COS Professor Partners with Digital Learning to Help Physics Students Become Adobe Fluent
In fall of 2019, UTSA was selected as the first four-year public university in Texas to become an Adobe Creative Campus. This program sought to promote digital literacy by providing Adobe Creative Cloud for free to everyone attending the university.
Fast forward to 2021, and College of Sciences students are now utilizing Adobe technology in the classroom to present their research and complete their projects. Dr. Chris Packham, professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, has partnered with the Office of Digital Learning to help his astronomy students become more Adobe fluent in his Fundamentals of Astronomy AST 3013 course.
Digital Learning supports academic departments and faculty at UTSA and promotes the integration of digital learning into the curriculum to enhance student engagement and success.
Dr. Packham invited William Schaefer, an Adobe Specialist from the Office of Digital Learning, to conduct an hour and a half training session to teach science students how to use Adobe Rush, a software application used for video editing.
"The video learning experience taught me how to properly present ideas in a format I was not used to," said Nathan Shreffler, a senior majoring in physics. "I learned the subtle, yet crucial nuances to developing a coherent, clear and informative video while maintaining a viewer's attention."
Packham's class of 30 then formed into eight groups and were given an assignment to create a video about climate change. Along with filming themselves, they compiled stock videography and used Adobe Rush to record, curate and edit their videos. This project is a recurring assignment in Dr. Packham's course curriculum. The next class assignment will have students work with Adobe Illustrator, a robust graphic design program.
"This experience will help me greatly in the future," said Christopher McLeod, a senior majoring in physics. "Whether it's for other classes or even a current or future job, I will now have more knowledge and resources to give a spectacular presentation."
