The University of Utah uses Adobe microcredentials to prepare students for careers
The University of Utah has been an Adobe Creative Campus for several years as part of its push to ensure students are ready for their careers. Recently, the university started encouraging students to earn Adobe microcredentials to learn essential digital and creative skills and showcase their knowledge to prospective employers.
While Adobe has long offered Adobe Certified Professional certification exams to help users demonstrate expertise in Adobe apps and industry skills, Adobe microcredentials are shorter, self-paced, and focus on specific tasks, such as creating eye-catching social media content or producing podcasts, all with the assistance of Adobe’s safe and responsible generative AI. The self-paced courses take just a few hours, making it easy for students to fit courses into their busy schedules. Upon completion, students receive a digital certificate and a badge that they can display on LinkedIn as proof of their skills. More than 1,000 microcredentials have been awarded at the university so far.
“Adobe microcredentials are a very curated, low-stakes introduction to skills that our students need. It gives students a framework to understand the language of design and apply skills towards more effective communications in their internships or jobs.”
-Holly Johnson, associate director of Learning Experience Innovation & Outreach.
Courtesy of the University of Utah.
Growing a nonprofit audience for Tech-Moms
For the past several years, the University of Utah’s David Eccles School of Business has hosted the Social Impact Challenge. Students team up to create websites, social media posts, and other digital storytelling elements to solve challenges for real-world nonprofit organizations. “It’s not just a way for students to show off their ideas and skills,” said Chong Oh, professor at the Department of Operations and Information Systems at the David Eccles School of Business. “It also has meaningful impact on the community.”
This year, participants were required to earn at least one microcredential before developing their project using Adobe Express. In total, participants completed 73 microcredentials, equipping them with the skills to create a strategic marketing campaign for Tech-Moms, a Utah-based nonprofit empowering working mothers to gain the technical skills they need to advance their careers and enter technical fields.
The team of Camilla Kenning, Fernanda McManus, and Benjamin Nightingale — all first-year MBA students — started their winning project by taking a closer look at Tech-Moms’ audiences. They found that there was huge potential to grow membership within Tech-Moms’ existing communities. Rather than delivering marketing across Utah, the team recommended a referral campaign to grow through tightknit community bonds.
Social Impact Challenge winners: Camilla Kenning, Benjamin Nightingale, and Fernanda McManus.
Each team member chose a different micro-credential that they thought would be useful based on their tasks for the project. McManus completed the “Social Media Content Creation ” and “Small Business Social Marketing ” microcredentials before creating social media posts using Adobe Express. Working with Adobe Express allowed her to produce consistent designs for any size screen, including examples of what the posts would look like on a mobile screen.
Kenning applied the same colors, fonts, and styles on the Tech-Moms’ website to their presentation, which she created after completing the “Community Event Marketing ” microcredential. Nightingale combined those assets into a presentation using the skills learned in “Presentation Design ". The team agreed that the microcredentials equipped them with the skills to dive into Adobe Express and start creating immediately. In just one week, they transformed their ideas into polished assets with consistent, professional branding.
With microcredentials under their belts, teams mastered Adobe Express quickly and could spend more time refining their ideas. “Tech-Moms was very impressed by the quality of the presentations from our student competitors,” said Tamar Castillo, Learning Experience manager at the University of Utah. “Microcredentials are a great way to introduce students to Adobe Express and build confidence in their digital storytelling skills.”
Social Impact Tech Moms flyer created by Social Impact Challenge winners Camilla Kenning, Benjamin Nightingale, and Fernanda McManus.
Building career-ready skills with microcredentials
The University of Utah also encourages microcredentials in the classroom. Dr. Quentin T. Baldwin, assistant professor (lecturer) for the Department of Management, David Eccles School of Business, requires students to complete the “Presentation Design ” micro-credential during his course on business responsibility.
“Presentations are used in almost every position in the business world when you need to share information effectively with clients or colleagues,” Dr. Baldwin said. “The Adobe microcredential levels the playing field by giving everyone the same information about designing with Adobe Express so that I don’t need to spend time trying to catch everyone up in class.”
For students, the benefits of microcredentials extend beyond the classroom. Second-year chemistry major Drew Dennison completed all of the microcredentials during his time as a university creative consultant — a student who helps their peers work with Adobe apps and overcome design challenges. Microcredentials allowed him to master working with Adobe Express and pass on his knowledge to fellow students. Dennison also highlights the microcredentials badges on his resume, demonstrating his proficiency in design using industry-standard Adobe Creative Cloud apps.
From classroom to boardroom with digital storytelling
Johnson and her team have spent years encouraging higher engagement with Adobe apps to build digital skills. They developed pilot programs for classrooms and created case studies based on those results to encourage more faculty and instructors to get involved. They also established spaces like the Adobe Creative Commons and a new podcast studio that encourage students to drop by, experiment with podcasting equipment, and learn more about digital storytelling.
Adobe Creative Commons at University of Utah. Photo courtesy of University of Utah.
Adobe microcredentials are the next big step in encouraging students to embrace creativity and digital technology, no matter their field of study. Johnson plans to further explore the impact of microcredentials by examining how students apply and build upon those skills in the classroom or during their job search.
“Unlike traditional courses, microcredentials are more accessible and inviting to students outside of traditional design disciplines. We can send them a single course that meets their specific needs. We’re teaching students to not be afraid of new technologies and build communication skills that will support them throughout their careers.”
- Holly Johnson, associate director of Learning Experience Innovation & Outreach.
Explore Adobe’s free microcredentials for college students here.