Adobe Releases Free Year-Long Curriculum for Creative Suite 3

I'm really delighted to announce that Adobe Systems has just released an entirely free, year long curriculum package for courses that cover three primary uses of their products--visual design, web design, and video production.

An excerpt of the announcement is below, but on a personal level I want to thank the team that put this all together.

This effort started simultaneously at Macromedia and Adobe before the merger, and it's pretty remarkable that despite the merging of the two companies they maintained their focus and got the job completed. I played a small humble part here and there, but the real kudos go to a certain few people at Adobe who maintained their vision, pulled together classroom experts from around the world to assist and advise, and then delivered on their promises to provide a curriculum package, complete with supporting files, presentations, outlines, and structured lessons that a teacher could follow to deliver the kind of course on digital skills that has a real impact in the lives of kids. Never mind that they'll make a few bucks selling software.

This curriculum is free and, oh, by the way, also aligned with ISTE and NETS standards. Combine the course work with the new certification exams that the company has developed and for the first time schools have a complete package that allows a student to progress through a design program that leads to something they can present to prospective employers. That's a pretty big deal.

Did I mention this was free? Completely? Did I mention that it probably wouldn't be free without the ceaseless advocate for these programs who works at Adobe? I'm sure she wouldn't want me calling her name out (Megan), so I'll just have to assure those of you who are teaching with Adobe design tools that you have someone at the company (Megan) who's really looking out for you. You can see her influence here, and that of the others who work so hard (Johann) to keep education a priority within Adobe Systems.

OK, enough gushing over my nameless pals (Anuja) who pulled this off (Kirsti.) Here's the important stuff--links to locations where you can download the PDFs and other support materials for these courses:

Visual Design: Foundations of Design and Print Production

Visual Design is a yearlong, project-based curriculum that develops career and communication skills in print production and graphic design, using Adobe tools.


Digital Design: Foundations of Web Design

Digital Design: Foundations of Web Design is a yearlong, project-based curriculum that develops IT career skills in web design and production, using Adobe tools.


Digital Video: Foundations of Video Design and Production

Digital Video curriculum is a yearlong, project-based curriculum that develops career and
communication skills in digital video production, using Adobe tools.

Congratulations to the Adobe team one more time! I know this has been years in the making and I hope you appreciate what a difference you're making by continuing to push your company to provide support, and by helping teachers get excited about teaching with design tools.