ID189 Join The Adobe Creative Campus program

The Idea

I propose that Keele University joins the Adobe Creative Campus program to empower students across all disciplines with the creative, productivity, and AI skills modern employers demand. By becoming an accredited institution, we will bridge the digital divide, providing equitable access to Adobe Creative Cloud, Express, and Firefly (Generative AI) for our entire community. Ensuring industry-standard tools are available regardless of a student’s financial means. 

This partnership ensures our students learn to communicate effectively through impactful formats including data visualisations, videos, and professional documents, while mastering the responsible and ethical use of AI. 

Furthermore, this initiative offers significant benefits for staff. Our staff would join a global community of practice to share best practices in developing innovative pedagogies and work-ready curricula. By adopting this long-term strategic commitment to curriculum transformation, Keele will further distinguish itself as a leader in digital literacy, ensuring our graduates are uniquely prepared for the complexities of the AI-driven workplace. 

Why This Idea Should Be Considered

Joining the Adobe Creative Campus program aligns with Keele’s strategic goal of fostering 'digital-ready' graduates. By providing campus-wide access to Creative Cloud, we democratise digital literacy, moving these essential skills beyond traditional creative subjects into all disciplines, from Health Sciences to Humanities. This partnership reinforces the principles of our current APP by ensuring equity of opportunity. By providing these tools at no cost to the individual, we remove a significant 'hidden cost' of study and provide all students with the creative capital needed to close the graduate outcomes gap. Research shows that Adobe-integrated curricula lead to a 4.5% increase in course mastery and higher retention rates, particularly among underrepresented student groups. This partnership differentiates Keele as a forward-thinking institution, equipping students with the persuasive communication, generative AI, and visual storytelling skills that LinkedIn data ranks as the most in-demand by global employers, thereby directly boosting our Graduate Outcomes. 

How We Would Implement This Idea

Implementation should follow a "Pedagogy First" model, shifting the focus from software adoption to sustained cultural change. We would identify "Pathfinder" modules across diverse faculties to pilot digital-first Active Social Learning and Authentic Assessments, such as infographics or podcasts, supported by the Adobe Assessment Toolkit.. To ensure this move translates into actual practice in all areas and avoids the pitfalls of superficial adoption, we will embed these tools into formal faculty-level curriculum review cycles and multi-professional learning opportunities that develop collaborative competence. Strategically, we can recruit Student Digital Champions to provide peer-to-peer training. To ensure faculty buy-in and institutional capacity, we would offer professional development workshops focused on digital-first curriculum redesign to enhance teaching materials and reduce marking workloads.  

What Success Would Look Like

Success is a culture where digital creativity is a core part of the Keele identity. Sustained by a multi-year institutional commitment to digital transformation. 

Quantitatively, we would see high license adoption across all faculties and improved NSS scores regarding "Learning Resources."  

A primary measure of success will be an uplift in our Longitudinal Education Outcomes (LEO) data and Graduate Outcomes (GO) 'Skills Utilisation' scores. Success means students are not only gaining industry-standard competencies but are equipped to explicitly articulate these skills when answering the GO survey and applying for high-skilled roles. 

Qualitatively, success is seeing students from any discipline, be it Nursing or Law, confidently using creative tools to communicate complex research. Success also includes the widespread move away from traditional assessment modalities toward innovative, diverse formats that mirror the technical requirements of the modern workplace. Ultimately, success is measured by Keele alumni being recognised by employers for their ability to use creative and AI tools to solve problems and communicate ideas effectively in every professional environment. 

Further evidence of HEI’s using this approach can be seen in this WONKHE article from 2023! Wonkhe / Adobe UK Sector Report.