Curtin University inspires students and enhances learning using Adobe Express

People in Perth, Australia have never let the city’s remote location stand in the way of progress. As one of the world’s most isolated big cities — it’s more than 1,200 miles away from its nearest urban neighbor — businesses and other organizations in Perth have always balanced regional strengths with a global vision.

Curtin University exemplifies the city’s attitude toward embracing opportunities and new ideas. The University’s Industry and Science Collaboration Centre advances digital transformation through innovation. It applies this same vision to adopting the best teaching and learning tools to give students access to apps to solve problems and present ideas in new ways.

Adobe Express, Adobe's all-in-one app for fast, easy content creation, stands out in helping Curtin University educators and students across disciplines rethink what’s possible.

Creative, hands-on learning

As noted by the World Economic Forum Future of Jobs Survey 2023, technological literacy and creative thinking rank among the top core skills needed in the workforce. Online tools used at Curtin help educators and students connect with resources to improve these skills while advancing knowledge both locally and beyond campus.

Naomi Cocks, associate professor in the School of Allied Health at Curtin University, aims to help her students be capable problem-solvers whether they eventually seek jobs in the city or across the globe. Using Adobe Express, Cocks asks students to take a creative approach to synthesizing and sharing their learnings with peers and the broader community.

An expert on dysphagia, a swallowing disorder associated with many different conditions including strokes and Parkinson’s disease, Cocks' curriculum enhances student appreciation of culturally sensitive techniques to help patients and their families. She engages students in her Feeding and Swallowing Disorders unit by incorporating Adobe Express into a cooking assignment. The project improves student understanding of the international framework for categorizing food textures, which clinicians can use to help patients prepare foods they can safely eat.

Adobe Express supports a teaching methodology that emphasizes active and playful learning. Although Cocks considers herself a technophobe, she likes how accessible the app is both for creating student projects and for audiences who view them.

Students create online recipe pages featuring a food from their cultural background. Using the app and its pre-designed templates, they combine preparation instructions in text along with videos, photos, and other images that demonstrate cooking the food and show the required consistency level.

“Some typically quiet students really shine in this task because it’s a different way of tapping into their creativity,” Cocks says. The project’s visual nature makes them more likely to remember the different foods, their consistencies, and cultural significance. The practical nature of the task builds their competence and confidence.

After Cocks shared the recipe collection link on social media, she received thousands of enthusiastic responses, including from clinicians as far away as Ireland.

Serving up memorable lessons with multimedia

Olivia Fuderer, a recent Curtin University graduate now working as a speech pathologist at a pediatric disability clinic in Perth, loved the task. Her online recipe featured Bona Zeuspiz, a beans and potatoes dish that her Austrian grandparents used to cook for family gatherings.

“It was fun and simple to learn how to use Adobe Express, so I could spend my time focusing on the content instead of figuring out the technology,” says Fuderer.

Fuderer plans to continue using Adobe Express as a quick, easy way to create materials so patients better understand their diagnosis and treatment. She likes that the final content looks professional without requiring advanced creative skills and extensive effort. Patients also don’t need any software to view it, just a web browser.

Creative approaches for science assessments

Professors at Curtin also use Adobe Express for student assessments. For Dom Wolff-Boenisch, Associate Professor in the School of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Curtin University, this approach creates a lasting impact.

For his Earth Resources and Sustainability unit, Wolff-Boenisch developed an assessment that requires students to use the app to create an online artifact demonstrating a comprehensive understanding of energy strategies, their socio-economic and environmental implications, and the global context.

The assessment challenges students to think like a community council outreach officer who must brief stakeholders on managing energy resources sustainably. The artifacts need to explain the topic in a compelling and easy-to-understand way, including through engaging graphics and videos.

“It’s not just your typical, boring, report-writing assessment,” Wolff-Boenisch says. “With Adobe Express, students can be creative and have flexibility in presenting complex analyses of important energy issues. Students are engaged in a positive way — they put more into it and get more out of it.”

The grading rubric scores students on how well they convey key messages, organize information and visual aids, and create an appealing design with colors, media, and interactive elements that enhance people’s understanding. “Many of the students’ online artifacts are gorgeous, very creative, and spot on with insightful perspectives,” says Wolff-Boenisch.

Sharing knowledge

Professors and students at Curtin delight in sharing knowledge with peers nearby and colleagues around the world. With tools like Adobe Express, they’re well-equipped to tell their stories, document learnings, and amplify ideas while building the digital and creative skills that are increasingly essential for careers, no matter where their goals take them.

Get inspired and see how students are using Adobe Express across disciplines.