Adobe Creative Cloud now available for all students

UNC students are on cloud nine over having access to the Adobe Creative Cloud.

Suzanne Cadwell, director of ITS Teaching and Learning, said every student and faculty member can put in a request for a license to use the Adobe products — including Photoshop, Premiere and InDesign — at no cost. Faculty have to submit a request and explain how they will use the software in their courses.

“We have faculty from every part of the University wanting to use Adobe products to engage in instructional materials and also to allow their students to be creative with assignments,” Cadwell said.

Chris Kielt, vice chancellor for Information Technology, said for the last three years UNC has been talking with Adobe about the possibility of making the software licensing available for more UNC students and faculty.

He said in the past, UNC had to pay hundreds of dollars for an annual license per computer.

“We had a considerable amount of licenses that were purchased every year. But it was not enough that it had a very strong impact throughout campus,” Kilet said.

“$250 to $350 for an annual license is no small amount. Last year we worked with the school of journalism on some pilot projects ... but we were still waiting to see where the right opportunities were.”

Susan King, dean of the School of Media and Journalism, said the software offers tools for student’s learning across all departments.

“The digital footprint is not just one for the media school,” King said. “The whole arts and sciences department can go digital and offer their students access to the Cloud at an affordable price as well.”

Sophomore Brooke Fisher said her audio and visual production class was told at the beginning of the semester they would soon be getting Adobe Creative Cloud.

“We’re very excited to have the software because we’re using it to create logos, edit audio and video and use it in a way to make our content dynamic,” Fisher said.

“Now that we have access to it on our personal devices, it makes it a lot easier to get work done.”

Kielt said the deal with Adobe was a collaborative effort made possible by students, administrators, faculty, technology organizations and the UNC libraries. He said ITS worked with UNC alum Suzanne Jennings, who now works for Adobe, to see what they had to do to make this software available to students and faculty.

“These are 21st century communication tools,” Kielt said. “Our students and faculty now really have an opportunity to use these for teaching and learning.”

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