver information, but they support understanding, spark curiosity, provide context, and help students build toward meaningful outcomes.

Materials should be intentionally selected and organized to align with outcomes, assessments, and activities. They provide the foundation students need to participate, practice, reflect, and apply their learning throughout the course.

Start with Alignment

Learning materials should directly support what students are being asked to do. Every reading, video, case study, or resource should help students prepare for the learning activities and assessments connected to the course outcomes. If a material doesn’t connect to any of those, it’s worth asking whether it belongs.

Variety Supports Engagement and Understanding

Different types of materials support different kinds of learning. Effective courses often combine multiple formats to help students access content, engage with ideas, and connect learning to authentic contexts. Variety also helps address different learning preferences and reduces the cognitive monotony of working through the same format week after week.

More Content Does Not Always Mean More Learning

Learning materials should help students focus their attention on what matters most, not create cognitive overload - when the demands on working memory exceed what students can process. Students can become overwhelmed when courses include too many disconnected readings, videos, links, or resources without clear purpose or guidance. 

Before adding a material to your course, consider:

• →Is this material necessary? Does it directly support a learning outcome, activity, or assessment? If it’s interesting but unconnected, consider linking to it as an optional resource rather than a required one.
• →Does the student know why this matters? A brief framing sentence (even just one line) providing context that explains what students should look for or take away from a material significantly improves engagement and retention.
• →Is complex content broken into manageable pieces? Long readings, multi-hour videos, or dense materials are more approachable when chunked with clear signposting, guiding questions, or structured activities.
• →Are key ideas highlighted or scaffolded? Guiding questions, reading guides, or annotations can help students identify what to focus on and how the material connects to larger course goals.
• →Is the total volume manageable? A useful rule of thumb is to ask: how long would it take a typical student to genuinely engage with this week’s materials? Aim for a realistic and respectful estimate of student time.

Making Materials Easier to Access and Use

Accessible learning materials improve usability for all students and help reduce barriers to participation. Accessibility is not only a legal and institutional requirement, it is a reflection of the care and respect we bring to designing learning experiences for every student.

Students should spend their energy engaging with course concepts, not trying to navigate confusing, broken, or inaccessible materials.

Structure Helps Students Focus on Learning

How materials are organized in Canvas shapes how students experience your course. Clear, consistent structure reduces confusion, builds trust, and helps students spend their time engaging with content rather than searching for it.

Strong module design typically follows a predictable pattern that students can learn and rely on:

Helping Students Engage Critically with Information

AI tools are changing how students locate, summarize, and interact with information. This makes the intentional selection and framing of course materials even more important. When students can generate a surface-level summary of any text in seconds, the value of materials comes from what we ask students to do with them.

Flip each card for a practical strategy for designing materials that require genuine engagement.

What to Avoid & Why

• ✗Too many materials without clear purpose. Adding materials “just in case” or because they’re interesting increases cognitive load without adding learning value. Every required material should connect to something students are being asked to do.
• ✗Materials without context or framing. Dropping a reading or video into a module with no explanation of why it matters or what students should look for reduces engagement and comprehension. Even a single orienting sentence makes a significant difference.
• ✗Inaccessible formats. Scanned PDFs, uncaptioned videos, and poorly structured documents create unnecessary barriers. Inaccessible materials disproportionately affect students with disabilities, but poor usability affects everyone.
• ✗Inconsistent or confusing organization in Canvas. When students can’t predict where things are or what they’re for, they spend time navigating instead of learning. Consistency and clear labeling are among the most high-impact, low-effort improvements you can make to a course.
• ✗Relying on a single format. A course built entirely on weekly readings misses opportunities to reach students in different ways and can make the course feel monotonous.

Materials That Invite Reflection, Discernment, and Engagement

In the Ignatian tradition, learning materials are not simply information sources, they help shape how students encounter ideas, perspectives, and the world around them. The resources we choose signal what we believe is worth knowing, whose voices matter, and what kinds of questions deserve serious attention.

This requires approaching course materials with intentionality and care for the whole learner. Carefully selected materials can elevate diverse voices and experiences, invite students to consider the ethical and social dimensions of a topic, and connect disciplinary knowledge to authentic human questions and real-world contexts.