Designing ELMS-Canvas Assignments for Adobe Spark Student Work


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Adobe Spark is integrated with ELMS-Canvas and offers simple tools making it easy for students to create digital responses to Assignments and Discussions. Spark gives instructors and students an opportunity to create posters, web pages, presentations, graphics and short videos. Instructors and students only need to authenticate yourself as a University of Maryland (UMD) participant by logging in with your UMD email address.

By designing assignments and projects that involve Adobe Spark, instructors can build their students' digital fluency and critical soft skills including creative problem solving, critical thinking and peer-to-peer collaboration.

Log in to your Adobe Spark account

  1. Go to Adobe Spark and click Sign in. When the Sign in request opens, click Log in with school account and enter your UMD email. Select continue. If you are using the Adobe Creative Cloud desktop application, enter your UMD email on the sign-in page and select Enterprise ID.

    Enter your UMD email and use multi-factor authentication to sign in to Adobe Spark

  2. You may be prompted to enter your UMD Central Authentication Service credentials, then click Log in.

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Create an Adobe Spark assignment in ELMS-Canvas

  1. Select Assignments on the course menu.  Then, click the + Assignment button and provide an Assignment Name.
  2. Enter your assignment instructions in the Rich Content Editor (RCE). Here you will provide the requirements of the project and, possibly, point students to the Submit Adobe Spark Assets to ELMS-Canvas Assignments or Discussions.
  3. If you want to show students an example or to provide a template for the Spark project (for example, graphic or post, web page or video) add your example in the RCE. (See Providing an Example Spark item below for instructions.)
  4. Enter the Points value for this assignment.
  5. Select the Submission Type:
    1. Select Online. The options for this choice appear in the dialog box.
    2. Choose Website URL, Media Recordings or File Uploads.
    3. Or, select all three if you are flexible on the way students turn in their Spark asset.
  6. Select None for Originality Checker (Turnitin cannot scan a Spark asset).
  7. Select This is a Group Assignment if you want the students to use Spark's collaboration feature to work together on a project.
  8. Set your Due date and Availability.
  9. Select Save or Save & Publish.

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Providing an example Spark item

  1. To incorporate an example Spark asset from within the RCE, click on the External Tool icon (looks like a plug) and select Adobe Spark.
  2. This will launch your browser and initiate the Adobe Spark login process. When the Sign in request opens, enter your UMD email.
    Sign in window
  3. Select Company or School Account and provide your UMD CAS credentials.
    selecting which type account
  4. From the Spark dashboard, hover over the project you want to use for an example. Click Attach.

    Hover over options: Attach(selected), Preview and Customize.

  5. Your Spark example will be placed within the instructions field of the ELMS-Canvas assignment. Next to the thumbnail of your project is a Make a copy button. Students cannot access the original copy or they would be able to make changes to your project. When students select the button, they will be given a copy in their Spark dashboard to view or as a template for your assignment. For additional instructions and educational Spark guides, see this video: go.umd.edu/SparkProjects.

    Spark example project displaying in the ELMS-Canvas instruction field.

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Facilitate digital fluency in students with Adobe Spark

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