Sonoma State University

Adobe CC

Adobe Creative Cloud (Adobe CC) is SSU's solution for graphic design, video editing, web development, photography, illustration and animation. Adobe CC is the industry standard for digital photography, graphic design, and desktop publishing, among other tasks. Our Adobe license provides full access to the Creative Cloud suite for all SSU faculty, staff, and students. Additionally, our Adobe license gives us full access to Adobe Acrobat, for PDF creation, editing and knowledge management with AI; Adobe Express (similar to Canva), for quick image editing, poster creation, presentation creation (including with AI), etc; and limited credits with Adobe Firefly, for AI image generation.

Best Practices

  • You can use many Adobe tools via the web! Go to https://www.adobe.com/ (either directly or via the Adobe tile in your SSU Online Services portal) and log in with your SSU account. (These tools have been approved by the CSU Chancellor's Office for our use, so it's okay to use your SSU account to access them.) You should then see the full suite of Adobe tools available to you.
  • Whenever possible, instructional videos should be 10 minutes in length or shorter and should have an activity at the end that applies the video's content. Research has shown that students' attention in a passive learning situation, such as watching a video, tends to drop off significantly after that time. Also, novices need time to process new information before they can remember it. By making your videos short and requiring students to apply their understanding of the content afterwards, you are likely increasing the amount of your content that they remember over the long term. Additionally, if you make a mistake while recording a shorter video, you have less work to do to correct or replace it than if it were a longer video. So recording shorter videos saves you time and effort, too.
  • Whenever possible, avoid using Adobe PDFs for instructional content. Instead, use Google Docs or Canvas pages. Data shows that many of our students access their instructional material from mobile devices, i.e. cell phones. If you give all of your content to your students as PDFs, it is very hard to read on a cell phone screen. If you instead copy and paste that same content into a Google Doc or a native Canvas page, your content will automatically resize for the device screen. Additionally, these formats are far more accessible than PDFs. Every time you replace a PDF with digital text, you are making it easier for your students to learn!

Resources

Get Support

If your question isn’t answered by the above resources, we encourage you to visit CTET either in person or via Zoom, since Adobe questions are normally too complex to be answered by email or phone. You can find our current business hours and contact information, including our Zoom link, on our Contact Us page.

Because of Adobe CC's complexity, CTET's ability to answer technical questions about it is limited. If we can't answer your question, or if you want support outside our business hours, you will need to address the issue using Adobe's online documentation. You can also find numerous instructional videos on CSU Learn, a professional development service available to SSU faculty and staff. To access CSU Learn, log into your SSU Online account, then select the tile labeled "CSU Learn."

Student Support

Adobe CC, including Firefly and Express, is available to all SSU students. However, IT is not currently prepared to offer support with it. If you would like your students to get technical support with Adobe products, please contact the IT Help Desk to discuss your options, Monday through Friday, 8AM to 5PM. Please be aware that, because of Adobe CC's complexity, IT's ability to answer technical questions about it is limited. If they can't provide the level of support you want, you will need to provide that support yourself, or your students will need to address the issue using Adobe's online documentation.