> [!summary]+ Summary > This page explains a workshop designed to introduce university faculty to Adobe Express combined with a design thinking process. Unlike others in the series, this workshop leaned heavily into the app. I provide background on the design, highlight a central digital tool used, and provide some reflective notes. (See the bottom of this page for the results of this workshop.) # Communicating with Digital Media (CDM): Creating a Space to Inspire **Delivery details:** <u>Date</u>: Fall 2021, Spring 2022, and Fall 2022 <u>Target audience</u>: University faculty <u>Delivery format</u>: Remote/Zoom <u>Duration</u>: 90 minutes ## About the workshop This workshop was a little bit of everything for faculty participants. It was some design thinking, some reflection on how they are communicating in their teaching, some exploration of digital assets, and some prototyping. I wanted participants to explore some bits regarding what is happening in their classrooms and how they might improve in digital communications. In particular, participants were asked to consider *something they needed to break-up with in their communications*. As with other workshops in this series, it followed a **design thinking** framework. The workshop had the following description and learning objectives. ### Description > Do you find yourself brainstorming ways to communicate to learners and inspire their communication of ideas? Are there papers, videos, graphics or other media that you want to share with them in a linear and catchy visual story? In this workshop we will work with you to get started creating a custom online space for the purpose of communicating to and inspiring your students with a custom visual story. Borrowing from a design thinking framework, you will follow a simple approach to empathizing with your student’s perspective and pulling together a visual communications idea to prototype using Adobe Creative Cloud Express. In doing this, you collaborate with learning and media design experts to apply concepts in learning design and media design in ways that compliment your pedagogical practice. ### Learning objectives 1. Express points of interest and reflection in relation to crafting communications with multi-modal digital media. 2. Practice applying steps of empathy, ideation and prototyping in the context of a design thinking framework. 3. Create the foundations of Adobe Creative Cloud Express pages for a portfolio around one's research interests that inspires student engagement. ### Workshop goal **The goal was for participants to truly get started with Adobe Express.** As with other CDM workshops participants were challenged through the Liedtka design thinking framework, but we quickly got into identifying (copyright friendly) media assets to communicate an idea, then jumping into working with Adobe Express. ## 🎯 Results This workshop was repeated multiple times as participants reported liking how it gave them a solid start with Adobe Express along with one-on-one guidance. Additionally, it helped my unit to build functional linkages with another team addressing student digital literacy with Adobe tools. Participation was consistently around 10, which was well above the average for departmental workshops.