Engaging Students through the Adobe Creative Jam
AOI | Learning Innovations
Faculty Insider
Weekly Tip: Engaging Students through the Adobe Creative Jam
The Adobe Creative Jam provides a unique opportunity for students to participate outside of class in project-based, team-based, and design-based learning activities. WSU faculty helped to shape the delivery of this extracurricular activity with an eye toward student engagement. By forming partnerships around the university, faculty can share their desire to innovate, motivate students, and empower other faculty and staff with design-based thinking and solution finding. One specific outcome that was identified early in the planning process was to move potentially engaged students to become engaged students.
Constructing this activity for students while partnering with Adobe gave the structure and sense that this was a real-world opportunity to showcase themselves in a variety of ways. Students, working in a team of 4–6, were able to find different ways to contribute, whether designing, planning, planning the presentation, or helping track the evolution of their thought process.
The Jam was conducted in the following way:
- Introduction of the idea of Adobe Jam.
- Advertise and promote the event.
- Register students to participate.
- Organize students into teams.
- Students meet for the first time in their teams and have lab time on the tool they will use for the Jam.
- Students meet with their teams on their own time to prepare for the Jam by discussing strengths and contributions.
- Adobe Jam starts with the introduction of the theme from which they will design their solution. A brief guest lecturer discusses.
- Students then have 3 hours to plan, design and implement their solution.
- At the conclusion of 3 hours, students then present their solutions to the judge panel. The judging panel is made up of industry design (or related field) experts.
- Each team has 3 minutes to present.
- After all teams have presented, the runner-up teams and winning teams are announced.
- Prizes were award in the form of Amazon gift cards and Adobe gear.
At the conclusion of the event students were repeatedly observed to say over and over—”what’s next?”
Engaged, Connected, and Excited
Having outside industry experts participate, along with a brand like Adobe hosting and lending their cachet to the event, energized students to participate and put themselves into a situation to engage and collaborate with their peers—not just in their own class or sphere at the university but across the university.
As we have participated and partnered with Adobe on these open Creative Jams in the past and seen the excitement and engagement from the students, we wanted to see what of that would translate into the classroom. For this fall, UNIV 104 is using the Adobe Jam model of partnership and design challenge. This means freshman students taking this course have an opportunity to engage with university and Adobe partners as part of their class time and requirements. About 300 students teamed into groups of 5-6 and compete in a design challenge.
The theme of UNIV 104 Creative Jam dovetails with the Common Reading Program book selection of Refuge: Rethinking Refugee Policy in a Changing World.
Learn more about current Adobe Create Jam finalists.
How to Get Involved
Interested in discussing student engagement with like-minded faculty and staff? Meet us in Spark 208 every Tuesday at 2 p.m. for open discussion and project planning that included Jams, hackathons, and hands-on activities—all to motivate potentially engaged students, improve outcomes, and have fun.
Resources and Further Reading
This series of videos and teaching tips is presented by Academic Outreach and Innovation (AOI). We invite you to join the conversation. Share your tips and ask questions through this blog. If you would like these posts to be sent directly to your email each week, subscribe to the listserv by emailing aoi.li@wsu.edu.
For more information or to schedule time with an instructional designer or emerging technologist, contact aoi.li@wsu.edu or request training on demand. You can also visit the Spark Faculty Innovation Studio in room 102 any time from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Monday through Thursday, during the academic year.