Join this session to explore how Auburn University integrates AI-powered Adobe tools into engineering and cross-disciplinary courses to enhance student engagement and creativity. You’ll discover how tools like Adobe Podcast and Adobe Express support accessible, high-quality podcast production while reducing technical barriers for students. Through real course examples, this session highlights strategies for designing engaging assignments that build communication skills, creativity, and career-ready digital portfolios. 

Leave with practical ideas to implement AI-enhanced podcasting workflows in your own curriculum—no matter your discipline

• Dr. Chelsy Hooper | Instructional Technology Coordinator, Auburn University.
• Dr. Erin Garcia | Lecturer, Industrial and Systems Engineering, Auburn University.
• Dr. Sam James | Assistant Professor, Communication and Journalism, Auburn University.

• Dr. Melissa Vito | Vice Provost of Academic Innovation, University of Texas at San Antonio.
• Dr. Todd Taylor | Adobe Pedagogical Evangelist & Professor of English, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

How can a gateway business course equip students with both analytical rigor and the AI literacy they'll need in modern workplaces? In this session, Dr. Chris Cooney of Washington State University's Carson College of Business shares how the redesigned BA 100 course tackles this challenge through an authentic marketing analysis project that mirrors real-world business consulting work.

Cooney will discuss the intentional pedagogy behind embedding AI fluency into foundational coursework while engaging students in meaningful, team-based projects. Students work as marketing consultants on real companies, conducting market analysis, strategy development, and professional reporting—all while leveraging Adobe Express and Firefly AI to develop critical workplace competencies. This approach directly advances the Business College’s mission to ensure students graduate with both marketing knowledge and AI fluency skills employers increasingly demand.

Attendees will leave with concrete strategies for integrating authentic, industry-aligned projects into gateway courses, along with tangible examples of how thoughtful tool selection and project design can spark genuine student engagement and career readiness.

Dr. Chris Cooney | Director, Center for Entrepreneurship; Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship, Washington State University.

• Dr. Melissa Vito | Vice Provost of Academic Innovation, University of Texas at San Antonio.
• Dr. Todd Taylor | Adobe Pedagogical Evangelist & Professor of English, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.