Adobe has announced the Adobe Analytics curriculum for education, a global program that supports the future workforce with in-demand data science skills. As part of the next generation of the Adobe Education Exchange, college instructors and students will be able to use Adobe Analytics—the industry-leading customer data analytics platform—for free and get access to course curriculum with hands-on activities. Students will learn how to use data to drive business decisions and gain skills for careers spanning data science to marketing and product management. The program is an extension of the Adobe Creative Campus program, which advances digital literacy through access to Adobe Creative Cloud in the classroom.
“In a short span of time, we have witnessed a transformation from a world with digital capabilities to a digital-first economy. While Adobe continues to drive digital adoption in organizations across all industry verticals in this new reality, we consistently hear how challenging it is for our customers to find the right talent,” said Nitin Singhal, MD, Digital Experience Business at Adobe India. “With this program, we aim to reinforce our commitment to digital empowerment and power the next generation of change makers. Introducing Adobe Analytics in university and college curriculums will provide an opportunity for many young individuals to understand data and insights at a more comprehensive level, and help them take a confident stride towards careers they may not have considered and in becoming business leaders of the future.”
“The pandemic has accelerated our shift to a digital-first world, pushing all – organizations, governments and educational institutions – to innovate and reinvent how they work, connect and learn,” said Dr Sayalee Gankar, Hon’ble Vice Chancellor, D Y Patil University. “For future workforce, it is vital to learn how to use data and derive actionable insights from it. The Adobe Analytics curriculum for education is a great initiative and will help expose students to an industry leading analytics platform while still in the classroom. In the upcoming academic year, we are excited to introduce Adobe Analytics as part of our curriculum in business and marketing programs like Master of Business Administration (MBA), Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) and Digital Marketing, and help build next gen skillsets in our students.”
The program was developed through the Adobe Analytics Challenge, which launched in 2005. The popular competition gives college students a chance to work with real data to solve business challenges, from companies such as Nike, Major League Baseball and Sony Playstation. Past participants have used the experience to land careers at The Home Depot, Boston Consulting Group, Amazon, and nonprofits like Learning Forward. The success of the event drove interest from higher education instructors, who wanted to include elements of the Challenge in their coursework.
Professors from institutions including the University of Wisconsin-Madison, University of Utah, and University of Michigan partnered with Adobe to develop the curriculum, helping shape the program to ensure it is easy to implement among any college or university.
“The pandemic reshaped economies and exposed consumers to a digital-only reality, pushing organizations to transform themselves on a dime and seek new types of talent,” said Neeraj Arora, Professor of Marketing, University of Wisconsin- Madison. “The digital skills that students can acquire through Adobe’s program will greatly help them succeed in career fields such as marketing.”
“The ability to deliver great digital experiences is absolutely crucial for corporations, government agencies, and small businesses alike,” said Paul Hu, David Eccles Chair Professor, the University of Utah. “Data is a valuable asset in today’s digital economy, and Adobe Analytics curriculum for education will play a major role in helping students acquire skillsets that significantly broaden their career opportunities and development.”
The program has four core modules that can be incorporated into any curriculum. Participants get access to a sandbox environment, which allows students to use Adobe Analytics with rich demo data. It is meant to be self-paced, and instructors can pick and choose any of the modules to incorporate into their coursework. The modules focus on:
• Data Collection: Organizations have to connect data from different sources and across departments such as marketing, customer service, sales, human resources and more – all of which require proper governance and privacy controls. In this module, students will learn the fundamentals of data collection, warehousing and cleaning, as well as implementation.
• Data Strategy and Architecture: Once data is collected, teams have to set up a data structure to make the data consumable across an organization. Students can combine metrics across consumer touchpoints, for instance, to understand how promotional offers online drive in-store foot traffic. It also gives students a chance to define key performance indicators and shape how goals are structured and achieved.
• Standard Metrics and Functionality: This module focuses on reporting and how data is presented to an organization at large, spanning functions such as marketing, product development, eCommerce and design. Students will continue to layer meaning into numbers and showcase how insights can drive real action.
• Analysis Workspace Fundamentals: Analysis Workspace is a unique drag-and-drop interface in Adobe Analytics. Inspired by Photoshop, users can curate different data sets and take on a detective role in uncovering data anomalies and other insights. This module provides students an opportunity to curate data, collaborate with others, produce new visualizations and uncover insights that advance business objectives.