ID229 Creative Curriculum at Keele

The Idea

This proposal recommends the strategic development of a Creative Curriculum at Keele University that embeds creativity, GenAI literacy, and authentic assessment across all disciplines. Informed by sector guidance from Jisc, Advance HE and the Staff and Educational Development Association (SEDA), and by practice emerging from UK Adobe Creative Campus institutions, this approach recognises creativity and digital fluency as core graduate attributes rather than optional or discipline specific skills (Advance HE, 2024; Jisc, 2024; SEDA, n.d.). 

An Adobe Creative Campus is a strategic partnership between a university and Adobe that provides institution‑wide access to professional creative software (such as Adobe Creative Cloud and Adobe Express), alongside training, curriculum resources and community support. This enables students and staff across all disciplines, not just creative subjects to develop digital communication and design skills through producing multimedia outputs such as videos, podcasts, presentations and visual artefacts. The model is designed to embed creative and digital capabilities into teaching, learning and assessment at scale, enhancing student engagement, supporting innovative assessment practices, and strengthening graduate employability through the development of industry-relevant skills. 

Teaching within a Creative Curriculum would support students to work confidently and critically with disciplinary knowledge, digital tools, and GenAI. Students would be encouraged to use AI transparently and ethically, to interrogate outputs, exercise judgement, and communicate ideas creatively. Assessment would increasingly prioritise authentic tasks aligned to real world practice, such as digital portfolios, applied projects, live briefs and multimodal artefacts, supported by reflective commentary that makes learning processes and decision making explicit (Advance HE, 2024). 

This is not a move away from academic rigour, but an enhancement of it. By enabling students to demonstrate understanding through meaningful application, a Creative Curriculum supports engagement, inclusion and employability, while ensuring academic standards remain robust and relevant in a rapidly evolving educational and professional landscape (Adobe & Times Higher Education, 2023). 

Why This Idea Should Be Considered

The rapid adoption of generative AI has exposed the limitations of assessment models that reward production rather than critical thinking. At the same time, employers increasingly seek graduates who are adaptable, creative, and digitally confident. Jisc research indicates that students expect GenAI literacy to be embedded within their curriculum as preparation for future employment (Jisc, 2024), while Advance HE identifies authentic assessment as central to maintaining academic integrity and relevance in an AI enabled context (Advance HE, 2024). Evidence from UK universities participating in the Adobe Creative Campus programme demonstrates that embedding creative digital practice enhances student engagement, assessment quality and employability across a wide range of disciplines. At this time only two UK universities have been awarded Adobe Campus Innovator status, which recognises integration of Adobe’s creativity, productivity and AI tools in educational programmes. 

How We Would Implement This Idea

Keele could adopt a phased implementation, beginning with a small number of pilot programmes across faculties. These pilots would be supported by targeted academic development aligned with SEDA principles of curriculum design for impact and inclusive learning (SEDA, n.d.), alongside Advance HE guidance on authentic assessment and AI literacy (Advance HE, 2024). Partnership with Adobe through the Creative Campus programme would provide institution wide access to professional creative and GenAI enabled tools, supported by staff and student training. Students should be engaged as co-designers in curriculum and assessment design. Evaluation of student experience, learning outcomes and employability impact would inform gradual, institution wide adoption. 

Based on activity already undertaken elsewhere in the UK higher education sector, an indicative outline of timescale for implementation would be circa 3 years. Evidence from Adobe Creative Campus institutions suggests that meaningful curriculum transformation is typically phased over multiple academic years rather than delivered through a single implementation project. A realistic model for Keele could include: 

• Year 1: institutional review of existing digital and creative provision; curriculum mapping; development of AI and assessment principles; pilot activity within selected programmes. 
• Year 2: staff development, assessment redesign, expansion of pilots, development of student AI literacy resources and establishment of institution-wide assessment guidance. 
• Year 3: wider embedding across faculties, evaluation of student outcomes, refinement of policy and curriculum approaches, and pursuit of external recognition where appropriate. 

Such an approach would allow the University to build upon existing investments in digital tools and technologies rather than replacing them, responding directly to concerns around current infrastructure and established practice. It would also provide sufficient time for cultural change, staff confidence-building and evidence gathering before full institutional adoption. Examples from Creative Campus institutions such as Aston University, Kingston University and Bath Spa University demonstrate that embedding creativity, digital fluency and AI literacy is most effective when approached as a long-term strategic transformation rather than a technology implementation project (Aston University, 2025; Kingston University, 2025; Adobe, 2025). 

What Success Would Look Like

Success would be reflected in increased student engagement, confidence and sense of relevance, with learners able to demonstrate disciplinary understanding through creative, authentic outputs and clearly articulate how they have used GenAI responsibly (Advance HE, 2024). Staff would report greater confidence in assessment design and stronger alignment between learning outcomes and employability skills (SEDA, n.d.). At an institutional level, success would be evidenced through positive student feedback, improved graduate outcomes, and external recognition of Keele as a university that has thoughtfully and effectively embedded creativity and AI literacy within teaching, learning and assessment (Adobe & Times Higher Education, 2023; Bath Spa University, 2025). 

An additional measure of success could be enhanced international recruitment and market differentiation. International students increasingly seek evidence that universities are preparing graduates for an AI-enabled workplace. A clearly articulated Creative Curriculum that embeds creativity, digital fluency, responsible AI use and authentic assessment would provide a distinctive institutional narrative that could be communicated during recruitment activity. 

Feedback from recruitment colleagues already suggests prospective students and applicants frequently ask how universities are supporting AI capability development. A university-wide framework would enable Keele to demonstrate a coherent approach, rather than relying on examples from individual programmes. This could strengthen perceptions of graduate employability, innovation and future-readiness among prospective students, parents and international partners. Adobe's Creative Campus programme explicitly positions creativity, digital communication and AI literacy as skills needed for career readiness and institutional differentiation in a competitive higher education market (Adobe, 2025). 

Success could therefore also be evidenced through increased recruitment enquiries relating to AI and digital skills, stronger international marketing propositions, positive applicant feedback, and external recognition of Keele as a sector leader in responsible and innovative AI-enabled education (Adobe, 2025; Kingston University, 2025). 

References 

Adobe. (2025). Creative Campus Programme: Preparing students with creative, productivity and AI skills for career readiness. Available at https://www.adobeforeducation.com/higher-ed/creative-campus  

Adobe & Times Higher Education. (2023). Authentic assessment in higher education and the role of digital creative technologies. Available at https://www.timeshighereducation.com/sites/default/files/adobe_the_report_final.pdf  

Advance HE. (2024). Authentic assessment in the era of AI. Available at https://www.advance-he.ac.uk/membership/all-member-benefit-projects/Authentic-Assessment-in-the-era-of-AI  

Aston University. (2025). Adobe Creative Campus. Available at https://www.aston.ac.uk/adobe-creative-campus  

Bath Spa University. (2025). Adobe Creative Campus Innovator: Embedding creativity and employability across the curriculum. Available at https://www.bathspa.ac.uk/news-and-events/news/2025/bsu-adobe-creative-campus-innovator/  

Jisc. (2024). Students want to see generative AI integrated throughout the curriculum. Available at https://www.jisc.ac.uk/news/all/students-want-to-see-generative-ai-integrated-throughout-curriculum-despite-increased-concerns-around-ethics-and-equity  

Kingston University. (2025). Adobe Creative Campus. Available at https://www.kingston.ac.uk/experience/adobe-creative-campus  

Quality Assurance Agency (QAA). (2024–2026). Generative AI advice and resources for higher education. Available at https://www.qaa.ac.uk/sector-resources/generative-artificial-intelligence/qaa-advice-and-resources  

Staff and Educational Development Association. (n.d.). Curriculum design for impact and inclusive learning. Available at https://www.seda.ac.uk/  

University of Leeds. (2024). AI and Assessments: Generative AI Guidance. Available at https://generative-ai.leeds.ac.uk/ai-and-assessments/