When I think about accessibility in learning design, especially through a UDL perspective, I’ve started to see it less as a checklist and more as a mindset. Accessibility, to me, is really about removing the mismatches between a learner and their environment—not “fixing” the learner, but adjusting the design so more people can participate meaningfully. CAST’s UDL framework has helped me understand that accessibility is rooted in flexibility: multiple ways to engage, multiple ways to take information in, and multiple ways to show understanding.

While working on my group’s Mindful Moments OER, I kept circling back to how teachers are learners too. An OER meant for classroom use shouldn’t only assume the needs of students—it should also support the teacher who might be squeezing in one minute at lunch to figure out how to guide a mindful breathing exercise. Some teachers might want to quickly skim text because their classroom is noisy at lunch. Others might benefit from listening to a short audio version if they have headphones. UDL reminds me that offering options isn’t extra work—it’s what makes learning actually reachable for more people.

In this course, we’ve talked a lot about how accessibility and multimedia can either lower barriers or accidentally raise them. Thinking about this while designing our prototype made me realize that “accessible design” doesn’t have to be complicated. Sometimes it’s just offering a clear layout, predictable navigation, and a choice of format. Ultimately, UDL pushes me to design with empathy, so that the people using the resource—teachers or students—can access what they need in the way that works best for them.

Updated: November 5th 2025
Authors: Michael Donkers, Taha Fareed, Kate Nelson

Brief Project Intro

We have chosen this topic because we all previously worked on topics that connect to this topic in one regard or another (Michael and Taha did their Challenge B on understanding the mind, Michael’s Challenge A was on the importance of exercise, Kate did her Challenge B on Mindful Moments). Combining these ideas together, we aim to create an OER that can be used by both teachers and learners to the concept of “mindful moments” which we would describe as being very short little movement breaks throughout the day that can help to shift our attention, regulate our emotions and ease the mind.  

FINAL DESIGN COMING SOON

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THE PROCESS

Understand (Discover, Interpret, Specify)

DESCRIBE THE CHALLENGE:

Many educators struggle to understand that mindfulness isn’t something that can just be added as part of a students day and expect that it’s going to take effect. How it is used throughout the day, when it is used and why it is used are all very important questions that need to be answered simply put there just isn’t enough time in the day for most educators. The solution? We aim to create a resource that will help educators to answer all these essential questions so that mindfulness can authentically be part of their day. 

CONTEXT AND AUDIENCE:

Audience 

Our target audience for our OER is ideally suited for educators that are working with elementary and middle school students, however the activities shared in this resource can easily be adapted to be suitable for most age groups. It is also a great resource for students such as ourselves that are studying in the field of education as well as new teachers looking to add more into their social-emotional learning toolkit. The target audience is those that have perhaps heard of the term mindfulness and have some degree of background with it but aren’t at a point where they feel like they could lead it with confidence or understand how it ties into classroom regulation. 

Needs 

The key to meeting the needs of the students is to demonstrate mindfulness to them in ways that don’t take away from the lesson being taught, these demonstrations of different techniques should just blend in with the rest of the day without feeling out of place. Our resource will showcase how different movements and activities can be adapted to work in just about any classroom. Through our resource we will provide teachers and students the opportunity to show attention to providing support, catering to different emotions seen in classrooms across the board and demonstrating an eagerness to learn through practising mindfulness. 

Goals 

In terms of goals, we have a few that come to mind as we design his OER on mindfulness and this simply begins with helping educators to understand not only what it is but why it is so important for students. There is a fine balance between practising calm mindfulness and using movement as a way to be mindful and so we set out to show how the two can be used together. We also aim to provide context by providing examples of how these different techniques can be used in day to day classroom activities. 

Motivation 

We live in a very digital driven world and so classrooms are running at a higher pace than we have ever seen before. This makes it difficult for teachers to feel like they have a handle on the situation and it is in all honesty, rightfully so, overwhelming. As a group, we feel there is a solution to this and that is to provide teachers and students with a tool that they can keep in their toolkit that will serve them in life beyond the classroom. Providing them the resources to practice mindfulness is highly motivating and will create a more positive learning environment. 

POV STATEMENT:

A teacher that is lost in how, when and most importantly why they should use mindfulness in their classroom needs a resource that educates them on mindfulness so that students are able to regulate their own emotions to create a more positive learning experience.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

• Learners will be able to understand that mindfulness is about being present in the moment without regard for other variables 
• Learners will be able to demonstrate how through engaging in mindfulness activities their focus has improved and they are much more emotionally regulated 
• Learners will be able to feel confident in sharing how mindfulness affects their own emotions and share with others their own techniques they have developed 
• Learners will be more reflective on how mindfulness can be adapted to meet the learning needs of many different diverse students and teachers

Plan (Ideate, Sketch, Elaborate)

IDEATION:

We decided that the OER should feel very easy to pick up and use especially during busy times. While creating Phase 1 we noticed that teachers need really short activities, clarity on when to use them, and language that helps students connect the activity to an emotion. Our main idea for this challenge is a small set of “Mindfulness Moments” organized by a purpose such as focus, calm, reset and time such as 30 seconds, 1 minute, 2 minutes.

While brainstorming we came with 3 possible delivery formats:

1. Slide-based OER: one mindfulness moment per slide
2. Short video: such as challenge B maybe show an animation or video of the teacher explaining a concept with animations so students are able to follow along
3. Quick references: quick notes the teacher can print and stick to their desk like “if students are restless do X” or “If students are low energy do Y”

After brainstorming our ideas we chose between a mix of 1 and 2. So our Final OER would be a set of short and repeatable mindfulness activities that explain why to the teacher and how to the students

STORYBOARD OR SCRIPT:

Scene 1 (Intro, Signaling):

• Title: “Mindfulness Moment: Reset”
• Narration: take a quick mindfulness moment to reset our brains

Scene 2 (Why we’re doing this, Coherence):

• Have a brain, heart, and clock in the scene (cartoon)
• Narration: “This helps your body slow down so it’s easier to focus on the next activity.”

Scene 3 (Posture, Modality):

• Cartoon character sitting upright, feet flat.
• Narration: Sit with your back straight, put both feet on the floor, and rest your hands

Scene 4 (Breathing, Temporal Contiguity):

• A breathing circle like something from a “relaxation video” from youtube
• Narration: “Breathe in and hold for 3 seconds and breathe out, repeat 3 times)

Scene 5 (mindfulness cue, Segmenting):

• Narration: As you breathe, notice how your body feels loose, your shoulders drop down, your face gets relaxed…)

Scene 6 (Return to task, UDL)

• Add icons of notebook and laptop
• Narration: Bring your attention back to your current task and don’t be afraid to use this whenever needed.

PRINCIPLES APPLIED:

When we were planning out our mindful moment activity, we tried to be thoughtful about a few multimedia learning principles that would make the experience clear and easy for students. We used Signaling by keeping the title and purpose very straightforward so teachers and students know right away what the activity is about. We also followed Coherence by choosing only simple visuals (like a brain or breathing cue) instead of anything busy or distracting, since the whole point is to help students settle. For Modality, the idea was to pair short spoken instructions with matching visuals so students can process the steps without getting overloaded by text. Lastly, we used Segmenting by breaking the activity into smaller steps, which should make it easier for teachers to guide and for students to follow at their own pace.

Create and Share the Prototype

The prototype for our Open Educational Resource (OER) has been created using Google Sites. The goal of this prototype is to provide a simple, accessible first version of our “Mindful Moments in the Classroom” resource—one that demonstrates the structure, visual design, and layout of the final OER.

This prototype includes:

• A Home page introducing the purpose of the OER
  
• A Teacher Resources section with background information on mindful moments and guidance on choosing the right activity
  
• A Mindfulness Moments section with one completed activity page (“Mindfulness Moment: Reset”), based on our group’s storyboard
  
• A dedicated Open License page using the CC BY 4.0 license
  

This prototype highlights the core design principles we aim to apply in the final version: clarity, simplicity, accessibility, and alignment with mindfulness practices. Future iterations would include additional mindful moment activities, visuals, and potentially short video demonstrations.

Prototype Website Link:

https://sites.google.com/view/mindfulmomentsintheclassroom