Your choice of method should fit your learning style, your schedule, your social tendencies, and your budget. Self-awareness is very important when choosing a mode for your study of Adobe, so make sure you are honest with yourself about the way you learn, your potential learning pitfalls, and the life situation you’re seeking to fit your learning into.
You might also consider a certificate or certification in an Adobe product or products. These provide documented evidence of your accomplishments that you can share with a potential employer.
Enroll in In-Person Adobe Classes
Naturally, the most traditional method of learning any skill is attending a class in-person. For millennia, in-person instruction was the only way to study anything. And it continues to have some definite advantages. For certain students, there is no substitute for being physically present in the classroom. With an instructor and fellow students in the same room, these students can make personal connections that will help them in their studies.
Any live class provides real-time access to an expert instructor, so that particular advantage is not unique to the in-person study format. However, in-person classes allow some students to form more of a personal relationship with the teacher, which can help the learning process by creating a rapport and personal bond to undergird the effectiveness of the instruction. That way, when the instructor provides guidance, feedback, and advice, these can be structured to suit the individual student’s needs. The student will also have a better understanding of how to interpret the instructor’s input if the two know one another well personally. The personal connection formed through in-person instruction can also sometimes lead to a long-term mentoring relationship. Many bootcamps and other programs provide students with access to a designated mentor, but a true lifelong mentorship is generally born of a personal bond between teacher and student.
Another advantage of in-person instruction is the connection students can form with their peers. Though it is possible to bond with fellow students in a live online format, it’s not quite the same as being in the room with other students, forming connections through shared, embodied experiences. The simple camaraderie of learning together can ease the stresses of the learning process. Students can encourage each other in their studies, celebrating each other’s strengths and supporting each other when a student is struggling. Students who enjoy social interaction can also find the mere presence of their fellow students stimulating and motivating to their learning processes. The fellowship of shared presence also simply makes studying more fun for these types of students.
However, it is important to be aware that in-person classes, despite their unique benefits, can be a better fit for some students than others. Students who are easily distracted or stressed out by in-person stimuli, have a busy and demanding schedule, or live far away from in-person learning opportunities may find another learning format a better fit.
Some students find that in-person learning is not always effective for them because of their particular personality or learning style. More introverted students may sometimes find the social aspects of in-person study stressful. And students who struggle to stay focused might get distracted by social interactions in the classroom or the other peripheral elements of an in-person learning experience.
In-person learning may also not be a great fit for those who have an especially busy and demanding schedule. Any live class, of course, requires students to be consistently available and active at specific times, which can make live learning a challenge for students who don’t have a lot of spare time or whose schedules are unpredictable. With in-person learning, there’s the added element of a commute. Depending on how close you live to your place of study, you might lose a lot of time simply getting there, time you could save if you choose to study in a live online or on-demand format.
Another type of student who may opt not to pursue in-person learning is the student who simply lives too far away to conveniently commute to an in-person class. And this isn’t just the student who lives in a rural area three hours away from the closest major metropolis where an in-person course might be offered. Even a half-hour commute might be too far for a student with mobility issues, a job with variable hours, or a young family whose demands may be difficult to anticipate ahead of time.
In-person learning offers the unique benefits of in-person social interaction and bonding, but some students may find that these advantages are not sufficient to outweigh the potential issues in-person study could present for them.
There are many schools that offer in-person Adobe instruction. You may study Adobe in New York with General Assembly or Noble Desktop, in Los Angeles with Los Angeles City College or Training Connection, in Chicago with ONLC, in D.C. with Capital Photography Center, in Denver with Colorado Free University, or at many other schools across the U.S. and the world.
Attend Live Online Adobe Classes
Some students choose live online classes over in-person study or other modes of learning Adobe. These classes have some of the same benefits as in-person study, but there are some important differences between the two.
The shared advantages between in-person and live online study are unique to live learning. These primarily consist of real-time access to an expert instructor and classmates who are traveling the same learning path.
Real-time instructor access is invaluable for studying Adobe. Working directly with an expert in the field allows students to obtain guidance in their career pursuits, clarification during the learning process, and feedback on work that they create, all from someone with many years and great breadth of experience with the Adobe program they are teaching. Live instruction allows you to ask questions as they arise, so you won’t get stuck on something you don’t understand and be unable to make progress. And while live online learning doesn’t provide quite the same opportunities for building a personal relationship with the instructor, it still allows the student and instructor to get a sense of each other as people, which betters their communication when discussing concepts and assignments.
As with the instructor-student relationship, it’s true that live online learning does not provide quite the same level of bonding with peers as being in a classroom with other students. However, even the virtual companionship of fellow learners can be encouraging and motivating. Sometimes a fellow student can understand your confusion and help clear something up for you in the moment. You may also form connections that go beyond the classroom, checking in with each other about homework or concepts one of you may not have fully understood during class. Also, some students prefer not having the social interaction that is inherent to the in-person classroom environment. This may be because they are introverted and more comfortable in their own home or because they are easily distracted by social stimulation to the exclusion of a focus on their studies. Being honest with yourself about what will work for you personally is vital when deciding between in-person and live online learning.
Studying Adobe live online can also be a good fit for students who have a full schedule. Any form of live instruction requires the student to be consistently available at a specific time, which can be a challenge for those with a busy schedule. However, the advantage of live online over in-person study for busy students is that it allows them to avoid spending time on a commute. Especially if you already commute to your job, adding a second commute to your full day can sometimes overbalance your schedule. Studying live online removes that second commute without taking away the advantages provided by live instruction, specifically real-time access to an expert teacher and direct interactions with your colleagues in learning. However, for some students, live online instruction may still require too much from their schedule, making a self-paced course a better fit for them. Evaluating the demands of their particular schedule is a judgment call only the student can make.
Students may also choose to study live online if they live too far away from schools that offer in-person Adobe learning. Live online learning provides exciting opportunities for students who live in rural areas or other locations where in-person study is not readily available. Some students who do live within possible commuting distance of an in-person school may also choose live online instruction because the circumstances of their life make the commute impractical.
Many schools offer live online study options. You can get live online Adobe training from General Assembly, Noble Desktop, Certstaffix, Ledet, Lumenbrite, ONLC, or CreativeLive, among many others.
Sign up for On-Demand Online Adobe Classes
Many students find the advantages of live instruction, whether in-person or live online, make it the most effective option for their studies. However, for some students, self-paced on-demand learning is a better fit for their needs and particular life circumstances. The primary advantages offered by on-demand study of Adobe are its affordability and flexibility.
Studying Adobe on-demand is, in the majority of cases, the most cost-effective way to learn. Many on-demand courses are available for the price of a subscription to the learning platform that offers them, or they can be bought as individual courses for prices that usually don’t exceed a few hundred dollars. For students who are in strained financial circumstances, have other financial needs that they must prioritize, or simply aren’t sure enough about their career path to commit significant financial resources to their studies, the affordable nature of on-demand learning can make it an attractive choice.
However, with on-demand learning, the old saw that “you get what you pay for” often applies. An on-demand course may cost a fraction of what an in-person or live online bootcamp requires in tuition, but it deprives the student of many advantages that come with live learning. First among these is the lack of direct, real-time access to a knowledgeable Adobe expert. In a live classroom, in-person or virtual, students can get feedback, guidance, and clarification from an expert instructor right away, which allows them to avoid getting stuck if they don’t understand something at first. The camaraderie of a live classroom can also be a valuable support to the learning process.
In addition, on-demand materials vary in quality and it can be difficult to determine the quality of the materials before purchasing access to them. Plus, on-demand Adobe courses can quickly become outdated, as most programs in Adobe Creative Cloud suite receive regular updates that often involve significant changes to the programs’ interfaces or the tools available. It can be frustrating to watch an instructor do something on a video, only to realize that the program doesn’t do that anymore, or it does but you follow a completely different set of steps to make it happen.
Students do appreciate on-demand learning for its flexibility, however. Not only can students in a self-paced program avoid spending time in transit to class, but they also don’t have to be available at a particular time consistently. Instead of needing to keep, for example, three hours on their Monday and Wednesday evenings free for months at a time, they can study for an hour on Monday night and then two hours before work on Thursday, if that’s what best fits their schedule. For those whose schedule is full or unpredictable, on-demand learning can offer the flexibility they need.
Yet the peril with on-demand learning is the very self-paced nature that makes it so flexible. Students who chose on-demand study won’t have the external structure provided by a scheduled course, with its learning progressions and specific set deadlines. Some may find it difficult to stay motivated and on track under these circumstances. So on-demand learning is best suited to disciplined self-starters who can maintain a steady application to their studies in spite of their busy schedules. Once again, self-knowledge is vital as you make this decision.
Many schools and platforms offer on-demand Adobe training. Depending on your Adobe product of choice, you might select on-demand materials from Udemy, Skillshare, Google via Coursera, LinkedInLearning, CreativeLive, ONLC, or ITU, among others.
Watch Free Adobe Tutorials
While most students ultimately chose to employ a paid method for serious study of Adobe, it is possible to teach yourself certain basic concepts by following free online Adobe tutorials. For example, watching and following along with a YouTube video about the shape tool in Adobe Photoshop can help you practice that particular tool, and it’s certainly the most cost-effective way of learning about it. However, there are many critical elements of an effective learning process that are missing when you study exclusively through free tutorials.
One important thing that in-person, live online, and on-demand options all offer, but free tutorials lack, is a thoughtful planned progression through the learning process. Most free tutorials cover a specific aspect of an Adobe program, but they can’t assume that you have already learned any particular other skill in the program, so they can’t really build your skills through an intelligent progression. The other options have all been designed as an organized course of study by experts who are knowledgeable not only about Adobe, but also about teaching and how students learn. Pursuing a course that is designed to build your skills through a specific sequence of lessons provides a much more effective learning experience than just watching tutorials on the things you’re curious about.
There are also no quality controls on the free tutorials offered online. Anyone can put a video on YouTube claiming it’s an Adobe tutorial. A student has no way of knowing if the video maker has actual credentials in the field, is using an up-to-date version of the program, or knows anything about teaching and the student learning process. You may be able to evaluate a tutorial’s quality intuitively to some extent, but it can be very difficult to distinguish which tutorials are worth using. By contrast, on-demand materials or live instruction come with the guarantee of a specific school or program that they are high-quality, up-to-date, and will be delivered effectively.
And while in-person and live online instruction involve more personal contact with experts than on-demand learning does, even on-demand programs often come with some type of access to knowledgeable people. This may be in the form of subject matter expert hotlines, career counselors, designated mentor meetings, or some combination of these. Yes, you could always drop a line to your favorite Adobe YouTuber, but they are under no obligation to respond in a timely or accurate fashion–or at all, in fact. Having experts available to advance your education and your job search is an invaluable aspect of paid Adobe training.
This is not to say that free Adobe tutorials are useless. But they are primarily helpful for learning enough about an Adobe product to identify whether you would like to pursue a paid study of the topic. Free tutorials can give you enough of a sense of Photoshop, Premiere Pro, or XD to tell you whether you like using that tool and what some of the advantages to knowing it might be. However, the materials available for free can only take you so far. If you really want to advance your career, you’ll eventually have to make some degree of financial investment in your study of Adobe.
Explore Adobe Certificates & Certification
Certificates and certifications can be useful for demonstrating to a prospective employer that your knowledge of an Adobe product or products has been evaluated and found satisfactory by an outside entity. The difference between certificates and certifications is vital, however. A certificate is typically provided by the school at which a student learns their Adobe skills, while a certification represents validation by a third party that the student’s skills are of high quality. As such, certifications typically involve taking an exam to demonstrate one’s skills. Therefore, employers will typically take a certification more seriously than a certificate, especially if that certification is offered by the entity that created the product a prospective employee has certified in.
Certificates can also vary in significance and credibility. Certificates provided by entities offering on-demand coursework are often taken less seriously than a certificate showing that a student has completed a live bootcamp, for example. They also vary by the reputation of the school you choose and what your particular prospective employer may know or have heard about it. Ultimately, a certificate shows that you have completed a program to the satisfaction of those who offered it, but not that your skills are actually strong enough to apply effectively in the workplace. For that, you may need a certification.
Fortunately, Adobe offers its own certification program for its products, so you don’t have to spend a lot of time figuring out which certification programs are actually reputable. With the Adobe program, you can demonstrate your knowledge on a variety of levels. These include Adobe Qualified, Adobe Certified Professional, Adobe Certified Expert, and Adobe Certified Master. Getting these certifications requires you to prove a minimum amount of experience in the field, with a 6-month minimum for the Qualified or Certified Professional levels. Within each level, there are different skills that you can certify in. There are more possible paths as you get further along in the certification program, culminating in 13 different possible types of Adobe Certified Master. By that point, your skills will have become highly specialized.
To get an Adobe certification, Adobe recommends that you follow its designated learning path, with brief live courses in your chosen subject. However, all that is required is that you pass the certification exam. You must register online and pay the exam fee, which, for U.S.-based students, ranges from $125 to $225, depending on the level. Once you take and pass the exam, congratulations–you’re certified. Now you can show an employer that according to Adobe’s own evaluative standards, you are a skilled professional Adobe user.