Adobe Creative Cloud
Explore the possibilities that Adobe CC range of apps and tutorials offers students, faculty and staff.
What is included in Adobe Creative Cloud?
Adobe Creative Cloud is a set of applications and services that gives you access to a collection of software used for graphic design, video editing, web development, photography, along with a set of mobile applications and also some optional cloud services. Included are app such as:
- Acrobat Pro
- Photoshop
- Express
- Illustrator
- InDesign
- Premiere Pro
- Firefly (AI)
Because Adobe Creative Cloud is ever evolving, please see this link for an up-to-date list. (Note: do not request a license through the Adobe site. Only use the form provided here.)
What is Adobe Express?
With Adobe Express (formerly Adobe Spark), users can easily create graphics, web pages, or video stories. Create professional looking social media cards, ads, videos and more with ease.
Adobe Express comes with themes, Adobe Stock imagery, and Adobe Fonts to create and customize your own projects. Add text, photos, music or video clips to perfect your work with features including new quick actions to remove a background, convert videos to GIFs, merge videos, convert to PDFs, and more. dobe Firefly AI is included. Adobe Express is included as part of Adobe Creative Cloud.
BU educators and students can use Express to supplement their projects to generate captivating and dynamic media that can be used in presentations, course materials, and even web pages.
Get Started with Adobe Express
If you’re looking for a way to develop quick combinations of text, video clips, photos, icons, and voiceovers, Adobe’s tutorials will provide you the skills to tackle any project. Tutorials include everything from social media posts to graphic design, from generative AI to career building skills.
Adobe Express is cloud based. It can be utilized on its mobile app and on the web as a tool for building your course projects.
To access Adobe Express please request a subscription to Adobe Creative Cloud.
What is Adobe Firefly?
Firefly is Adobe’s AI generation tool. With Firfely, you can create images, video, audio, and vector graphics. Further develop your already crafted content with AI prompts, or develop an idea from scratch. Firefly Boards allows you to ideate moodboards to storyboards, collaborate and discover your next big idea with generative AI as a sounding board.
What is Adobe Photoshop?
Photoshop is Adobe’s most popular digital editing platform, allowing users to do anything from simple photo-editing to high-performance graphic design. Create and enhance photographs, illustrations, and 3D artwork. Design websites and mobile apps. Edit videos, simulate real-life paintings, and more.
BU educators and students can utilize the many built-in tools, take course materials beyond simple text, and develop a unique identity for presentations, assignments, and more. With the ability to build Photoshop creations from an iPad or computer, the program can be utilized anytime and anywhere for editing.
Get Started with Adobe Photoshop
Are you looking for a powerful and efficient method of editing photos for use in your course? Adobe’s Photoshop tutorials feature instructional videos and step-by-step guides for graphic design, image touchups, and many more applications.
What is Adobe Illustrator?
Use Illustrator to create freehand drawings, or trace and recolor imported photos to turn them into works of art. Incorporate a company name into a logo, create a flyer, or mock up a website design with the best type tools out there. Add effects, manage styles, and edit individual characters to create typographic designs that perfectly express your messages. Use your illustrations anywhere, including printed pieces, presentations, websites, blogs, and social media may be viewed here. Take them to the next level by animating them with Adobe After Effects.
Illustrator BU educators and students need to create web designs, print graphics, logos, icons, and even presentation materials. By combining shapes, drawings, text, and images, Illustrator can be used on a desktop or iPad to cultivate a variety of static materials for courses.
Get Started with Adobe Illustrator
Whether you’re a beginner or an expert, Adobe’s Illustrator tutorial videos and example projects can help you create engaging artwork. These resources will allow you to get started creating vector artwork and hone your existing skills for curating course materials.
What is AdobePremiere Pro?
Premiere Pro is an industry-leading video editing software that allows users to create and edit professional-looking videos with features to combine audio, videos, images, text, transitions, and even animations. When using Premiere Pro, BU educators and students can combine an endless array of elements to generate projects for presentations, demonstrations, and more.
Premiere Pro CC works seamlessly with After Effects, Audition, and the other tools in the Adobe Creative Cloud to allow for a consistent and streamlined project editing experience.
Get Started with Adobe Premiere Pro
Adobe Tutorials will bring you a variety of different Adobe Premiere Pro tutorial videos from beginner to expert level. You can learn how to touch-up footage, compile and build a video project, or even create a class presentation. Visit Adobe Premiere Pro Learn & Support to learn more.
To jump right in and create a project, check out Adobe’s tutorial here.
What is Adobe Premiere Rush?
Premiere Rush is Adobe’s all-in-one, cross-device video capture and editing app that runs on your desktop, tablet, or smartphone. Whereas the other products in Adobe’s Premiere product line are strictly video editors, users can also shoot video within Premiere Rush. The app also automatically syncs your projects to the cloud, allowing you to work anywhere and on any device.
Premiere Rush is designed for users who want to create professional quality content but don’t need the full creative control that Premiere Pro offers.
When using Premiere Rush, BU educators and students can overlay images and videos with text and audio to create projects for presentations, demonstrations, and more.
Get Started with Adobe Premiere Rush
Adobe brings you a variety of Premiere Rush tutorial videos from beginner level to expert. You can learn how to touch-up footage, compile a video project, or even build a class presentation.
What is Adobe Audition?
Audition is a desktop tool for recording, editing, and mixing audio for a variety of projects. BU educators and students can use Adobe Audition to capture audio recordings of themselves, edit them, and even combine them with other sounds and tracks to use in the background of presentations, demonstrations, and more.
Audition’s comprehensive toolset includes multitrack, waveform, and spectral display for creating, mixing, editing, and restoring audio content. If you’re doing video production work, you’ll find Audition is designed for a seamless workflow with Adobe Premiere Pro.
Get Started with Adobe Audition
Do you have a need for personalized audio in assignments or in-class lessons? Adobe’s set of tutorials on their Audition software is suited for all experience levels across endless educational applications. Being able to capture, edit, and mix audio allows you to connect your message with your audience.
To view a variety of videos and tutorials, visit Adobe Audition Learn & Support.
Interested in starting a podcast? Check out Adobe’s quick tutorial.
What is Adobe InDesign?
InDesign is a layout and page design software for print and digital media, such as flyers, posters, stationary, slideshows, and more. You can create and publish for print, web, or digital magazines, eBooks, and interactive documents. BU educators and students can supplement pages of text with shapes and images, or insert audio, video, or animations to add professionalism and personality to documents.
Get Started with Adobe InDesign
Are you looking to spruce up your text documents or illustrate a message to your audience through static pages? Learning about the tools available in Adobe InDesign through Adobe Tutorials offers the ability to turn your ideas into reality. These videos walk through the fundamentals of layout design as well as many example projects to create presentations, reports, and more for the classroom.
For videos and tutorials, visit Adobe InDesign Learn & Support.
What is Adobe Lightroom?
Lightroom is Adobe’s cloud-based service that has everything needed to create, edit, organize, store, and share photos across any device, allowing BU educators and students to get started on mobile, web, or desktop. With editing sliders and presets, photos can be easily edited to fit the tone and message of a presentation or course materials.
Edit in full resolution and have both your original photos and edits backed up to the cloud. Organize your photos with searchable keywords that are automatically applied without the hassle of tagging. Lightroom allows you to easily share and showcase your photos in a number of fun ways.
Get Started with Adobe Lightroom
If you need fast and powerful editing for your images but don’t want to spend time learning expert-level tools, Adobe Lightroom is perfect for your editing needs. Adobe’s Lightroom tutorials provide videos of tips and tricks to get started refining images for classroom uses with Lightroom on any device you’re using.
What is Adobe XD?
Adobe XD is an effortless way to design websites, mobile apps, user interfaces, wireframes and more. This collaborative tool allows BU educators and students to work together or alone on UI/UX projects, building designs for apps, websites, and much more. With its prototyping features, Adobe XD allows users to create low to high-fidelity working prototypes to share with the BU community and beyond.
Adobe XD software comes programmed with icon sets and everything you need to get started in Adobe Experience. The flexibility of Adobe Experience allows users to preview prototypes, complete transitions on iOS or Android devices, then share them for fast feedback. Adobe Experience is also integrated with Photoshop and Sketch, providing all necessary tools or projects needed to make the newly created website or mobile app absolutely flawless.
Get Started with Adobe XD
If app and web design are of interest to you, the resources from Adobe Tutorials will help you learn about UI/UX design and how to build digital interfaces. Without any coding needed, Adobe XD allows you to create clickable presentations, application mockups, dynamic web designs, and more for all of your classroom needs.
For videos and tutorials, visit Adobe XD Learn & Support.
Please note that Adobe XD is currently in maintenance mode. Adobe will continue to host tutorials and support fixes for the program, but will no longer be developing new features for the app.
What is Adobe Portfolio?
Adobe Portfolio is included as part of your Adobe Creative Cloud subscription. It allows you to build a portfolio website quickly to showcase your creative work or photography.
To learn more about using Adobe Portfolio please visit See what you can do with Adobe Portfolio.
Your Adobe Portfolio site will be available only while your BU license remains active. Once your University license expires you will lose access to Adobe Portfolio.
It is not possible to transfer or backup an Adobe Portfolio site or the the digital assets within it. Please retain copies of these files on your computer or personal cloud storage, such as Google Drive, OneDrive, or Box.
- While your Adobe Portfolio may appear active after your license expires or is removed, it is subject to the same Adobe deletion policy following a brief grace period. (See “How long does Adobe retain my files?”)
- It is not possible to move (or port) an Adobe Portfolio site created under the BU Company or School Account to a Personal Account. If you wish to continue to showcase your creative work you will need to recreate your site with a new account.
Using Adobe CC in the Classroom
Looking for ways to further your teaching or add variety to student projects? Take a look at some of the common uses for Adobe CC below. Have further questions? Reach out to the Institute for Excellence in Teaching and Learning for help.
I would like to develop a podcast for my class or department.
Adobe Audition allows users record, edit, layer, and export a podcast and other audio files. Custom tools allow.
Learn how to get started with Adobe’s podcast video tutorial or a step-by-step text guide.
For more detailed tutorials:
I would like my students to develop a video project.
While Adobe CC offers professional post-production development via Premiere Pro, for many beginners and others accustomed to mobile and social media editing, Premiere Rush is the way to go. Users can also shoot video within Premiere Rush and automatically syncs their projects to the cloud, allowing users to work anywhere and on any device. With a number of presets and customizable options, users can overlay images and videos with text and audio to create projects for presentations, demonstrations, and more.
Adobe brings you a variety of Premiere Rush tutorial videos from beginner level to expert. You can learn how to touch-up footage, compile a video project, or even build a class presentation.
I am a faculty member who would like to record videos and presentations for hybrid learning, flipped classrooms or supporting materials.
Adobe offers a number of programs to record and edit videos, as well as create imagery and craft presentations. However, Adobe Express may be the most straightforward, all-in-one, DIY solution. Express offers the ability to record and upload video, create graphics, develop interactive templates, and use text, photos and music to generate captivating and dynamic media that can be used in presentations, course materials, and even web pages. In addition, Adobe Express comes with themes, Adobe Stock imagery, and Adobe Fonts to create and customize your own projects. The cloud-based app is available in both web and mobile additions.
Adobe offers a number of tutorials, including:
- Creating long form content
- Designing web pages
- Creating presentations
- Working with text
- Designing effective graphics
- How to create a video from scratch
- How to start a video from a template
- How to craft authentic narratives
- How to use generative AI for content creation
In addition, faculty can use Zoom to self-record, as well as Kaltura Capture.
If you are interested in crafting a more robust hybrid program or flipped classroom, please reach out to the Institue for Excellence in Teaching and Learning.
I would like students to make presentations using a mix of classic and web media.
Adobe Express offers students to make interactive, multimedia documents, presentations, websites and social media posts. Express offers the ability to record and upload video, create graphics, develop interactive templates, and use text, photos and music to generate captivating and dynamic media that can be used in presentations, course materials, and even web pages. In addition, Adobe Express comes with themes, Adobe Stock imagery, and Adobe Fonts to create and customize your own projects. The cloud-based app is available in both web and mobile additions.
Adobe offers a number of tutorials, including:
I would like students to make more robust papers or magazine-style articles.
InDesign is a layout and page design software for print and digital media that can help students craft essays, papers, reports, and dissertations that stand out. Users can supplement pages of text with shapes and images, or insert audio, video, or animations to add professionalism and personality to documents.
Adobe offers a robust set of tutorials for using the program, including: