From campus idea to new integration: UCATT helps connect Adobe Express and ThingLink
Collaboration initiated at the University of Arizona helped bring two creative learning tools together in a new integrated workflow.
An idea that began with a conversation at the University of Arizona has grown into a new integration available to Adobe Express and ThingLink users.
Earlier this year, the University Center for Assessment, Teaching, and Technology (UCATT) brought representatives from ThingLink and Adobe together to explore how the two platforms could work more seamlessly. The conversation started after UCATT’s Instructional Technologies and Creative Curriculum teams recognized an opportunity: ThingLink already offered an integration with another design platform, and a similar connection with Adobe Express could provide new possibilities for instructors and students using Adobe at the University of Arizona.
Amor Moran, director of instructional technologies, connected ThingLink representatives with Alejandro Gonzalez, lead learning designer of creative curriculum, who leads UCATT’s Adobe efforts. That introduction led to conversations among UCATT and ThingLink about potential partnerships and eventually to a connection between ThingLink and the appropriate product team at Adobe.
“We saw an opportunity to bring together two tools that offer a lot of creative possibilities for teaching and learning,” Gonzalez said. “Connecting ThingLink with our partners at Adobe was a natural next step, and it’s exciting to see those early conversations grow into an integration that can benefit educators and learners well beyond the University of Arizona.”
By July, Adobe had approved the integration, with the University of Arizona receiving early beta access before its broader release. ThingLink credited UCATT’s introduction to Adobe with helping connect its team to the right people to move the idea forward.
Bringing design and interactivity together
The new integration creates a more connected workflow between Adobe Express and ThingLink. Users can create base images, videos, and graphics with Adobe Express and bring those designs directly into ThingLink to add interactive elements such as tags, hotspots, links, audio, and immersive media. Designs can also be reopened and edited with Adobe Express without the previous process of downloading and re-uploading files.
For instructors and students, that connection opens opportunities to combine visual storytelling and interactive learning in projects such as virtual tours, interactive infographics, orientations, tutorials, branching scenarios, and other immersive experiences. ThingLink notes that the integration is intended to remove some of the friction between designing visual content and transforming it into an interactive learning experience.
The possibilities UCATT and ThingLink initially discussed included interactive infographics, online courses, maps, floor plans, virtual tours, orientations and tutorials—examples that demonstrate how the combined tools can support teaching, learning and communication across disciplines.
Collaboration that extends beyond campus
The integration also illustrates how UCATT’s partnerships can have an impact beyond the University of Arizona.
UCATT works with technology partners not only to bring educational tools to campus, but also to explore how those tools can better meet the needs of instructors and learners. In this case, identifying an opportunity and connecting the right people helped move an idea from an initial conversation to an integration now available to Adobe Express and ThingLink users more broadly.
For the University of Arizona community, the result is an easier way to move between two tools already supporting creative and immersive learning, making it simpler to take an idea from visual design to an interactive experience.
