Preamble:
Backed by first and second-hand research, Plan-it is a centralized digital website concept that provides adaptable, curriculum-aligned teaching materials directly to Ontario educators, addressing gaps in teaching resource accessibility, differentiation, and standardization. It supports teachers and diverse learners alike, helping to pave the way for inclusive classrooms.
The Problems:
Ontario’s educators face a “normalized crisis.” Since 2018, funding has been cut by $1,500 per student—totalling $3 billion—while expectations have risen. Teachers have less support, larger classes, and shrinking budgets, exacerbating issues in the classroom.
Funding cuts → Larger classes + fewer supports → Increased workload & expectations → Resource shortages & inequities → Teacher burnout + Student Learning gaps → High attrition student underachievement.
The Challenge
Lesser funding, fewer staff, and larger class sizes have increased reliance on reproducibles like worksheets and ready-to-use packages. Yet teachers often struggle to find high-quality materials that align with Ontario’s curriculum. Many existing worksheets are outdated, inconsistent, and fail to support diverse learners.
The Opportunity
Without adequate funding and in-class supports, well-designed, standardized, and differentiated resources can be a lifeline—reducing burnout and improving learning outcomes. The solution lies in a platform that fuses the Ontario curriculum with polished, adaptable worksheets created from the start with diverse learners in mind, ensuring accessibility, consistency, and relevance in every classroom.
The Solution:
Plan-it visualizes a centralized, accessibility-first platform that would empower teachers. By localizing the lesson planning experience with the existing Ontario curriculum structure, teachers can directly find more appropriate, ready-to-use teaching resources without having to visit multiple sites. Here they can have having easy adaptable resources, and readily availible differentiated learning resources.
The Strategy & Process
This project follows an iterative design process, addressing the needs of teachers who are struggling to find effective resources. The visual design approach is reserved and calm, creating a space that feels open and uncluttered, allowing users to focus without feeling overwhelmed by distractions or noise. In designing the web platform, special attention is given to minimizing the friction and complexity often encountered when searching for teaching material.
Visual Brand Strategy:
The branding strategy reinforces the objective of clarity and calm. The design uses clean typography, soft colours and visuals to reduce cognitive load. This allows for core elements on the platform to stand out. The green apple symbolizes teachers, while the orbital ring and name is a clever play on words for the purpose of platform, to "Plan-it". The combination of these elements paired with unique terrazzo texture and subtle drop shadows create an experience that gives back to teachers rather than adding to their plate.
Web Design:
The website concept features an e-commerce-style interface modelled as a refreshing take of Ontario’s existing curriculum platform, allowing for improved yet familiar, intuitive browsing, filtering, and lesson planning experience. Materials are adaptable and differentiated on-site and are always connected to curriculum goals, so teachers don’t have to go far to find what they need. Difficulty, text size, language options and various download options ensure teachers are given the flexibility, autonomy and tools they need to thrive.
Universal Design for Learning :
My thesis argues that learning materials can be improved by using Universal Design for Learning (UDL). These approaches recognize that students learn best in different ways: In how they engage, how information is presented, and how they demonstrate understanding (like writing, speaking, or creating). Based on this, I explored how resources can be differentiated for different learning needs, preferences and styles with Grade 3 Financial Literacy curriculum.
The Campaign:
With any emerging platform, there needs to be a way to get information out. To promote Plan-it, I developed a print and digital campaign using photo-manipulated apple imagery to symbolize the various pressures teachers face. The imagery is paired with strategic messaging that aims to validate educators’ struggles, positioning Plan-it as a practical, necessary and empathetic solution for teachers impacted by Ontario's current educational landscape.
