#design-thinking #adobe-creative-cloud #workshop #adobe-rush #multimedia-production #miro #digital-fluency > [!summary]+ Summary > This page explains a workshop designed to introduce university faculty to Adobe Rush combined with a design thinking process. Rather than being a technical workshop, the workshop focused on planning and design. I provide background on the design, highlight a central digital tool used in the workshop, and provide some reflective notes. # Communicating with Digital Media (CDM): Crafting a Message for Video **Delivery details:** <u>Dates</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 When designing this workshop, I kept in mind that most subject-matter experts with some technical skill in video production often record content first and then think through what and how they will communicate with it. I wanted to flip this around to where they are planning and designing the video first, then recording content and producing. Key to this was following a process of **design thinking** where faculty could identify an idea, conceptually plan for it, record a short piece of content, and then work with Adobe Rush to shape the message. The workshop had the following description and learning objectives. ### Description > Are you interested in creating video for your teaching or research? Do you find yourself wondering, where or how to begin? In this workshop, you will tackle that step in between identifying an idea and producing a video. Borrowing from a design thinking framework, you will collaborate with experts and peers on ideating a plan for producing a short video. In doing this, you will be introduced to some concepts for designing both learning and media experiences and incorporating them into your pedagogical practice. Central to this session, will be an activity working with Adobe Rush to design and produce a message around a single topic given a collection of assets. ### Learning objectives 1. Express points of interest and reflection in relation to crafting communications with multimodal digital media. 2. Practice applying steps of empathy, ideation, and prototyping in the context of a design thinking framework. 3. Create a prototype educational video with Adobe Rush using various media assets and functionalities. ### Workshop goal **The goal was for participants to think about what it means to communicate digitally, consider alternative ways they could do this, and then to create a prototype.** It was ambitious, and there was not enough time to do all of this fully. But this was about getting started and I considered the emphasis on collaborative planning and design a win. ## Using a digital whiteboard: Miro I used the Liedtka framework — What Is?, What If?, What Wows? — to guide this workshop. The first stage asked participants to engage in discussion around three questions regarding digital communication, their teaching, and their students. After this, participants then moved into a reflective phase focused on teaching communications and specifically thought about framing communications through video. To support this, a digital whiteboard with [Miro](https://miro.com/) was used. (This is an infinite whiteboard that offers a [free account to education users](https://help.miro.com/hc/en-us/articles/360017730473-Education-plan).) ![[CDM-Adobe-Rush.png]] Participants were given three options to contextualize their thinking that included record their own video, draft a plan with visuals for a video (e.g., storyboard), or use provided video assets. From left to right, they filled in virtual stickies on their individual board providing reflections, making an outline, and identifying media assets needed for their video. In the final activity of the workshop, participants took their notes and followed a series of provided steps to work with Adobe Rush. What was also encouraging was that sometimes participants would think beyond Adobe Rush and consider how other Adobe apps would be used with Adobe Rush. This was encouraging because it reflected growing digital fluency. ## 🎯 Results This workshop was repeated multiple times as participants reported liking how it gave them one-on-one guidance and time to think through video design with others. Additionally, participants enjoyed the guidance on locating royalty free digital assets. Participation was consistently around ten participants, which was well above the average for departmental workshops.