Visual communication skills for students.

Shaping California’s future

The California State University (CSU) system isn’t only the largest four-year public university system in the U.S., it’s also the most diverse. More than half of the students come from traditionally underrepresented backgrounds, and nearly one-third of undergraduates are the first in their families to attend college. The CSU schools are committed to delivering quality and equitable education for all. Today that includes closing the digital divide to give its 130,000 yearly graduates the technical and digital skills required to succeed in modern workplaces.

To achieve the CSU’s goals, several of its universities, including San José State University (SJSU), Fresno State, Cal State Fullerton, and San Diego State University have become Adobe Creative Campuses. As an Adobe Creative Campus, all students, faculty, and staff have access to Adobe Creative Cloud apps including Adobe Express, encouraging students in all fields to strengthen their digital literacy, embrace their creativity, and take charge of their learning.

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“People worldwide equate the Adobe brand with quality, creativity, and innovation,” explains Cynthia Teniente-Matson, President of SJSU. “By bringing Adobe Creative Cloud apps like Adobe Express into classrooms, we’ve reimagined how we serve historically underrepresented student populations. They now have easier and quicker access to tools to learn skills that set them up for future success.”

The right skills for any field

Most business jobs today require some digital fluency. Think about managers creating training materials for employees, scientists presenting findings at a conference, or contractors sharing project details with clients. Around 45% of the CSU courses currently include some level of technology in the curriculum. By making Adobe apps available in classrooms, the CSU schools teach students how to work with new technologies to set them apart no matter their future career.

“CSU graduates enter into a tech-driven world,” explains Kate Miffitt, Director for Innovation, Office of the Chancellor, The California State University. “Guiding students to be both critical digital consumers and creators prepares them for the modern workforce and gives them an advantage when competing for jobs.”

At Fresno State, 100% of the students completing the capstone broadcast journalism class in Spring 2023 found jobs immediately after graduation, many working in newsrooms as reporters, producers or designers, or they went onto graduate school. According to Faith Sidlow, Chair of the Media, Communications, and Journalism Department at Fresno State, a lot of that success is because students know how to create professional-looking broadcasts using Adobe Creative Cloud apps to edit video, create visuals, and animate motion graphics.

Lyric Kochendorfer, a first-generation SJSU student studying Radio, Television, and Film, values having access to Adobe apps. “Creativity benefits everyone,” says Kochendorfer. “Whether in the classroom or in my personal life, it opens doors for me to take on new challenges.”

Equal access for all

To close the digital gap, the CSU system makes technology readily available. But that’s not just limited to providing Adobe Creative Cloud licenses for all students. Working with easy-to-use apps such as Adobe Express help students start innovating faster.

“It only takes a day to teach students how to use Adobe Express templates to create videos, make posters, or build multimedia pages, so they can start telling stories right away,” says Tina Korani, Assistant Professor of Digital Media at SJSU.

Tony Bui, a master’s in library information science student at SJSU, likes that he can access Adobe Express on his mobile device. “I can create visuals on my phone and make updates anywhere. It’s so fast and simple to work with Adobe Express,” says Bui. “I love using it to create animations to make projects more engaging.”

Club flyer created in Adobe Express by SJSU student Samantha Figueroa Lopez

Students rely on the online tools to efficiently collaborate with classmates and update projects from anywhere. Samantha Figueroa Lopez, a senior engineering student at SJSU, creates flyers for club events, and shares drafts with club leadership to review.

“My schoolwork is my priority, and I need as much time to study as possible,” says Figueroa Lopez. “Adobe Express lets me work fast while still getting great results.”

Engaging students in learning

Beyond traditional design or media fields, learning visual communication skills inspires more students to approach their work differently.

For instance, SJSU accounting and finance students use Adobe Audition to create podcasts highlighting what they’re learning. Along the way, they’re challenged to assess their coursework and come up with clear explanations about what they’ve learned. Similarly, for geographic information systems (GIS) students, they can turn complex information into a visual story to explain to clients what they’re seeing with drone footage.

“When students create, they come away with a much deeper knowledge of their subject,” says Vincent Del Casino, Provost and Senior Vice President at SJSU. “They don’t just think about what they’re learning, but how to communicate it to the world.”

Bringing emerging tech into classrooms

When teaching the next generation of leaders, CSU is always on the lookout for new technologies that give students an edge. Generative AI has the potential to boost student productivity.

John Delacruz, Associate Professor of Advertising Creative and Associate Director of the School of Journalism at SJSU, sees the ability to explore and iterate on ideas as a big benefit of generative AI. In his Design Fundamentals class, he assigns an iteration project that challenges students to create as many thumbnail-sized images as possible about a simple concept, such as an egg.

“After ten iterations, students start running out of ideas because they made all of the obvious egg images. They need to start thinking creatively about different contexts, meanings, or sayings that involve eggs,” says Delacruz. “Generative AI can kick-start creativity by helping students think outside the box.”

Amir Dabirian, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs at California State University, Fullerton, sees long-term value in teaching students visual communications skills. “It’s our mission to educate Californians and develop our state’s and nation’s future leaders. Adobe Creative Cloud is one of our top tools for setting students up for success now and in the future.”

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