Teachers- all you need to know about Adobe Express for Education

What is Adobe Express for Education? 

Adobe Express for Education offers even more creative possibilities for K-12 teachers. It's designed especially for teachers and students in mind, with new quick actions, tools and resources that are perfect for any subject. 

As part of the Adobe Express for Education plan, K12 Teachers and students get all the features that they know and love from Adobe Spark as well as two additional applications: Adobe Photoshop Express and Adobe Premiere Rush. This allows for the entire class to create videos on the go and edit photos quickly within the app. 

An Adobe Express for Education plan adds additional features and functionality that is critical to schools, including:

• Education-specific privacy controls: can be deployed in a way that allows schools and districts to meet student privacy obligations
  

• Easier login: Ability to setup single sign-on so students can easily login with their existing school ID

• Enhanced controls to keep students safe: schools own the accounts and exercise admin rights over them. Plus, safe search for image and video results that are age-appropriate for K-12 students

• Premium creative assets and student–friendly Adobe Stock images are included — there are no paywalls, ads, or popups

• There’s no Discover tab in Adobe Photoshop Express, so students can stay focused on their work

What are school/district accounts?

School/district accounts are for licensed educational institutions and nonprofit educational organizations that grant school- or district-wide classroom access to teachers, faculty, and students. IT administrators create these accounts and manage users and group permissions through Adobe's Admin Console. This allows for educational institutions to maintain seamless user control throughout their school. Teachers must work through their IT administrator to set up and manage these accounts.

What are classroom accounts?

Classroom accounts are a type of account that teachers can set up without the need for a school or district IT administrator and bring on students to create their own classroom account. Classroom accounts for Adobe Express are only available to education users, specifically teachers and students in educational institutions.

• Teacher classroom account: a classroom account for teachers with controls to manage classrooms 

• Student classroom account: a classroom account for students

Note: At this time classrooms only work with Google Workspace for Education as an identity provider and within the United States. If you are located outside of the United States, please use a district account. 

Benefits of classroom accounts for teachers

With classroom accounts, verified United States K-12 teachers can: 

• Set up classrooms for all their classes

• Invite students to join each classroom (the environment teachers create for each class), with a class code and get their own student classroom accounts

  • A class code is a unique combination of letters and numbers that teachers send to students to have them join a specific classroom

  • A class code link is a unique link, connected to a class code, that teachers can send to students to have them access the classroom quickly

• Manage classrooms and student work from the classroom manager (the teacher dashboard in teacher classroom accounts) where teachers can: 

  • Manage classrooms 

  • Invite students to classrooms 

  • Manage class codes 

  • View student work

How are classroom accounts different from school/district accounts?

School or district accounts are created by the IT administrators. This administration account grants permission to teachers and students to use Adobe Express within the school or district organization. 

• School or district accounts DO let teachers and students access Adobe Express and create projects. 

• School or district accounts do NOT give teachers access to: 

  • The classroom manager 

  • Classrooms 

  • Class codes

  • View and/or delete student project

A teacher cannot set up a district account, they can have both a district and a classroom account at the same time. These two accounts are separate accounts and projects available on one account would not be available on another.

The key difference being that a district account is set up on behalf of the teacher by the school administrator and a classroom account is created directly by the teacher if they're based in the United States. 

School/district Admin Controls

Using the Adobe Admin Console, school or district administrators have to enable the ability for teachers to create classroom accounts.  Administrators can disable the ability for teachers to create classroom accounts in the Adobe Admin Console via the Directory Settings tab. Disabling this setting will prevent teachers from creating new classroom accounts. 

Some teachers might create classroom accounts before their administrators claim their Adobe Admin Console. Administrators who later claim their console can still turn off the classroom account feature, if they choose to do so. 

Teachers and students who lose access to their classroom accounts due to administrators disabling classrooms will receive an Adobe email notification letting them know the accounts have been disabled. If their account is disabled, teachers will need to speak with their administrator about the school or district’s preferred method of accessing Adobe Express.

Create classroom accounts

United States-based teachers can create classroom accounts in Adobe Express if they meet specific criteria: 

• The teacher is a verified teacher in the United States. Adobe will also check that the teacher is based in the United States - classroom accounts are not available outside the United States at this time

• The teacher has entered a Google Workspace for Education account, given to them by their school or district. Microsoft accounts, personal Google email accounts, or other account types are not available today

• The teacher has either an email address or domain that is verified to be an educational email or verified to be a domain belonging to an educational institution

  • If the teacher’s IT administrator has already claimed the school’s domain with Adobe and verified that it is educational, any teacher in that domain can create a classroom account

  • If the teacher’s IT administrator has NOT verified the domain with Adobe, then any teacher that has a “.edu” or “k12.state.us” domain on their email account will be able to join. For example, jsmith@adobe.edu would be able to create a classroom account, but jsmith@adobe.net would not be able to create an account

If any of these criteria apply to the teacher, and their administration has not disabled classroom accounts for their district, then the teacher can create a classroom account.

How to be eligible for a classroom account  

If you are not eligible for a classroom account or you cannot be verified for a classroom account, you have a few options:

The teacher verification process & troubleshooting

Adobe uses a third-party verification system, SheerID, to validate that the person signing up is a teacher that is currently working for the school. If SheerID cannot verify you instantly, you will need to Submit Documentation to be verified manually. You will be asked to share a document verifying your teacher employment status, like a teacher ID or a pay stub.

After submitting your verification, you will receive an email confirmation, and will be notified over email when your verification is approved by SheerID. At that point, you can finish creating your Adobe Express classroom account.

If a teacher is not verified by SheerID either instantly or through submitting documentation, the classroom account option is not available for them at this time. If you also look for your school name and cannot find it, SheerID may not have your school in its database. Unfortunately, you will not be able to proceed at this time.

Resources for teachers in higher education

Additional teacher training on Adobe Express

To get started with classroom accounts, or to learn more about how IT administrators can set up school or district accounts, click here. You can also visit the Adobe Education Exchange to collaborate with other educators on Adobe Express and more.