The Adobe for Education team has always been deeply committed to putting the customer voice first. In fact, many members of our team are current or former college instructors, faculty, or campus leaders, giving us a unique understanding of the challenges and opportunities in higher education. But we also spend much of our time listening to and learning from educators and students every day as the landscape of higher education evolves daily, not least with rapid changes driven by the introduction of generative AI.
As a part of this commitment to learning and listening, the higher education team at Adobe just finished hosting a 14-month series of campus thought-leader webinars and in-person roundtable events across Australia, Europe, and 12 cities in North America. At each event, our goal was to create spaces for campus thought leaders to share learnings, engage in dialogue, and compare perspectives on how generative AI is impacting higher education.
There’s a lot left to learn, but there are some key insights that are deeply informing how our Adobe for Education team is supporting faculty and students this upcoming academic year with updated programs, curricula, and tools. Our ultimate goal is to help campuses innovate and improve student outcomes with generative AI.
Initial months of uncertainty
We began our journey in San Antonio, Chicago, and New York City in the spring of 2023. At that time, just months after ChatGPT became available to the public, any discussion of generative AI and campuses was underscored by a deep sense of uncertainty and complexity. When asked what faculty should do about student use of generative AI, Seton Hall University members responded in a way most universities did at that time, “We don’t know what to say.”
This insight itself was a lightbulb moment for the Adobe for Education team. We realized that one of the most impactful ways we could provide value and support to the academic community at that time was by quickly creating more roundtables and events to connect campus thought leaders. We wanted to allow them to carve out dedicated time to share insights and learn what their first steps might look like as they explored generative AI on their campuses.
Emerging consensus and practical integration
By the summer of 2023, many campuses had formed task forces and working groups to more deeply consider the impacts of generative AI across the curriculum. By fall, an early consensus emerged: Guidelines, not policies, were the appropriate approach for the academic use of these emerging technologies. This was a key theme of Adobe’s August 2023 Digital Literacy Café episode “Back to School with Generative AI,” featuring insights from Dr. Wanda White (Winston-Salem State University), Dr. Susan Miller-Cochran (University of Arizona), Dr. Daniel Anderson (UNC Chapel Hill), and Dr. Bill Hart-Davidson (Michigan State University).
Weeks later, Adobe fully released a reimagined Adobe Express, with generative AI creation tools, powered by Adobe Firefly. The new Adobe Express helps faculty and students at all skill levels grow more confident in communicating their ideas by removing barriers between creative vision and the blank page. Adobe Firefly is built responsibly and includes guardrails encouraging appropriate use as well as Content Credentials. It allows students to create images that are safe for commercial use, and Adobe guarantees that student projects are not used to train the Firefly models. With these features, Firefly and Adobe Express are powerful tools that campuses can feel confident introducing to their students and integrating into the curricula.
If the consensus in the fall term of 2023 was all about keeping heads above the early rising tide of generative AI, in the new year, campuses everywhere started discovering new tools and capabilities thoughtfully designed to help them navigate these new waters. Here are some of the key insights we saw during this past pivotal year of foundation-building:
Academic year insights from campus thought leaders
- Generative AI opportunities across the curricula. As departments began asking who should teach and learn AI literacy, it became quickly apparent the answer was not solely computer science faculty and students, but everyone. While CS courses may dive deep into studying and creating AI technology, every student needs to learn how AI can deepen their understanding of their discipline and prepare them for relevant careers. At the first roundtable event in Houston, Dr. Melissa Vito, Vice Provost of Academic Innovation at the University of Texas at San Antonio, shared the campus research from “Improving Student Outcomes: Quantifying the Impact of Creative Skills on College and Career” to showcase the potential impact of generative AI. Her team saw immediate opportunities for integrating AI to enhance student learning and outcomes across disciplines. However, they also recognized the need for ongoing development of faculty expertise and support systems to effectively integrate these tools.