There’s a place at the University of Utah where 450 entrepreneurs, from freshmen through to graduates, are trying to start companies. “It’s the most vibrant, energetic space on campus,” says Cory Stokes, chief digital learning officer at the university. “Walk in on any day and you will see students prototyping apps, creating logos or marketing materials for all kinds of startups, from bioscience to outdoor recreation to health technology.”
These are students who’d probably succeed regardless, but their chances are boosted by digital tools which allow their creativity to blossom.
Seven years ago the University of Utah pioneered a new digital-centric approach that, to the traditionally change-resistant higher education sector, may have seemed risky. It wanted to teach its students how to use a raft of tools for creating videos, websites, apps, infographics and more, but unlike most institutes that teach these programs only to certain student groups – such as entrepreneurs – Utah rolled this out for all of its students. Student retention has risen by 13% over a decade, staff are on board and employers are happy to hire emerging graduates. These former students also do well in the thriving tech scene locally, where there are at least four tech firms valued in billions of dollars: Qualtrics, Domo, InsideSales and Pluralsight.
How has the university done it?
This has been achieved partly by working closely with experts from Adobe, and incorporating Adobe Creative Cloud and all its applications and services into the curricula. University leaders were intrigued – would the ability to use Photoshop, for example, allow students to create work in different ways? And would this use of technology be genuinely engaging and inspiring? Utah answered with a resounding yes, going on to join the Adobe Creative Campus programme, which includes some 30 global universities that all believe digital literacy has a place in higher education and are keen to tell others how they’ve done it.
This is about more than software, says Sebastian Distefano who’s responsible for developing Adobe’s global strategy for higher education and has worked closely with Utah’s team. “We discovered our Creative Cloud tools can really impact teaching and learning beyond areas where there’s an obvious fit,” he says. “Our partnership with the University of Utah helped us understand what is valuable and how to make it successful.”
What can students do?
Using tools from Creative Cloud such as Illustrator (graphics design) and Premiere Pro (video creation), students might create a podcast or put together a documentary, rather than submit several thousand words of an assignment. History students might publish a magazine exploring events, biologists might create an infographic to explain a public health matter or chemists might design an app teaching chemical principles with a game. In doing so, learning is enhanced, says Stokes. Students acquire visual, audio and narrative skills prized by employers. “Storytelling is in our nature as human beings,” he says.
“This is a way to get students thinking about deeper concepts and how to express them.”
While creative students might take to these like a duck to water, it’s new ground for many engineers, scientists and humanities students. “Most of these students have never used a creative tool in their lives – they’re used to being in a lab,” says Stokes. “But they find they can communicate their passion for a subject, or explain research that appears unapproachable.” In future work, they’ll be equipped to communicate complex ideas and win over audiences, an essential skill in today’s society, he says.
The work students produce reflects a rich learning experience, says Stokes. To create a podcast, video or visual story, a student will have to distil the fundamental knowledge, analyse and evaluate it and think how best to communicate it and reflect upon it – all key pedagogical goals. “When they graduate they can show skills that differentiate themselves from others, and that’s really powerful. That’s what universities are about.”
And graduates also emerge with a portfolio of digital artefacts – which is better, says Distefano, than reams of written work that may never see the light of day. “They are shareable, accessible in perpetuity.”
As a large employer, Adobe knows how difficult it is to find “work-ready” graduates regardless of their academic prowess. Research by Adobe, looking at millions of job advertisements and CVs, shows that soft skills are critical to hiring managers and individuals with these qualities can be hard to find. Digital literacy – the ability to use digital tools to solve problems – nurtures better communication, critical thinking and collaboration – the “soft” skills identified by the World Economic Forum as critical for the future.
But as Stokes is well aware, asking dyed-in-the-wool academics to change their teaching and curricula is fraught with problems. “Academics don’t want to appear unprofessional in front of students,” he says. But there’s a misconception that they can’t teach with technology unless they have completely mastered it – which is false. “Some systems such as Adobe Spark are so approachable you can get going with just a 20-minute consultation,” he says. “And then many gravitate towards more complex tools.”
Adobe has also been on hand to walk faculties through unknown territory, says Distefano. Staff can also benefit from wisdom shared by other universities and individual members of Adobe’s digital literacy thought leaders, who share examples of how they’ve integrated Creative Cloud into their assignments. “Our partnership is about supporting those initiatives at uni – we don’t just drop the software and run. We can show them how tools could help in teaching or adapting the curriculum,” says Distefano.
And the University of Utah has just trained up 10 tech student ambassadors who will help educate students and academics about what’s possible with creative digital tools. There’s a business case for revamping the university’s digital offering too, says Stokes – with more students staying the course; “and our transformation of pedagogy via Adobe is a big part of that”. More engaged students, adept in digital tools, will eventually return to the university as academics equipped with digital expertise – a virtuous circle, he says.
“I think educators have to follow the same advice I give to students,” says Courtney Miller, a US academic who now works within education strategy at Adobe. “Don’t be afraid to take risks, play and have fun. Start bite-sized and be willing to experiment – there’s no other way.”
