ASU and Adobe collaboration enters sixth year
In 2020, ASU became an official Adobe Creative Campus, offering Adobe Creative Cloud to all students, at no cost. Then in 2024, the university introduced Adobe Express and Adobe Firefly, the generative AI suite of tools available through Adobe.
“Technology enables creativity at a scale we’ve never experienced before,” said Kyle Bowen, ASU’s deputy CIO. “Through our work with Adobe, we can ensure that every student has access to industry-leading tools that amplify creativity and open possibilities for how students learn, express themselves and create real impact in the world around us."
Fast forward to the start of the fall 2025 semester later this week, and ASU is now offering Adobe Express, Firefly and Podcasts to all students, faculty and staff.
For students, Adobe Express is delivered through the university’s Digital Backpack campaign. The campaign packages together ‘future-proof’ tools that include Adobe, Zoom, Slack and more.
In addition to Adobe Express, the Digital Backpack added to all new AI tools this semester, including Google Gemini for Education and Copilot Chat.
These tools replicate those used across industry, while also supporting enhanced creativity, communication and collaboration.
Faculty and students have quickly adopted Adobe’s AI toolset. For example, ASU instructor Crystal Alvarez leveraged Adobe Firefly in two of the courses she taught out of the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication last year.
The courses, which focused on digital audience development, tasked students with developing their ideal customer persona. With the introduction of Adobe Firefly’s generative AI, students were able to build their persona through prompt-driven activity.
“The prompting back and forth with the tool is another opportunity to dive deep into their persona and create a unique image that best represents their brand’s ideal customer,” Alvarez reflected.
As ASU kicks off a new academic school year this week, the university has been working to enhance access to Adobe’s toolkit for its students.
Enhancing access to AI tools
For the upcoming start of the fall 2025 semester, all full-time, first-time ASU students enrolled on ASU Tempe campus will already have a leg up when it comes to accessing Adobe Express.
“Our commitment is to remove barriers and accelerate creative access for our students,” said Megan Workmon, director of design with ASU Learning Experience. “Providing nearly 14,000 new students Adobe Express Premium marks one of the largest activations of its kind, reflecting both ASU’s scale and our leadership in placing digital, AI-enabled tools directly in student hands.”
Providing access to these tools ensures all ASU students, like McClellan, have access to the latest industry leading toolsets. And McClellan is ready for her fellow students to jump in through the development of ASU branded templates, embedded in the ASU enterprise licenses.
“Students can get started building out their designs right away using the university’s templates already available to them,” McClellan shared.
Adobe Express, Adobe Firefly and Adobe Podcasts are available for all faculty, students and staff. To access visit: tech.asu.edu/adobe