Adobe Creative Cloud Express Video: The Basics

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In a previous post I discussed a video project I give my students at the beginning of each new semester. This short project is a meaningful way for students to introduce themselves to me while initiating that important first step of me getting to know them on a personal level. In this follow-up, I want to discuss a few of the technical and pedagogical features built into the Adobe CC Express video maker that position it as an ideal tool for student video projects. This tool can be access at: https://www.adobe.com/express/create/video.

A quick disclaimer

Adobe CC Express video is ideal for CERTAIN TYPES of video projects. This is not a one-stop shop for all types of video editing. If your goal is to have students learn more advanced movie-making techniques using various cuts, chromakey, and special effects (not to mention lighting, angles, and sound … crucial elements of the filming process), you will need to use a more robust video editor like Premier or iMovie. The truth is, most teachers don’t have the expertise or instructional time to invest in film production. That doesn’t mean video creation is off the table for teachers. In fact, it has never been more accessible than it is now, but teachers will have to plan with reasonable expectations. Adobe CC Express video is ideal for 1-5 minute projects that center on voice-over images and short video clips. Based on many years of experience infusing student-created video into my instruction, I will highlight some important features that I believe make Adobe CC Express video an excellent entry point for including video projects into your own teaching.

Less is More

Having dabbled in the process of software development, I understand the frenzy to add feature after feature. When we were piloting PrimaryAccess with teachers, we would seek their feedback on ways to improve the tool. Some of the teachers had no prior experience with video-based projects, but others had used video editors in the past. The latter group would suggest all kinds of features and improvements, while the former group would suggest more design options like colors, fonts, and layout. Over time, the interface became cluttered and confusing, the very thing we were trying to avoid. We wanted a simple tool meant for certain types of projects, and through the process of seeking feedback we took our eye off the ball. The truth is, when it comes to web-based tools, less is more.

Adobe CC Express video has stayed true to this vision. You may think a ton of features and options is a sign of a better tool, but all they do is take your attention away from the thing you’re there to do: storytelling. The richness of storytelling is in words, voice, and powerful images, not in fonts, colors, and animations. This video tool has everything your students need to make their story (or documentary or book trailer or historical analysis or whatever) beautiful and compelling, but not so much that they spend hours choosing the perfect font or changing every letter in a sentence to a different color (yes, my students used to do that when I was young and naive). Your students don’t need the whole universe of features to tell their stories, they just need the right features.

Multiple Media

Another excellent feature of Adobe CC Express video is the ability use multiple types of media. Currently, this tool supports importing both video and image files. You can connect various accounts to your CC Express projects an import them directly from the cloud. Supported hosting services include Creative Cloud, Lightroom, Dropbox, Google Photos, and Google Drive. You can also search for Adobe Stock images or search the web for photos with the Creative Commons license. Of course, users can upload their own photos or snap a quick image with their webcam, the former of which is may get a little complicated with student projects and the latter of which may not look very good. As for video, you must upload files directly from your computer, and there are limits for file size and supported formats. The only supported formats are .mov, mp4, and .m4v, and you may experience some import issues depending on the codec. Importing video can be messy. Once the video is imported, you can trim it to just the section you want, and you can start one clip where a previous clip left off. Importing images is by far the easiest way to go for this tool, but there is some support for video if that is the direction you want to go with your class projects.

Hosting, Streaming, and Sharing, Oh My

One of the key features of PrimaryAccess when we were developing this tool, and what set it apart from other video tools at the time, was that the entire project lived on the cloud (in this case, the cloud was an old server in the basement of our research institute). No bulky project files, no broken timelines when media was moved or deleted from the hard drive. No saving, rendering, uploading, and processing. You simply put the pieces together, and the software (in this case, Flash) put it all together on the fly. Fortunately, Adobe CC Express video has all of these same features, and more. The video tool is deployed entirely through the cloud, although you can download the final product as a video file if needed. All work on the project is automatically saved to the server, and once you click share it processes almost immediately. While this may seem like a minor detail, this has huge implications in the classroom. First, the fact that the video streams directly from a project stored in the cloud means there is less chance the project file or the video file will get corrupted at some point in the process. This significantly reduces the likelihood of students losing their work, which is a big deal for projects of this nature. There is a difference between editing and revising based on feedback and the desire to get something just right and losing all of your work and having to start over from scratch. It also reduces friction for the teacher since there is less chance the students will submit the wrong file (you know, like when students try to upload the project file instead of the video file … can I get an Amen from all the techies out there???). A bonus feature of having projects stored and deployed from the cloud is that multiple people can collaborate on the same video project. I have never tried having students work on the same project simultaneously (like you might do with Google Docs), but the ability of multiple people to collaborate on a single project opens up endless possibilities in the classroom.

Embedded Audio Recording

The chef’s kiss of the Adobe CC Express video tool is the ability to record audio directly in your browser. The internet is the ultimate head fake, where brilliant programmers and designers make extremely complex things look simple and easy. The truth is, that simple thing we take for granted may involve several hundred lines of code, half a dozen cascading style sheets, and a js file for good luck. So, the sophisticated elegance of the internet tricks us into thinking that something like recording audio over images is no big deal. When I was helping develop PrimaryAccess, this was the biggest hangup of the whole process. We tried a variety of open-source audio recorders, and we ended up having students record their narration in Audacity, export it as an mp3, and upload it to the project. It was almost never in sync with the images. Teachers already have to work out the logistical challenges of recording in a room full of students so every project doesn’t sound like it was recorded in Penn Station, and they shouldn’t have to wrestle with the technical details of recording and syncing audio at the same time. With this video tool, students simply click the microphone, give their spiel, and it saves automatically. If they don’t like what they hear, they simply click the button again and write over the old recording. It’s really that simple.

Digital storytelling is a powerful and compelling way of having students communicate what they are learning. There are countless variations of this project, and there are really valuable skills embedded in the process, such as design, storytelling, vocal performance, and economy of words. This is why digital storytelling should be part of every teacher’s repertoire of teaching practice. The simplicity of Adobe CC Express video makes this project an option for even the most tech-averse teachers. I have become a huge fan of this tool, and you should too.