Article: Adobe Express for Faculty and Students
by Walter Milner, Instructional Designer IV, Learning and Educational Center
Faculty and students at NSU now have access to Adobe Express for Education, a cloud-based platform for creating visual presentations, graphics, multimedia projects and more. The platform includes thousands of templates that can be utilized, “remixed”, and assigned as a starting point for assignments, along with access to Adobe stock photos and generative AI features, giving your students creative tools to demonstrate knowledge in ways other than written text. Both students and instructors have access with a single sign- on using their NSU credentials. Faculty members have access to the Adobe Education Exchange where they can find resources to help them develop classroom assignments along with tutorials on how to use Adobe Express for teaching. Students have access to the Adobe Digital Academy where they can learn how to create visual presentations and how to use generative AI for visual presentations. Both faculty and students can access Adobe express in a browser by going to https://new.express.adobe.com and logging in with their NSU email and password.
Along with customizable templates, Adobe Express has a user-friendly interface that allows users to add text, images, charts, shapes, animations, and their own photos, video, or music to projects. Users can edit all visual elements such as colors and backgrounds. It also gives users the ability to use generative AI to create images, remove backgrounds, and remove or insert objects in images. Generative AI can also be used to analyze, rewrite, and design text elements.
Adobe Express offers faculty a valuable tool for assignment creation. It allows students to demonstrate knowledge in ways other than text. Students can create infographics, multimedia presentations, charts, and more, exercising creativity while presenting important course information. The ability to present information visually and create effective presentations is an important skill for students to practice as a future job skill. It also engages students in a different way that may inspire and motivate them. Students can collaborate on projects and work on group assignments by sharing projects and editing the permissions.
Users can access Adobe Express by going directly to https://new.express.adobe.com and logging in with their NSU email and password. Students can create and collaborate on projects in the browser version and submit the downloaded file in Canvas. You will be able to open the file within Speedgrader to view it. (It is highly advisable to not have students submit a link, but rather an actual file so that the instructor can keep a record of the submission at the time of grading. A link would persist even if changes are made to the project after grading.)
Faculty can also create a template for students to edit as a starting point using Adobe Express directly in Canvas. This can be done by creating an assignment and choosing Adobe Express as an external tool in the submission type. In testing the LEC has noticed that this method may present some complications such as the ability for students to edit the project after submission without any record of previous versions. If faculty choose to use this integration, it is also advisable to put the project in a separate folder in Adobe Express so that student projects are organized in their own area of the instructor’s Adobe Express account. For more information on using Adobe Express as an external submission tool within Canvas, please visit: Integrate Adobe Creative Cloud and Adobe Express with Canvas LMS
To learn more about Adobe Express for teaching, please register for our upcoming workshop on August 5th, “Creating Engaging Course Content with Adobe Express.” For more information and registration links please visit here: Workshop: Creating Engaging Course Content with Adobe Express
You can also visit the Adobe Education Exchange for teaching ideas and tutorials.
Adobe Acrobat Pro
Both faculty and students will also now have access to Adobe Acrobat Pro. This tool can be used to edit and sign PDFs, create new PDFs, and convert other file formats to PDF. Previously, a paid subscription was needed to be able to do this. This is a valuable tool as many instructors and students utilize PDFs for coursework and also often have the need to sign documents in PDF form. Now all NSU faculty and students will have access to these tools.
The Adobe Acrobat Pro software can be found in the NSU App Store located on all NSU computers. Once it is downloaded, log in with your NSU email and password to have access to all the features. If you are using a personal computer, you can go to www.adobe.com and log in with your NSU credentials to download Acrobat.