Case Study: University of Michigan achieves multimedia, technology-driven humanities learning with Adobe Creative Suite 5

University of Michigan - Customer Case Study

The University of Michigan’s Department of English, led by Professor Eric S. Rabkin, revamped upper-level humanities courses to ask how technologies shape human thought and culture. The challenge was to equip students with both critical reasoning and practical technical skills—enabling collaborative, cross-platform work, preservation and citation of original materials, and the creation of rich, interactive presentations rather than traditional papers.

Using Adobe Creative Suite 5 and Acrobat Pro (Photoshop CS5 Extended, Dreamweaver CS5, Flash Professional CS5, and Acrobat 9 Pro), students built multimedia, web-published research projects and PDF bibliographies. The approach produced measurable benefits: sharper analytical and collaborative skills, industry-relevant technical competencies, award-winning student work, and deeper, more creative explorations of the relationship between technology and the humanities.

University of Michigan

Eric S. Rabkin

Department of English, University of Michigan