December 3, 2025

This issue highlights effective teaching practices powered by AI and Adobe Creative tools to help you design meaningful lessons, streamline preparation, and deepen student learning. You’ll also find practical examples and ready-to-use ideas that make it easier to bring these tools into your daily instruction.

UTA Faculty

Discover How Easy It Is to Start Creating with Adobe!

This video has closed captions for accessibility.

At CRTLE, we’re committed to helping faculty feel confident and supported as they explore new ways to enrich teaching with creative tools.  Whether you’re curious about enhancing course materials, incorporating multimedia assignments, or simply experimenting with fresh approaches, we’re here to guide you every step of the way.

What does that mean? As an Adobe Creative Campus, faculty have access to Adobe Creative Cloud, Adobe Express, and Adobe Firefly to enhance teaching with creative, multimedia, and AI-powered tools. They collaborate within the Adobe Creative Campus community to share best practices and develop innovative, work-ready curricula. This support enables faculty to design engaging, modern learning experiences that prepare students for careers in the age of AI.

Adobe Resources For UT Arlington Faculty - CRTLE - The University of Texas at Arlington

Dr. Amy Austin

Department of Modern Languages, COLA

In SPAN 4334: Contemporary Hispanic Culture, I integrate Adobe Express as a dynamic platform for students to create multimedia projects that deepen their understanding of Spain’s cultural complexity. After viewing films that explore themes such as the legacy of the Spanish Civil War, the transition to democracy, regional identities (Catalonia, Basque Country, Galicia), and contemporary social movements, students use Adobe Express to produce short videos connecting these narratives to current cultural, political, and historical events. For example, students might analyze how Pedro Almodóvar’s cinema reflects evolving gender roles in Spain or how films about the Franco dictatorship resonate with present-day debates on historical memory laws. Adobe Express enables them to combine text, images, and audio, creating visually engaging presentations that highlight Spain’s rich artistic traditions and ongoing sociopolitical transformations. This approach not only enhances linguistic proficiency but also encourages critical thinking and meaningful dialogue about Spain’s place in the global Hispanic context.

 Adobe Express is my absolute go-to for creating classroom and instructional materials that look fully designed and professional!  I appreciate that the learning curve for Express is not that steep, and I always receive positive student feedback on handouts or presentations that don’t look like yet another Word document or PowerPoint slide deck!

Dr. Pete Smith

Department of Modern Languages, COLA

Mrs. LaDonna Aiken

Department of Communication, COLA

Here's how I use Adobe Podcast:

Adobe Podcast has proven to be a vital tool to correct and clean up audio recordings. When students are recording an interview with their smartphones or external mics, sometimes they will set up the equipment incorrectly, or the settings are wrong. There may be excessive room noise that detracts from the interview audio. Just drop the audio file into Adobe Podcast and select the amount of correction you want, and you have clean, clear audio to use in video production. It can absolutely save a video story.

Here's how I use Adobe Express:

Adobe Express is a user-friendly, template-based content creation tool that I use in my multimedia production class. I use it to demonstrate how to create an 'about me' video, which helps build community in the classroom. Students create this video using their own photos and video clips, and they can add creative elements within Adobe Express such as music, graphics, avatars, and AI-generated visuals. Students also like that it's cloud-based editing, so there's nothing they need to install on their laptop. They can just pick up wherever they left off by logging in online. Adobe Express can be used for quite a bit more than video production, but that's how I use it currently.

I love that we have Adobe Express as a free resource for faculty. It has completely changed how I create course materials. Teaching digital marketing and business communication is about more than theory. It’s about showing students what professional-quality content looks like. Adobe Express helps me do that. I use it to make Canvas pages visually appealing, PowerPoint decks look like agency presentations, and handouts clear and polished. It’s not just about making things look good; it’s about modeling the kind of branding and design students will encounter in the workplace. Next semester, I plan to take this further by having students create their own marketing assets using Adobe Express. It’s hands-on, creative, and gives them experience with tools professionals actually use. In a world where content drives business, this is how we make learning relevant.

Dr. Heather Philip

Department of Marketing, COB

Dr. Brian Horton

Department of Communication, COLA

My teaching integrates Generative AI, demonstrating interdisciplinary workflows for students. A prime example is our recent collaboration on the Antarctica map exhibit, where students first engaged in advanced prompt engineering to design 'adventure posters.' They we leveraged Adobe Firefly to generate the initial, high-quality base images of the Antarctic landscape, which were subsequently brought to life using Google's Veo for animation. Beyond this project-based innovation, I use Gen AI features—specifically Firefly—to enhance the learning environment's aesthetics and accessibility, quickly creating professional, consistent thumbnail images for my Canvas course dashboard and accompanying educational videos in Canvas Studio.

Check out Dr. Shelton’s video below!

Dr. Sarah Shelton

Department of English, COLA

Are you using technology and AI in your courses in innovative ways? 

We would love to hear from you! Please contact us at CRTLE@UTA.EDU

Take full advantage of this user-friendly digital resource at UTA by opting in to the complete Adobe Creative Cloud suite. Once your ticket is submitted, you’ll have full access to Adobe Creative Cloud in no time.

This Open Educational Resource offers curated Higher Ed assessment templates and video tutorials featuring fully customizable projects created with Adobe Express and Adobe Podcast.

Take short, self-paced course on how to make the most of Adobe Express and Creative Cloud. Gain insights from Adobe experts and complete course activities along the way. Receive your digital badge upon completion and share it on LinkedIn or your resume.

Adobe Education Exchange (EdEx) is a free online platform for educators offering professional‑development courses, ready‑to‑use teaching materials, and a global community where faculty can connect, collaborate, and integrate creative tools into their classrooms.

Join CRTLE and OIT in the Technology Test Kitchen!

Step into an interactive space where faculty can explore digital tools and learn practical strategies for integrating technology into their teaching.

Starting January 2026, participate in five months of hands-on sessions featuring technology “recipes” you can practice and take back to your courses. Sessions will be held at Trinity Hall, OIT Helpdesk, first-floor lobby, with breakout sessions in Rooms 112 and 105 from 1:00 PM – 2:30 PM. Each session is 30 minutes long, with additional time available for practice and exploration as needed.

January 15th — Level-Up Your Career Portfolio Assignments with Adobe Express (30 minutes)

Empower your students to present their academic and professional achievements with confidence using Adobe Express (free to faculty and students at UTA). In this faculty-focused hands-on workshop, you’ll explore how to incorporate Adobe Express into portfolio-based assignments that encourage creativity, multimodal communication, and real-world skill building. Build AI literacy for you and your students and learn strategies for guiding students through the design process, review ready-to-use templates, and leave with adaptable assignment ideas you can bring directly into your courses. Bring your own device (laptop, iPad, mobile device). Access Adobe Express before the workshop. 

January 22nd — Supercharge Your Syllabus: Multimodal Design in Adobe Express  (30 minutes)

Reimagine your syllabus as an engaging, accessible gateway into your course. This session introduces faculty to multimodal syllabus design using Adobe Express, offering tools and approaches to visually highlight key information, enhance clarity, and support diverse learners. You’ll experiment with templates, explore best practices for visual communication in teaching materials, and walk away with a refreshed syllabus ready to energize your students from day one. Access Adobe Express before the workshop. 

OFFICE OF THE PROVOST - DIVISION OF FACULTY SUCCESS
PEGGY SEMINGSON, PH.D., ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR AND INTERIM DIRECTOR
SUSAN DEQUEANT, M.ED., ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR SERVICE LEARNING
BETH FLEENER, PH.D., SENIOR TEACHING INNOVATION RESEARCH ASSOCIATE
NAKESHA BROWN, M.ED., COORDINATOR II, SPECIAL PROGRAMS

CRTLE@uta.edu // 817-272-7464 // https://www.uta.edu/crtle

If you have difficulty accessing the content in this announcement, please report accessibility issues to the Center for Research on Teaching and Learning Excellence CRTLE@uta.edu or (817) 272-7464