Course Examples

IST 110 Activity 04

The Wonders of our Environment / Adobe Create Cloud Software

An Adobe Creative Cloud (CC) account is available to all Penn State students and faculty members, at no additional cost! Using it, students will submit an image to the 2021 Brandywine Earth Science Photo Contest. The image, celebrating the “wonders of our environment” needs to be edited or enhanced using software available in the Adobe Create Cloud.

  • If you have experience with PhotoShop or Illustrator, you can use these tools.

  • You can install Adobe Creative Cloud Mobile Apps on your smartphone and use these tools to enhance the image.

  • Adobe Spark (Post) is a web-based tool that provides the ability to create graphics easily through themes and layouts. A campus session on using Adobe Spark is scheduled for Common Hour (12:00 to 1:15) on Thursday (9/9) in 113 Main Building.

Capture an image appropriate for the theme in ESW2021, enhance or edit this image using software in the Adobe Creative Cloud, and submit this image via the link in Canvas.

In addition to submitting your image, you are to write a document, in paragraph form, that provides the following information. This file is to be submitted to Canvas.

  1. File size of image

  2. Dimensions of image (height x width)

  3. Adobe product(s) used

  4. Description of process used to enhance/manipulate image using the software

  5. Camera / device used to capture image

  6. Resolution of camera / resolution used


EARTH 103N (Climate Change) - Earth Science Week mini-project

Water Today and for the Future / Adobe Create Cloud Software

This was presented as a scaffolded assignment for students in a web-based course for non-STEM majors themed on climate change. To match with the 2021 Earth Science Week theme, students were asked to take a photo that connects the course theme of climate to the contest theme of water. The photo needed to be edited/enhanced in Adobe Spark Post. The resulting photo, along with a title, description of the image, and a sentence as to how Adobe was used to modify the image were then posted on an assigned Google Jamboard (the course of 60 students were sub-divided into four Jamboards for posting). After the submission deadline, students were assigned to review images on a different Jamboard than they originally posted to and filled out a Google Form to vote for their top three favorite images. Students also needed to provide a short description as to what they liked about their top three choices. The top winners across each Jamboard were compiled and shared with the entire class. The winning students were encouraged to submit their images to the campus-wide photo contest.

The full assignment instructions, along with the timeline and grading rubric, can be accessed here.