- Donovan Baltich, Chad Burton, Esther Cabrera, Joshua Jamias, Alice Law

TABLE OF CONTEXTExecutive summary……………………………………………3

Introduction……………………………………………………..4

Background research………………………………………….4

Qualitative research and analysis……………………………16

Strategic recommendations…………………………………..24

Conclusion……………………………………………………...26

Appendix:

In-depth interview transcripts…………………………………………………27

Copy of survey………………………………………...…47

Descriptive statistics, breakdown for survey……...…..49

Executive Summary

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There are several different types of people who teach classes that prepare students to take Adobe Certification Tests. Many have positive things to say as well as suggestions that would make their experience with Certiport better.

Our survey showed that 68 percent of instructors are female. 43 percent of instructors were between the ages of 41 and 60. A majority of instructors have a master’s degree while 41 percent have a bachelor’s degree. The vast majority of instructors are white/Caucasian and few are Hispanic/Latino or black/African American.

It showed that 43 percent of instructors made the decision to offer the classes themselves, which was the highest answer. It shows that mostly individuals decide to offer the classes instead of school districts or boards of education. Though 63 percent replied that the district administrator pays for it.

82 percent of those surveyed said they do their instruction at public schools. Adobe’s website and emails are the most used resources in staying up to date, but research also showed that Lynda.com and YouTube could be replaced if Certiport or Adobe had services that rivaled them.

The best channels to reach instructors were clear. 67 percent of instructors prefer to be contacted either monthly or quarterly. A vast majority of instructors prefer to be contacted by their work email, followed by postal mail, then by work phone. YouTube and Facebook were the most popular social media sites.

From the research, we have several strategic recommendations. The descriptions of each can be found on page 24, but they are: (1) update the instructor database, (2) provide information about the benefits of ACA certification, (3) create an online forum where ACA Instructors can collaborate, share resources, etc., (4) market directly to ACA instructors and CTE administrators, (5) market the ACA certification more toward young public school teachers, (6) communicate with instructors via their work emails once a month and inform them of updates, (7) create stronger social media presence on Facebook, LinkedIn and Adobe Youth Voices, (8) offer a badge for LinkedIn, (9) provide course curriculum and study guide materials, (10) offer flexible buying options for vouchers, and (11) alter the test format.

Through the research, it can be seen how we reached those conclusions, what instructors are pleased with, and what they would like to see more of.

Introduction

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The company Certiport provides tests for its clients so they can prove their capacity at some of Adobe’s products. If the clients pass the tests, they can become “certified” in software such as Photoshop, InDesign and Illustrator.

Certiport would like to better understand its client base. How is the company meeting the clients’ needs? How can it better meet their needs? What are the demographics of their key clients?

This research first gives a background on how Certiport has catered to its clients in the past. In the background we show the questions that guided our research throughout the project. After the background, there is some raw data of surveys completed by ACA instructors throughout the United States as well as analysis of what that data means. Finally, some strategic recommendations will be given on how Certiport could serve its clients even better.

The research will show that Certiport currently targets its clients well, but there are several common things the clients are requesting that could make the company even better.

Background

Purpose

The purpose of this research project is to help Certiport identify buyer personas to increase marketing efforts’ effectiveness toward digital media teachers and ultimately increase Adobe Certified Associate sales. Certiport designed an Adobe Certified Associate Educator Program and its advertising to two groups of people: (1) teachers who will be offering ACA certification in their classrooms, and (2) high school students who will be taking the courses.

Although the Adobe Certified Associate program is worldwide, Certiport is only concerned about teachers and test-takers within the U.S. Instructors do not have to be Adobe Certified Instructors in order to teach students the Adobe Certified Associate program, although the additional certification does have further benefits.

Research Questions

Below are the research questions used as guiding points to accomplish the purpose of helping Certiport identify buyer personas to increase Adobe Certified Associate sales.

What is an ACI or ACA?

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What certifications are offered by Certiport? Who is taking the certification tests? How has digital media changed the way people teach? What are the costs of certification courses? Demographics of instructors? What kinds of schools offer Adobe classes?

Methodology

The process used to collect information and data in helping Certiport identify buyer personas to increase Adobe Certified Associate sales includes publication research, surveys, interviews and other techniques using primary and secondary research.

About Certiport

Certiport®, a Pearson VUE business, prepares individuals with current and relevant digital skills and credentials for the competitive global workforce. These solutions are delivered by more than 12,000 Certiport Centers worldwide and include the official Microsoft Office certification program, the Microsoft Technology Associate certification program, the Adobe® Certified Associate certification program, the Adobe® Certified Expert program, the HP Accredited Technical Associate, the CompTIA Strata™ IT Fundamentals, the Autodesk® Certified User certification program, the Intuit® QuickBooks Certified User certification program and the IC3 Digital Literacy certification.

Certiport Executives:

Certiport has five executives at the top the company: Robert Whelan, President and Chief Executive Officer Kevin Brice, Chief Strategy Officer Craig Bushman, Vice President, Marketing Neill Hopkins, Vice President, Global Operations Rob Moore, Vice President, Client Services

Company statistics:

Certiport delivers exams in 148 countries and 27 languages Roughly 250,000 exams are administered monthly through a network of

more than 12,000 Certiport Authorized Testing Centers worldwide. Certiport works with more than 400 Subject Matter Experts in 20 countries

to ensure exam objectives are consistent with market needs. Microsoft Office Specialist-the official certification program for the Microsoft

Office-was created and launched by Certiport in 1997. Certiport IC3-the world’s premier performance-based digital literacy

certification-was launched in 2002.

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Certiport became the Microsoft launch partner for the Microsoft Business Certification program in January 2007, which houses the latest standards for the official 2007 Microsoft Office certifications.

Adobe partnered with Certiport to launch Adobe Certified Associate-the leading certification for validating entry-level digital communications skills-in June 2007 into educational markets around the world.

Certiport expanded its programs to introduce a pathway of learning solutions leading to certification, beginning with Certiprep for Microsoft Office Certification in 2005 and Internet and Computing Benchmark/Internet and Computing Mentor in 2006.

Since 2002, over 750,000 students have participated in both the Certiport Worldwide Competition on Microsoft Office and the IC3 World Cup competitions.

In July 2010, Certiport introduced the Microsoft Technology Associate (MTA) certification program to the global academic market; a landmark certification that validates students’ fundamental IT and software development knowledge and serves as a stepping stone to advanced technology level certifications.

In 2011, Certiport expanded its certification portfolio to include industry verticals by introducing the Autodesk Certified User certification program and Intuit QuickBooks Certified User exam/

Certiport acquired MeasureUp LLC, the global leader in IT practice tests and assessment services, in order to offer a full range of solutions to support the entire certification lifecycle including study materials, practice exams and certifications.

In May 2012 Pearson VUE, the computer-based testing arm of Pearson, acquired Certiport. Certiport continues to operate independently and deliver on the company’s partner-focused business plan, with oversight from Pearson VUE.

Certiport test delivery statistics

Certiport has a growing international presence which is evident in its certification statistics. Certiport has administered more than 15 million exams around the world due to accelerated growth. The certification company has surpassed 3 million exams delivered in a single calendar year to reach the 5-million-exam milestone in February 2007 and the 10-million-exam milestone in June 2011. Certiport administers about 8,220 exams per day on average. 8,220 exams per day breaks down to 342 exams administered every hour or an exam delivered every 10 seconds.

Certiport’s certification exams have been translated into 25 different languages. The most popular languages in order are English, Korean, Arabic, Japanese and Spanish.

Top ten states currently offering certification are (in order):

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1. Florida2. Texas3. New York4. California5. North Carolina6. Virginia7. Ohio8. Illinois9. Louisiana10. Utah

Marketing methodsCertiport has turned to a number of methods to reach out to teachers for marketing purposes including:

Email campaigns Direct Mail campaigns Weekly Newsletters Social Media Tradeshows Web banners Webcasts Success Stories (printed and videos) Classroom materials (curriculum, lesson plans, posters, etc.) Student Competitions (ACA World Championship)

Top five selling points

1. ACA certification prepares students with a recognizable credential to enter the workforce and fulfill their interests. (college and career readiness)

2. ACA certification enhances the digital media skills of faculty and staff, and helps teachers incorporate technology in their teaching methods to improve learning outcomes for students.

3. The full ACA certification pathway of materials arms educators with a full Adobe solution to structure their classroom and meet standards and objectives set by school districts, state and federal education systems. (the full solution includes a combination of Learn>Practice>Certify resources)

4. ACA certification provides students with a validation beyond their digital media portfolio that certifies a depth of knowledge in the cutting-edge use of software tools and ensures their aptitude to complete a broad range of projects and assignments

5. ACA certification meets the growing market trend for digital media skills in the workforce impacting the intuitions offerings and it also closes the divide between the skills emerging students may have and the actual skills that today’s workforce demands.

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Certiport Research Methodology

Certiport receives its information from both internal, primary research and secondary sources.

Internal research is accomplished via: Formal phone-based and in-person persona interviews Win/Loss interviews Interactions at tradeshows and similar events Periodic surveys launched via our weekly newsletters to our testing

centers (typically academic classrooms). Social media feedback (Facebook, Twitter) Anecdotal information gleaned from our direct sales force Tracking activity and responses to marketing campaigns Success story interviews/videotaping of current customers

External (secondary) research is accomplished via:

Information gleaned from the client (i.e. Adobe) based on their own research (which is typically tied to the product itself, not necessarily tied specifically to teachers of certification)

o Adobe has a terrific collaboration site for educators called the Adobe Education Exchange and there is often information for/about teachers who focus on certification

Research studies launched by other entities, such as:o Florida’s Career and Professional Education group (CAPE)o State and National Career and Technical Education (CTE)

organizationso State Departments of Educationo U.S. Department of Education

Other organizations and media/publications and associated websites focused on the education space, such as:

o Agile Education Marketingo THE Journal (Transforming Education Through Technology)o District Administration Magazineo AASA – The School Superintendents Associationo NRC CTE – National Research Center for Career and Technical

Education

Schools that teach Adobe software:

A wide-range of schools (both typical public schools as well as more specialized technical and graphic design schools) offer Adobe classes, as the applications that comprise the Adobe Creative Cloud are often the de facto standard in numerous digital media disciplines. If a school is providing education in digital media, chances are very high that they are using some aspect of Adobe Creative Cloud.

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A list of schools that offer Adobe classes: Public high schools Magnet high schools Charter high schools Technical high schools Vocational technical education schools Community colleges Polytechnic colleges

Current Adobe Certified Associate (ACA) profile examples:

Vickie Roge Teacher/Instructor/Team Leader and Technology Chair

South Texas Independent School District Secondary Education

Key Attributes Female: 30-40 years old Education: Bachelors, Masters 5 years at current school; 6 years at a previous school Reports to the principal of her school, Maggy Guitieze

Job Responsibility/Focus

BETA is a magnet school. This means that students from a three-county area can attend the school. BETA offers course specializations in: Medical Technology, Science, Business Education Technology.

Vickie’s job is to establish the curriculum for the Business Education Technology track. She understands that technology is a quickly growing and quick-changing field.

She recognizes that students must have strong business-technology skills in order to compete in college and in the work place. She develops curriculum that develops those skills and give students a strong credential to market themselves with.

Influence/Impact Vickie has a large amount of influence in the decisions regarding tech-ed at her school. She works closely with the school principal. The principal has the final approval in decisions, but Vickie stated that the principal trusts here recommendations.

Vickie moved to BETA a few years ago from another school. Shortly after leaving that school, it decided to implement ACA as well. This was a direct result of

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Vickie’s influence. Later, the teachers that the previous school were required to become ACA certified. The reached out to Vickie for instruction. With Vickie’s tutoring, all of the teachers received their certification.

Vickie was aware of the ACA program when she contacted Certiport. She said the process to get ACA in here school was very easy and painfree. She said that all of the Certiport people she has worked with have been very helpful, and it seemed like she was working with a “friend”.

BETA also offers CIW certification. It works well for her, but she really likes Certiport’s process.

Goals/Priorities To quote Vickie: “...people are hungry for what Certiport offers.” She takes this very seriously and has developed a strong program to provide students with the opportunity to get ACA certified.

Vickie is working to help students to be prepared and confident at graduation. She helps them learn how to perform the tasks to be successful at graphics, video, and animation.

Values Vickie recently brought in a guest-speaker from IBM to speak to her students. She said that here students understood the concepts and ideas that this IBM person shared with them. They understood terms like cloud computing, and design concepts because they had learned them in class. The students were able to hold a meaningful discussion with this tech professional.

Vickie said that there are about 550 students in the tech-ed program. Of those, about 75-80% achieve ACA certification.

Vickie said that one of the key ways that Certiport can influence the adoption of ACA, or any of Certiport’s programs, is to reach out to the councilors at her school and convince them of the value of certification. She said many of these councilors are non-technical and do not understand what technical certifications like ACA are. But, if they can be educated about it, they will see the value and begin recommending it more to students.

Vickie works with department chairs from the three campuses that comprise her district. Together they

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determine which programs to pursue and help coordinate curriculum.

Pain Points Funding is always a pain point. Vickie learns which programs are authorized in the Texas CTE program. ACA is one of those courses, she pursues it because funding is available.

For every three students that enroll in the ACA program, her school receives funding dollars for four students. This helps to provide funding that she needs.

Motivators Vickie is motivated by helping students. She realizes that the work and college world is very competitive. She is passionate about helping her students learn and develop skills that they can take with them in life.

Validators Vickie, and the other teachers at BETA, do a lot of research in to what technologies are new and evolving. She understands what trends are developing, then she traces backwards which industries are searching for workers with these skills.

This helps her know if her curriculum is on track or needs to be adjusted. She also pays a lot of attention to what national media is saying and writing. This includes sources like US News and World Report, CNN, Fox News. Because these outlets have such huge influence, she sees the correlation between their reports and what industries are doing.

Information Sources Vickie used to attend trade shows and events, but has not attended one for a while. She does a lot of research on technology blogs, and webpages. She also reads trade publications and watches technology news sites.

She follows CNET, podcasts and a couple of technology experts: Leo Laporte and John Varick

She also uses social media.

Denece Spence Teacher Dunbar High School, Ft. Myers, FL. Secondary Education

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Key Attributes Female, 30-40 years 15+ years teaching, 6 years at current. Masters, Bachelors, Associates, multiple

certifications including ACA DW and MOS: Power Point, Excel, Word, Outlook. Adobe Education Leader. Reports to principal.

Job Responsibility/Focus

Magnet Grant technology lead teacher. Business Technology department head. She manages two certification programs at Dunbar: The Academy for Technology Excellence (MS-based) The Academy for Digital Excellence (Adobe-based)

Influence/Impact Denece is an Adobe Education Leader. She works directly with Adobe and attends education tradeshows, working in the Adobe booth. She will be attending ISTE in San Diego in June.

She presents at conferences and is a contributor to the National Career and Technical Education Foundation (NCTEF).

She also collaborates with Microsoft on the College and Career Readiness Program.

Denece’s influence is strong in the Lee Country school district. Serves as a resource to other teachers.

Her school had what Denece’s refers to as “boring IT stuff” programs, such as CompTIA A+, Cisco Associate and Technician, MSCSE, and MSDSE.

Dunbar does not offer IC3 certification but Denece would like to see it offered at the middle school level.

Denece wanted a creative option too so she began building and teaching Adobe-based courses with the Adobe Certified Expert program.

She adopted ACA later and now the program has 150-200 students enrolled each semester.

Adobe is very supportive of Denece and gave her school a full-campus site license. Other schools received a discount but no free licenses.

Dunbar High School was the first in Lee County to offer ACA certification.

Her principal is also a grant writer. This helps to support her certification programs. District approval is still required.

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Goals/Priorities Denece’s ACA program has about an 85%-90% certification rate.

About 25%-30% of students do not pass on the first attempt and require a second or third attempt.

Values All instructors are certified in the program they teach and they all drive toward the success of the students.

Instructors provide time for students to take Certiprep practice tests and the instructors realize that not all students are ready at the same time.

Pain Points Funding is a problem. The State of Florida pays for student certification based on a point system.

Points are awarded based on the number of students enrolled in state-certified courses.

The maximum amount that can be received is $1,200 per student.

Motivators Denece is an excellent example of a dedicated educator. Her enthusiasm and passion for helping students is obvious and contagious.

Validators Denece has helped shape the digital training at Dunbar High School, as well as other schools.

Her work with Adobe and Microsoft are testaments to her commitment.

Information Sources Tradeshows/events: ISTE, FETC Advisory rolls: NCTEF, CCRP, Magnet Schools of

America Working directly with technology providers such as

Adobe, Microsoft, CompTIA Social networking, vendor web sites, publications

Pete Epipsco Teacher/Instructor Viera High School, Brevard County School District Secondary Education

Key Attributes Male; 25-35 years old Education: Bachelors, Working on Masters 7 years at current school; Worked in the digital

design/graphic design industry before becoming a

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school teacher. Reports to the principal.

Job Responsibility/Focus

Pete was in the graphics design/illustrations industry prior to becoming a high school teacher.

He is on the Communication Technology Task Force. On this task force he set curriculum for his school.

When he came to Viera HS, it was a brand new school and did not have a digital design program. Pete created his own design program curriculum before ACA came out.

He recognized the need for and value of providing students with training in digital design products, such as Adobe Photoshop.

Influence/Impact When Pete came to Viera, the school did not have a digital art program. He built the first program based on the Adobe Certified Expert program.

After Pete had been teaching for a while, the ACA program was released. He adopted the ACA program.

The buying process for Pete was extremely easy. His school district contacted Certiport and purchased a site license for the first year, then renewed the site license the following year.

The program originally consisted of only Photoshop. This program quickly became very popular so the

Principal of Viera High School provided funding to double it. Later, Flash, Dreamweaver, and Premier Pro were added but Photoshop remains the most popular.

Pete and the head of Brevard County Schools CTE department toured a facility called Full Sail.

This had an impact on the CTE director resulting in funding for Viera to build a state-of-the-

art studio with $270K in funding that was left of after the school was built.

The programs are now divided so that Freshman and Sophomore get PhotoShop, InDesign, and Illustrator training.

Juniors and Seniors are eligible for Flash, DreamWeaver, and Premier Pro.

Goals/Priorities Pete Episcopo is well-respected at Viera High School and by Adobe Corporation.

He serves on the Adobe Education Leader program

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and is often asked by Adobe to attend conferences and work in Adobe’s booth at trade shows.

The CTE Director that had supported Viera, Margaret Lewis, has retired, but her replacement, Janice Sholz, is equally supportive.

Viera is often approached by area businesses to ask if students can assist in design work.

This is often presented in the form of a contest. Pete Episcopo has also created the Academy for

Digital Arts and Media (ADAM). ADAM has become a well-known program for training students to advance and grow their digital career futures.

Values Pete is very dedicated to his job and to his students. Each year he purchases his students a gift from his own money.

Last year he purchased a flat screen television with full surround sound.

Pain Points Pete’s experience in implementing ACA has been fairly easy. He has had advocates that support the program and have made funding available.

Motivators Pete tells a story about a former student that was a “troubled youth”. This student became

ACA certified in Photo Shop. After high school, the student joined the U.S. Air Force.

While stationed overseas, this student had the opportunity to apply his PS training.

He was approached by the Red Cross and asked to join their organization after his enlistment in the Air Forces was complete.

Information Sources Pete is a member of the Adobe Education Expert program.

He is considered an expert and strong resource for ACA certification.

He often participates in trade shows with Adobe, working in their booth as a certification expert and an advocate to speak to other high school teachers.

Quantitative Research and Analysis

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BYU students from the Bradley Public Relations Agency conducted a survey for Pearson VUE’s Certiport to gain insight on the personas of Adobe Certified Associate instructors. The survey was administered on Qualtrics and distributed through three main channels: Certiport’s ACA instructor database, ACA’s LinkedIn group and ACA’s Facebook group. The survey included 27 questions regarding demographics, contact preferences, student pass/fail rates, etc. One hundred eighty-five ACA instructors responded to the survey.

Survey Description

The Bradley Public Relations COMMS 318 class spent two hours brainstorming questions for the survey. The four survey group leaders then met to organize, eliminate and standardize the questions before submitting the draft to Professor Blake Stowell.

Professor Stowell reviewed the survey draft, made changes and gave his students a digital copy for them to sample the survey with two individuals to ensure quality control. Students met together and discussed suggested changes. Twenty-seven questions made the final cut and were inputted and published online via Qualtrics.

The invitation sent and posted on the ACA LinkedIn and Facebook groups incentivized users to respond by offering a chance to enter a drawing to receive one of four $25 Visa gift cards. Many users who were not ACA instructors were bound to answer the survey, so the first question was used to eliminate those who were not instructors. Survey participants who said they weren’t ACA instructors were booted from the survey and their email addresses were recorded to prevent them from reentering and responding with ‘Yes.’

Sampling methodology

Outreach to ACA instructors was limited. All three possible channels of outreach were used, including emailing everyone in Certiport’s ACA instructor database and inviting instructors to participate via posts on the Facebook and LinkedIn ACA groups.

Sample size

The final sample size was 185 respondents. Two hundred eighteen people began the survey, but 33 respondents were booted, including nine who are not ACA instructors, 12 who were previously but are no longer ACA instructors, 11 that are not but plan to become ACA instructors and one ‘other.’

Demographics

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Sixty-eight percent of instructors are female versus 36 percent who are male. Forty-three percent of instructors were between the ages of 41 and 60. A majority of instructors have a masters degree while 41 percent have a bachelors degree. The vast majority of instructors are white/Caucasian and few are Hispanic/Latino or black/African American.

Survey Analysis

1. What is your email address?This question was asked in order to prevent participants who said they were not ACA instructors from reentering the survey after being booted and it was used to contact the four winners of the $25 Visa gift cards.

2. Are you currently an Adobe Certified Associate (ACA) Instructor?Survey respondents who answered no were booted from the survey. Thirty-three were booted, but 185 submitted a completed survey.

3. How long have you been teaching digital media/Adobe products? The answer to this question indicates that most instructors teach Adobe products for the long-run. It also indicates that few teachers are currently entering the field of digital media instruction.

4. How long have you had your ACA certification?Older instructors with more experience teaching ACA are less likely to have their own ACA certification. Thirty-six percent of instructors have taught ACA/Adobe products for more than eight years, but only 4 percent of all instructors have had their own ACA certification for more than eight years. (Compare with #3)

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5. How long have you had your Adobe Certified Instructor certification?The vast majority of ACA instructors do not have an Adobe Certified Instructor certification. Only 33 percent of instructors do have their ACI certification.

6. Who decided to offer an ACA class in your school? (check all that apply)Those who had the power to decide who would implement ACA certification in schools were spread all over the table. Forty-three percent made the decision themselves and the next biggest group was ‘other.’ Those that responded with ‘other’ were asked to fill in who specifically made the decision. Sixteen of 51 respondents cited CTE personnel and 19 of 51 respondents cited district/county personnel.

7. How long have you been an ACA instructor?This question built on #3, “How long have you been teaching digital media/Adobe products?” It adds more specificity. It differs with #3 in that most instructors have been teaching ACA certification for three to six years versus most teachers who have been teaching Adobe products have been doing it for seven or more years.

8. Who in your organization makes decisions on digital media certification exam funding?This question builds on #6, but with a focus on funding. The district administrator is the most likely to direct these funds, followed by the instructor him/herself. The vast majority who answered ‘other’ specified that it was CTE personnel who decided.

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9. Why did you decide to prepare your students to take ACA certification exams?Respondents were asked to check all the reasons that applied, thus more than 185 responses were recorded. Eighty-two percent teach ACA to provide career opportunities for their students.

10. In which school(s) do you teach ACA?Eighty-two percent of these digital media instructors teach at public schools and 13 percent at technical schools. The rest of the respondents were spread sparsely among magnet schools, charter schools, vocational schools, community colleges, polytechnic colleges, 4-year universities and ‘other.’

11. How do you stay up-to-date with Adobe products?Adobe’s website and emails are the most used resources in staying up to date. Lynda.com and YouTube could be replaced if Certiport or Adobe had services that rivaled them.

12. How often do you prefer to be contacted by the certification exam providers? Sixty-seven percent of instructors prefer to be contacted either monthly or quarterly and the remaining 33 percent are spread more or less evenly over preferences: yearly, weekly, daily and “I don’t want to be contacted.”

13. What type of information would be useful to receive about ACA certifications?

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Instructors were asked to briefly describe what kind of information they’d like to received about the ACA certification. Their responses are broken down below:

29 percent want news of updates/changes to the test 61 percent want more/better test preparation material

14. Choose your preferred method of being contacted by ranking the following list in order of preference (1 being their first choice and 8 being their last choice).A vast majority of instructors prefer to be contacted by their work email, followed by postal mail, then by work phone. The last ways they want to be contacted is via their own cell phone/house phone and by text message.

15. Select the top three social media channels that you use mostFacebook and YouTube dominate instructors’ social media usage. YouTube is an interesting response, as it’s not used in the traditional ways that Facebook and Twitter are used. Some instructors use YouTube to create additional study material for their students.

16. Rank these top three media channels in order of importance. Facebook and YouTube dominated instructors’ social media priorities.

17. How many students do you teach per semester per class?

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The average ACA instructor teaches a class of 25 students. The biggest class size recorded was 40 students.

18. On average, how many of those students take the ACA certification exam?An average of 19.71 out of 25 students will take the ACA exam following their course. That means about 20 percent of students who take the ACA preparation class don’t ever take the exam.

19. On average, how many of those students pass the ACA certification exam?Instructors responded that only 58 percent of their students who attempt the exam, pass it.

20. Do you feel you have benefited from your ACA certification? If so briefly describe how.Seventy-six percent of instructors feel they’ve benefited from the ACA certification versus 8 percent who say they have not. Sixteen percent are not certified. Respondents that said no explained that “a strong portfolio is much more valuable than a certification” and that they hadn’t seen study results that show that the certification benefits students in any way.

21. Where do you find your teaching curriculum? Most instructors create their own curriculum whereas only 37 percent use material from companies that administer the exams.

Additional analysis on #21: Isolating instructors’ responses to look the success rates they have with individual preparation material shows statistically significant results. Although only 34 percent of instructors use material from certification exam providers to teach their students, 65.86 percent of their students pass the exam. Those that use ‘other’ materials have only 44.26 percent of their students pass.

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22. Please identify the Adobe programs that you teach as part of your ACA instruction? Adobe Photoshop is the most emphasized ACA program in place at schools and Premiere is the least emphasized.

23. Which Adobe programs do you use outside of teaching? (Check all that apply.)Adobe Photoshop is also the most commonly used tool by instructors outside of the classroom with 91 percent usage. The next most used program is Adobe InDesign, but usage jumps down to 53 percent.

24. What is your gender?Sixty-four percent of instructors are female versus 36 percent who are male.

25. What is your age?Instructors’ ages are spread across the board, but a majority are between the ages of 46 and 50.

26. What is your Ethnicity origin (or Race)?Seventy-percent of instructors are white or Caucasian, 11 percent are Hispanic or Latino and 5 percent are black or African American. Three percent are either Native American, mixed race or other and 5 percent preferred not to answer the question.

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27. What is the highest degree or level of school you have completed? If currently enrolled, highest degree received.ACA instructors are generally very well educated, with some even having doctoral degrees. Forty-one percent have a bachelors degree and 51 percent have a masters degree.

Quantitative Analysis Wrap-up

Class size average of 25 students 70 percent of instructors are ages 41-60 64 percent of instructors are female 78 percent of instructors are white/Caucasian 67 percent of instructors are not ACI certified 41 percent have a bachelor’s degree, 51% have master’s degree 43 percent of ACA instructors made the decision themselves to offer an

ACA class in their school. 76 percent of instructors feel they have benefited from the certification 80 percent of instructors’ students take the exam versus 20 percent who

don’t 58 percent of those students pass versus 42 percent who fail Students who were taught from a curriculum provided by the

Certification Exam Providers had a 65.86 percent pass rate, whereas students who weren't taught by a curriculum provided by their Certification Exam Providers had a 54.18 percent pass rate.

SWOT AnalysisStrengths

Real life application Certification is valued Leading certification program Pearson as parent company

(credibility)

Opportunities Market to younger instructors Online forum Online review/feedback (SEO) Social media expansion Expand material (online,

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Global market coverage Relationship with Adobe

textbooks)

Weaknesses Brand confusion Behind on updates Database Test is expensive Voucher expires in one year Lacking ACA curriculum or test

prep Network and administration

problems

Threats Curriculum providers assigning

badges (lynda.com, LinkedIn) School budget constraints Aging instructors nearing

retirement Certiport has low social media

activity

Strategic Recommendations1. Filter the database.

When we attempted to contact the ACA instructors in order to conduct in-depth interviews with the information given to us from the database, we found that many of the contacts were not ACA instructors. Many were not associated with ACA at all. Certiport should develop an accurate and current instructor database for future contact use.

2. Provide information about the benefits of ACA certification

Many instructors expressed their concerns on the importance of ACA certification. They do not know how it is recognized in the work place. Providing instructors information on the benefits of ACA certification can increase their willingness to promote the certificate to their students.

3. Create an online forum where ACA Instructors can collaborate, share resources, etc.

Currently, ACA instructors do not have a common forum where they can share their experiences and resources. They don’t know what other instructors are doing. Certiport can create an online platform for the instructors to share resources and for software and test updates. This could include collaboration from instructors who share teaching resources to achieve a better testing outcome.

4. Market directly to ACA instructors and CTE administrators

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Our research indicated that instructors themselves and CTE administrators had the power to make the decision to bring the ACA program to their schools. Teachers themselves, even when not the final decision maker, are influential in the process of getting ACA in their schools.

5. Market the ACA certification more toward young public school teachers

Looking at the results of our survey, we found that most ACA instructors are about 50 to 60 years old. Certiport should market the certification to younger school teachers so there won’t be an instructor vacuum when older teachers retire.

6. Communicate with instructors via their work emails once a month and inform them of updates

Many of the instructors expressed that they are not receiving updates of the certificate and the Adobe products on a regular basis. They do not know where they can receive a uniform information on the test and products. Certiport can start communicating instructors regarding the updates on the test and products after Certiport has filtered its database.

7. Create stronger social media presence on Facebook, LinkedIn and Adobe Youth Voices

Involvement from Certiport on both the Facebook and LinkedIn groups and Adobe Youth Voices is an untapped resource. Certiport has the opportunity to engage with instructors and students alike to show them the benefits of ACA and make announcements.

8. Offer a badge for LinkedIn

Certiport can partner with LinkedIn to offer a badge for people who are ACA certified on LinkedIn. Candidates will consider the badge as a recognition for their work and will offer them greater employment opportunities.

9. Provide course curriculum and study guide materials

Instructors are using different course materials and they do not have a fixed curriculum of the test. Certiport can provide course curriculum for the teachers so they know what to teach. One of the biggest challenges for ACA instructors and students is the unknown nature of the test. With the course curriculum, instructors will know what to teach and students will be better prepared for the test.

10. Offer flexible buying options for vouchers

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Many instructors are frustrated with the buying options for test vouchers. They say a large number of their vouchers expire before they can be used. They’d like to see either a reduction in the cost of vouchers, different sized bundles or longer expiration dates.

11. Alter the test format

Many instructors stated that they would like to see some changes on the format on the test. They want the test to be more skill-based rather than simply multiple-choice question based. They expressed the test should test students’ knowledge of program shortcuts. Certiport should consider changing the format of the exam.

ConclusionCertiport does a good job of meeting its clients’ needs. However, if it made a few changes requested by its clients, it seems that they would be more pleased with the product.

There are a variety of people who teach Adobe Certification classes. Though their demographics vary, most are public school teachers. These public school teachers were for the most part the key decision makers to teach an Adobe Certification Course.

The teachers were mostly pleased with the services Certiport provides, but improved communication and networking would help these teachers better become acquainted with each other and Certiport updates. They requested to be contacted with updates and information through email, then post mail and finally phone calls to their work phone. They would like to either be contacted monthly or quarterly.

Certiport could do a better job organizing its social media presence. Facebook groups, a LinkedIn badge and an instructional page run by Adobe or Certiport were all requested. Most instructors would also like an online forum where they can get together to discuss teaching needs and ideas. It seems like Certiport could be instrumental in starting something like that.

Finally, When targeting new clients, the research showed that it would be bet to market to ACA instructors and CTE administrators, who seem to be the decision makers on running these courses. Another good target audience may be district administrators, who don’t usually decide to run these courses but they do pay for them.

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APPENDIXThe appendix includes three parts:

In-depth interview transcripts

Copy of survey

Descriptive statistics, breakdown for survey

In-depth interview transcriptsACA Instructor Interview with Caryn Butler

Interviewer: Hi Caryn this is Esther I was emailing about the interview.I’m so sorry it’s taken us a while to get this.

Caryn Butler: That’s no problem. That’s fine

Interviewer: Ok so what exactly do you do with your ACA instruction? What do you teach?

Caryn Butler: I teach graphic design, three levels. One, two and three. I have the my graphics lab, are you familiar with that?

Interviewer: I am not.

Caryn Butler: Ok my graphics lab is basically an online program put out by Pearson that have all the different softwares and it’s basically a test prep for ACA. I use that to get the kids ready. I teach software independently but I also have them go through and there are different lessons that they do and I have them take practice tests that they offer for the ACA. Is that what you’re asking about?

Interviewer: Yeah, yeah sorry .

Caryn Butler: Like last year I ended up having 12-13 kids pass the test after going through those modules.

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Interviewer: How many students do you teach on a regular basis? You said 12-13 passed but how many do you teach?

Caryn Butler: 12-13 was out of like 16 last year. But I have 120 students. But I don’t do those things with year one. I do it with year two and three year. One is more introduction to basic design principals and stuff.

Interviewer: When do you teach, what times and days?

Caryn Butler: School starts at 7:25 and I get done at 2:15.

Interviewer: So you teach at a regular high school?

Caryn Butler: Yes.

Interviewer: I guess I’m not super familiar with it. I thought it was more of a side kind of thing like for nighttime. So is it required for your school or do people just take it because it benefits them?

Caryn Butler: Is the graphic design class required is that what you’re asking?

Interviewer: Yeah the classes that you teach.

Caryn Butler: No they’re electives.

Interviewer: And the students still… is it apart of the school or do they have to pay extra to take this elective for these tests?

Caryn Butler: It’s part of the school but there is a $25 fee for supplies not for the test. Last year I actually paid for the test. And the teachers, they may pay for the test, depends on my funds and how I’m doing we run a little business too so. You know it’s a small fee to take the class.

Interviewer: Ok so why did you choose to be an ACA instructor?

Caryn Butler: Just hoping that having that on their resume will help them to get into graphics schools or to get a better job. People will think they have some experience with it with illustrator or adobe shop. Add some sort of credentials.

Interviewer: Do you think there is anything lacking in the ACA certification process?

Caryn Butler: I’ve been told in the industry that the certification means nothing to them. I mean they won’t hire based on it. I’m just hoping for like a college kid it’ll get their foot in the door. It’s not a college degree but part of it shows that they’ve

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accomplished something. They’ve stuck something out until they could do it well enough to pass the test.

Interviewer: So how long have you been doing ACA instruction?

Caryn Butler: I’ve only done it one semester last year.

Interviewer: And how long…do you plan on continuing to teach?

Caryn Butler: Yeah

Interviewer: For how long? Is this something you see as being long term?

Caryn Butler: I hope so. The kids have a lot more computer skills now then they did 10 years ago. But not in programs like these. These are more expensive. Once in a while kids will have photo shop. But design and illustrator they have no idea what to do with those.

Interviewer: What is the greatest challenge you have faced as an ACA instructor

Caryn Butler: Motivation for some of the kids probably.

Interviewer: Is the programming pretty good or would you recommend it for someone who is wanting to start a career in something like that?

Caryn Butler: For my program or for the ACA stuff?

Interviewer: I guess just as an instructor and um I guess how could we…I guess this is basically… I’m trying to get an idea of your experience with it and what you would suggest to change? We’re going to be talking to people from Adobe.

Caryn Butler: My graphics lab that I use isn’t put out by Adobe, Adobe has got a lot of good resources but um I don’t know that they have a particular curriculum. I don’t know, I haven’t taken the test myself yet I just haven’t had time. A lot of the kids felt like it was kind of nit picky there are like five ways to use the tool you know to do the same thing, but on the test you have to do it a certain way and if you don’t do it that way you have to use the menu or the tool panel. The kids that got frustrated when they took the practice test first they were like well I do it this way why do I have to do it that way. I’m sure it’s the limitations of doing a computer-based hands on kind of test. You know rather then just a multiple-choice test you have to click here and do this but it has to do it one way. That would be my biggest feedback is to make their test more friendly that if a kid wants to right click he doesn’t have to go up to the right menu.

Interviewer: For short cuts and stuff?

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Caryn Butler: Yeah if they have to copy something they can’t do command C they have to click on it which isn’t that big of a deal but it would be nice to let them be able to do it multiple ways. That would be the feedback that I would give them that they were frustrated with the test. They had a hard time with those type of questions where they had to do something when there’s like 12 ways you could do it.

Interviewer: Did they already have ACA when you did you bring ACA to your school?

Caryn Butler: No it was kind of me pushing to get it with the district so I got them to buy the set of test and the practice tests so I could have the kids take the practice test multiple times.

Interviewer: Where did you say you got the teaching materials from?

Caryn Butler: Pearson, which is a test book publisher it’s called my graphics labs. They’re the ones that claim they work most closely with Adobe.

Interviewer: So do you challenge your students to go beyond ACA?

Caryn Butler: Yes, we just started it so we haven’t talked about that. I’m excited that they’re gonna try and get this first certification.

Interviewer: So you’re just happy that they have one at all.

Caryn Butler: Yeah a couple kids got them in two different softwares which was kind of cool.

Interviewer: How did you learn about ACA?

Caryn Butler: One of those trade show kind of things. The technology conference they have in Tucson every summer, they had a booth.

Interviewer: Do you connect with other teachers that are kind of on the same page as you as far as teaching ACA or becoming certified?

Caryn Butler: Nope there are none in my district. There are graphic design teachers at each school but they all do their own thing.

Interviewer: So what gives you satisfaction when you’re teaching the ACA to students? Is that just more along the lines of getting them in the door and helping them?

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Caryn Butler: Yeah, giving them something else they can put on their resume, like I had a girl that applied to a job in chandler and she got it and that helped I think a little bit.

Some learning more details of software and understanding how the software works makes me happy and them having confidence that they can figure things out

Interviewer: Do you receive mail notices about ACA or anything like that?

Caryn Butler: No.

Interviewer: So how do you stay on top of advancement in Adobe or graphic design

Caryn Butler: As far as new stuff when it comes out?

Interviewer: Yeah.

Caryn Butler: I mean I would say somewhat trial and error kind of things I got to. YouTube or the Adobe website and watch their videos, or sometimes forums that talk about how to do stuff. The school districts are always s a couple versions behind. So you can’t stay right on top of it.

Interviewer: What do you like to do in your free time?

Caryn Butler: Are you serious?

Interviewer: Yeah we’re just trying to get this whole persona idea.

Caryn Butler: I play poker. Haha

Interviewer: Haha I like black jack and roulette.

Caryn Butler: And I garden, my husband is a really good cook so we cook a lot don’t have a lot of free time most of the time it’s just relaxing we used to have a graphics business but since we closed that I’ve been kind of like eh I don’t want to do that right now. Ya know I mean I like to make creative stuff for my grandkids and make stuff in Adobe for gifts and stuff.

Interviewer: So what social media channels are you active on if any?

Caryn Butler: Facebook, that’s pretty much it and I do YouTube stuff.

Interviewer: Are you part of any professional groups or organizations?

Caryn Butler: Yeah the Arizona Career Technical Education group that’s pretty much it.

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Interviewer: Alrighty, and let me just get your name is Caryn Butler. And where are you from?

Caryn Butler: Where do I live or my school or what?

Interviewer: Yeah, where do you live right now?

Caryn Butler: San Tan Valley, Arizona.

Interviewer: How long have you lived there?

Caryn Butler: 12 years.

Interviewer: Ok I think that’s all I need I’m going to meet with my professor and classmates today I will be emailing you or calling you in the next couple of days ok.

Caryn Butler: Ok.

Interviewer: Thank you so much Caryn have a nice day.

Caryn Butler: You too buh bye

Interviewer: Bye

ACA Instructor Interview with Molly Lindsey

Interviewer: What do you do?

Her: I’m a high school teacher. I teach a class called computerized business applications and I teach mainly office software in that class. And I also teach a class called digital communications where we do page layout and design, and we also do image editing. So in that class I teach Photoshop, InDesign, and Illustrator.

Interviewer: How often do you do the ACA instruction?

Molly Lindsey: I have two classes with those kids, and this year it’s only 12 kids. So we take the whole first semester and learn InDesign, and then at the end of the first semester we take the certification test if we have time. If we don’t then I have the same kids the second semester and we take the certification test for InDesign, and then Photoshop towards the end of that semester.

Interviewer: So what’s the demographic of the kids in this class? Are they all high school kids or is it after school?

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Molly Lindsey: Yes, it’s all high school kids, grades 10-12

Interviewer: How did you get into ACA instruction?

Molly Lindsey: Microsoft instruction got me into it. I’ve been doing Microsoft certification for, I don’t know, 7-8 years. and um we have tried very hard to make sure we have some kind of certification available for all of our students in our business classes here in our school. And so that was the next step. My kids take CBA and can get certified in Office programs, so since we’re teaching digital communications we wanted to make sure they were certified there too. One of the reasons we chose the adobe software is because there were certifications available.

Interviewer: So is it a public or private school?

Molly Lindsey: Public school.

Interviewer: In the ACA certification, is there anything you find frustrating or is there anything lacking in it?

Molly Lindsey: Well I didn’t like the way they did the practice tests, but I like the fact that it’s in geometrics now, I think. Because I haven’t had my kids practice yet for that, but I did like geometrics better than I liked how they did it before.

Interviewer: How long have you been doing ACA instruction?

Molly Lindsey: Well, I did them last year and I think the year before that. This is probably my second year offering it to all my students and my third year offering it to some of my students.

Interviewer: Where do you get your teaching materials?

Molly Lindsey: Yeah, I have a computer lab, that’s what I teach on. And this year we moved up to Adobe CS6 so I found some software online through Pearson that uses the Adobe Classroom in a book textbook. And so my students, it has presentations about the materials and videos on how to use it in the software and you know quizzes and things like that. So those are the materials I use in my classroom; it’s all geared towards certification.

Interviewer: What are the biggest pain points to help your students progress?

Molly Lindsey: Well, um I think, and I like the fact that there are objective questions mixed in there with the application questions on the Adobe Certification Exam, but the objective questions are usually the ones my students struggle most with. And that’s with any test, it’s harder to prepare for multiple choice questions.

Interviewer: How do you connect with other ACA instructors?

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Molly Lindsey: We actually don’t really connect, because here in Arkansas we have an initiative for office certifications, so we’re trying to get more and more teachers to do that. But we don’t have a big push yet for the Adobe certifications. And the state department has funded office certifications for some of us (there are certain criteria you have to meet). Most schools don’t have the funding for Adobe Certification, and so that’s a drawback. And so I don’t really have any, very many other teachers or other people that do the certifications that I know of, I’m kind of an island.

Interviewer: So who pays for this, the state or your students?

Molly Lindsey: Actually the students do not pay for it. We get a Perkins grant every year it’s for career in technical classes. Before our state paid for the office certifications, now we use Perkins to pay for Adobe certification. I’ve tried to convince other teachers to use Perkins as well.

Interviewer: How do you sell this class to your students?

Molly Lindsey: Number one they don’t have a choice. But I tell them it’s a piece of paper that tells a perspective employer or a college teacher that you’re proficient in this software, you have at least basic skills. Some of them like that they can get more pieces of paper than their friends, but mostly this proves they are proficient in the software.

Interviewer: What gives you the most satisfaction in this job

Molly Lindsey: That they have learned some new skills. Most kids are at least familiar with office software, but they have very few opportunities to learn other software. I try to make sure they can use these skills in different areas. I hope they can find a way to learn the same way to learn other software.

Molly Lindsey: That’s why the objective questions are so important.

Interviewer: How do you stay on top of software updates?

Molly Lindsey: I use the software myself and I take the test before the students do.

Interviewer: How often do you have to re=up your certification.

Molly Lindsey: Every time there’s a new version that I have. Now we’re a public school and we can’t always afford the new versions. Any time I have a new version of the software in my class I take the test.

Interviewer: Demographics:

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Molly Lindsey: Female.

Hobbies: Photography, paper crafting, paper crocheting, sewing and quilting, and I’m the typical grandma type.

Social media: Facebook

Interviewer: How would you like to be contacted:

Molly Lindsey: I would like it. Email would be okay but I get too many emails. What I enjoy is groups on Facebook of people with the same interests.

Interviewer: Professional groups?

Molly Lindsey: I’m part of our career in technical group, and business educators.

Interviewer: Anything to add?

Molly Lindsey: If they would make it a little easier for schools to participate. For example one of the things, when a person doesn’t pass the test one day they sometimes have to wait longer than 24 hours to take it again. And in a classroom situation even 24 hours when they take it is a different class completely. That’s a problem for me. Sometimes my students have to wait 2 days to take the test again, and we’re wasting class time. And I understand why they have rules like that, but for a classroom situation like that it’s a little different.

So I think that if they would target schools, maybe give a price break to schools that try to get whole classes of kids certified things like that I think that many organizations miss out on the huge target that public schools are. We have an audience here that will do what I say, so if we teach and use Adobe software with students they are much more likely to purchase it when they are done with school as well.

So I think they should better target schools both in price and accessibility for them.

ACA Instructor Interview With

Interviewer: What do you do?

Interviewee: I’m a networking web, video teacher here at CART, the Center for Advance Research and Technology. We’re a project based learning environment which means all our parts and tools, software that we use, we wrap around a product and it adds a lot to our community, so we have people making websites for the police department, we have people shooting commercials for a nonprofit

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organization. That’s our end product, it always reaches our local community or the national community.

Interviewer: What Adobe products do you use?

Interviewee: Mainly Photoshop, Premier, lots of InDesign, we do some PDF stuff, but Premiere is our favorite tool then Photoshop.

Interviewer: Where do you teach?

Interviewee: It’s the Center for Advanced Research of Technology, CART and I also teach an engineering class at Clovis State. CART is for juniors and seniors, they apply to come here. We have three classes and we have our kids for three hours a day. We have them come over for a day.

So it’s three teachers, a hundred students and we all interrelate our lessons.

Interviewer: Are these juniors and seniors in high school?

Interviewee: Yes. Like I said, I do teach a computer science and engineering class at Clovis State, but the ACA classes are for 11th and 12th graders.

Interviewer: How many students do you personally teach?

Interviewee: Right now in my billet, I’ll have 120 (students) in the morning, which is 7:30 to 12:30, we have three hours and then we have our down time when we prep and I have another 95 or so (students) from 12:30 to 3:30. I have a lot students throughout my day and I get them every single day which is pretty amazing.

Interviewer: Is working at CART your fulltime job?

Interviewee: Yes. One of the cool things at CART is I’m a networking, computer business expert for 20 plus years, I do a lot the products through that business. We do a lot of our movie props through there.

Interviewer: Is this your ideal job?

Interviewee: That’s interesting that you ask that. I went to medical school, I was practicing. It wasn’t what I was originally expecting. It was lot of HMOs pushing. I started coaching the national volleyball team, they said how about you teach? So I started subbing, loved it. It was like a giant sports game for me. It was like playing chess helping students get around their learning environment. Absolutely I wouldn’t do anything else right now.

Interviewer: Do you plan on staying in your current field or positions?

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Interviewee: I plan to stay here. We opened our doors in 2000. I’ve been working here since 2000. Having such a vast array of different activities again it’s like playing chess — it’s really, really exciting to have a kid who may not have the tools, who can’t afford the tools, we’re able to provide those tools. I mean for me being at where that happens, I wouldn’t change anything. I got a job offer last night for four time what I make here, so it’s not about the money. It’s my passion.

Interviewer: Does the ACA program lack anything in particular?

Interviewee: I think if Adobe spent more time developing more practice tools, more ways for students to look at if before taking the actual test, I think that would be helpful. I also think, I teach another class and there’s a lot interactive third party tools, but I think Adobe is a little weak there. You know, I’m an Adobe user to begin with, going through it was ‘Hey I didn’t know that short cut was there,’ I learned all this new content. Sometimes when they learn new content sometimes they struggle. There’s so many things that Photoshop does. There’s so many things you can do in Premiere. I would almost feel better if there was an entry level, like here I’ve got my foundation for Adobe, use the locators, how the screen works versus looking back now as an expert, now I can do transitions like chroma keyer. Those are things better done at greater levels.

Interviewer: What is your greatest challenge as an ACA instructor?Our greatest challenge was providing access to the material. A lot of the Adobe products are pretty pricey. You know, we found some ways to kind of cut the prices down. I mean I guess Adobe doesn’t understand this, you get to this point of affordability for students to use these products after they graduate. Microsoft will lower their prices for a lot of these students and then turn around buy them because that’s what they use. You know $3,200, you can get bootlegged, which I don’t recommend. We have some that use other tools that are a lot more affordable. It’s a professional product and I get that.

Interviewer: Do you prefer subscribing to Creative Cloud or actually owning the product?

Interviewee: For the school setting, I prefer the former way. Because the Cloud base, I haven’t really looked at it with my students, but I prefer CS6 because I can download it on my machines, I don’t have to worry about user accounts, I don’t have to worry about things happening. I have my machines and I have one license for it.

Now, in the business world they prefer that we have the Cloud basis. You’re not going to have to buy some expensive part that you’re not driving and you pay it when you drive it, so I like that. A lot of us have the budget style. You have one part of money to buy this piece. ‘Hey, I have $50 a month,’ then I’ll do it.

Interviewer: Was ACA already a part of the school?

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Interviewee: No, absolutely not. I personally was one of three key players who brought it in. Before it was like you needed some higher degree or college education, so we preach college, but if a student has a basic piece that says, ‘I can do this,’ I’m going to hire that person over someone with a college education. So we started pushing certifications. Even now we have students who are working in print shops and design centers.

Interviewer: Who had the final word in bring ACA to school?

Interviewee: At CART it’s a little bit different. We teachers, we run the school. We have a principle which we call the CEO. We have a business model. We have a dean. So I’m the head of the technology. So our technology chain, we had a focus group that dealt with this. From that we said OK this is going to work for us. Our dean said, yeah we have the money for it. So we teachers were the decision maker.

Interviewer: What materials do you use to teach?

Interviewee: We’re using the MyGraphicsLab from Certiport and we like that, with the price of $1,200 with access to digital textbooks, lessons.

Interviewer: What would you change about the certification process?

Interviewee: Again it goes back to pricing for our students. I think several people were saying ‘Hey we need a better price to buy 500 vouchers and they expire in 12 months.’ So lowering the prices (of test vouchers) and not letting them expire. I know they’re in business to make money, but we’re getting cut out the game. Versus buying a $3,000 pack and buy another one when you’re out buy another $3,000 pack. You end up losing quite a bit of money. Either don’t let them expire or have them expire in 24 months. And also about making certification for teachers. If I do something, I choose something, the students are going to follow me. I am a walking billboard for Adobe. I have my certificates on the wall and they ask ‘What does that mean Mr. Bynum?’ And that’s a whole conversation piece for Adobe.

Interviewer: What is the biggest challenge for your students in becoming ACA?I think it’s the unknown nature of the tests. I mean what’s really being asked? What areas are being discussed because there’s nothing really out there that says, ‘this is what we’re going to test you on.’ You just have to know as much as you can. You know your categories. How’s the pass/fail rate with your students?We had 76 kids take the test the last time we offered it. Of the 76, four did not pass. 60% of the students that take it pass their first time and the rest pass on their second or third attempt.

No one has taken it more than three times.

Interviewee: At what point do you have students take the test?

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Some students stay for both years, but we don’t know if we’re getting them for two years, we don’t know if they’re going to graduate so we get them ready. Every day we go over principles of Photoshop rules. We’ll work on a problem together until we solve it. They’ll find the answer and then email it to me. So if they get it wrong, they don’t feel like I’ve got to wait two years.

We try to set them up in one year.

Interviewer: Do any of your students do more than ACA?

Interviewee: We had one student ask. He is working in Seattle and he’s landed a job and his job will pay him more for the higher certification. So we do what’s most valuable for them. Most kids will say no I have a piece of paper, I can get an entry level job and I’m OK with that.

Interviewer: Do you recommend your students get higher certifications?

Interviewee: Absolutely. I wish I had a chart, we used to be really good at handing out pathways. You start here, you go here. A lot of our kids care about seeing a pathway. I do this, then do six weeks of InDesign training, then we take the test in December. These kids make these really cool websites and say what’s next? What can we do?

Interviewer: How did you learn about ACA program?

Interviewee: I think I received emails, but I do a lot with Certiport, so I do lot for them about the benefits of certifications. I’ve written a couple white pages. We piloted an HP product. You pick the courses you want to try, so I deal with that and from that and they said ‘Hey focus on this Photoshop tool,’ and I did that on my own.

Interviewer: What level of Adobe certification do you have?

Interviewee: I have an associate certification, but I also have the instructor certification too. It’s not for money or for anything, but I just did it. You get wifi access, Tshirts and polos. And after you get to the associate you know the adobe products are available to us I’m like yeah.

Interviewer: How was your ACA testing experience?

Interviewee: It was normal, simple. I like practical things. I like things interacting. I absolutely passed it my first time. In fact I joke a lot, I don’t live in this world, I live in the hardware.

Interviewer: How do you keep up with Adobe updates?

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Interviewee: I subscribe to a few magazines, but whenever there’s a conference, there’s a lot of day conferences here in town and I’ll try to go. But I’d say I spend probably a solid week a year studying new tools and things that have been discontinued.

Interviewer: How do you network with other ACA instructors?

Interviewee: We have a database where we can self connect with instructors. There’s a lot of people teaching Adobe, but they’re not certified. And it goes back to what I said earlier. A teacher will say we already spend a lot of money on our classrooms and we’re not going to spend another $10 or $15 thousand. Because you don’t get a pay raise, you don’t get any incentive for doing this. We just had a meeting yesterday, ‘Why aren’t we getting paid for having certifications?’

Interviewer: While pay raises for certifications aren’t a concern for you, it is a big concern for others?

Interviewee: Absolutely. We have a pretty good system here, but they’re like ‘We need more money.’

Interviewer: Do you receive ACA or Certiport updates via email?

Interviewee: I’m a big supporter of Certiport and the process they’re doing. I know there was other people offering Adobe certification. Certiport is good at showing the difference. If you’re Adobe certified, what does that mean? They will call and say ‘Hey we have a new voucher or new pricing structure or we have a new thing to help your kids or we can give you ten free vouchers.’

Interviewer: Do they usually send you information via email?

Interviewee: Yes and they have my cell phone number. I actually get a phone call first.

Interviewer: Do you have a preferable method of contact?

Interviewee: I like the phone calls and also by email. I know they’re not calling me to tell me something to waste my time. It’s usually good news for us.

Interviewer: What are your hobbies?

Interviewee: I like to go shooting, I’m an athlete, I like to run. I do a lot of volunteer work at the senior center. I’m a business owner and Friday night — travel time. I try to leave California. And I do a lot of reading. That’s probably what I do with most of my free time.

Interviewer: Are you active on any social media channels?

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Interviewee: Yes, I do Inline, Instagram, Facebook. I do some tech writing. I don’t do Facebook how most people do Facebook. “Hey! I have pictures!” No, I’m good. I’m friends with a hundred or so people.

Interviewer: Do you blog?

Interviewee: Yes, but I like to do it anonymously because I don’t want the kids to follow me. I want them to pursue their own path in life.

Interviewer: What publications do you techwrite for?

Interviewee: Local publications and wherever else I can get published. But again I don’t do it to get a raise. I do it because I want to do it.

Interviewer: What professional groups do you belong to?

Interviewee: I’m a member of Adobe user group and on the national level with the Google mobility set and becoming Google certified.

Interviewer: What is your highest level of education?

Interviewee: I went to medical school and I finished it. I can diagnose people and write a legal prescription and my friends tell me I should be making more money, but I again I’m more interested in helping people here.

Interviewer: Do you have anything else to share?

Interviewer: I think to continue to reach out digital media teachers. I know Certiport does it, but it would nice of Adobe to say here’s the edition for teachers and here’s what teachers can do with this. I would say to continue to promote Adobe products, giving Adobe shirts and polos, I mean they’re walking billboards. And the pricing should be a lot cheaper.

There should be more of an effort to make it affordable for people. I think it’s funny because Adobe is like, we have this Cloud base. I wonder how many people use Adobe tools illegally. Kids are going to use it either way and if they make it cheaper, it’s more money for Adobe.

ACA Instructor Interview With Sean Glumace

Interviewer: What do you do?

Sean Glumace: I teach in the digital arts department at Golden West College. I’ve been doing it for 15 years. I do freelance so it works with my schedule.

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Interviewer: When do you teach?Sean Glumace: Monday night from 6-10 p.m.

Interviewer: How many students do you teach?

Sean Glumace: 120-130 students each semester

Interviewer: Is there anything lacking in the ACA cert?

Sean Glumace: Certiport gave us some early tests for our instructors that wasn’t too difficult. There no issues with the actual process of testing…A few interface issues and where buttons are in front of you. For example, the reset button. I’ve already emailed them about the issues.

Interviewer: How is ACA recognized in the workplace?

Sean Glumace: The state (California) is pushing for people to be certified. I tell my students it’s great but you really need a portfolio. I really like what Certiport has done with their tracking.

Interviewer: Where do you get teaching materials?

Sean Glumace: I’m project based. I create all of my own content.

Interviewer: At what point were you certified? Why?

Sean Glumace: May 2014, became an Adobe Education Leader

Interviewer: How do you connect with your ACA peers?

Sean Glumace: I am the AEL on campus. I current have four ACA on staff and by December, all should be ACA certified.

Interviewer: How do you stay on-top-of advancement/ innovation in Adobe products?

Sean Glumace: Since I am an AEL, I have access to pre-release software. I just need to sit down and learn. YouTube is great. Linda isn’t far behind.

Interviewer: Personal life

Sean Glumace: I have four kids.

Interviewer: What hobbies do you have?

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Sean Glumace: I’ve been lettering comic books for 20 years. I speak at different comic book conventions like the one in San Diego. I need to make my way up to Salt Lake. People keep telling me to do it.

Interviewer: What social media channels are they active on?

Sean Glumace: I’m on Facebook real heavily. Twitter as well. I use Pinterest a lot. I use Instagram a lot. I use Hootsuite to manage my social media accounts. I use the free version.

Interviewer: What professional groups are you a part of?

Sean Glumace: I was a part of AIGA. I’m still involved but no longer a member.

ACA Instructor Interview With William Cavada

William Cavada: Hello?

INTERVIEWER: Hello? Is this Mr. Cavada?

William Cavada: Yes it is.

Interviewer: Hi! This is Alice Law calling from Brigham Young University.

William Cavada: Ahhuh.

Interviewer: Regarding the ACA Interview

William Cavada: Yeah

Interviewer: This interview takes about 40 minutes, can I interview you now?

William Cavada: Yes.

Interviewer: Thank you. Thank you for willing to be interviewed and we will be sending out the compensation the visa gift card to you after.

William Cavada: Ok

Interviewer: Yea, so I just have few questions on being an ACA instructor and we are from BYU, we are helping Certiport to better understand the ACA instructors.

William Cavada: Ok.

Interviewer: I just have a few questions on your professions. As an ACA instructor, what do you do?

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William Cavada: I teach high school,

Interviewer: Ok. So you teach high school, so are you a CTE teacher?

William Cavada: I am a fine art teacher.

Interviewer: So do you like being an ACA instructor?

William Cavada: Yes.

Interviewer: How many students do you teach?

William Cavada: I teach a hundred and thirty students

Interviewer: Ok so why do you want to be an ACA instructor?

William Cavada: So I became an ACA instructor through Adobe Youth Voices.

Interviewer: Ok. Do you like the Adobe products?

William Cavada: Yes we do.

Interviewer: How long have you been an ACA instructor?

William Cavada: Three years.

Interviewer: Are you planning on continuing teaching it?

William Cavada: Yes.

Interviewer: What is the greatest challenges you face as an ACA instructor?

William Cavada: Ahum, I guess the greatest challenge is the cost of the exam for the students.

Interviewer: Ok does it prevent students from taking the exam?

William Cavada: The ACA exam it does. Not my class you know. Yea if they want to take it.

Interviewer: So um do you think there is anything lack in the certificate?

William Cavada: Um, the other thing is that the certificate has a little bit more, um, technical like side we don’t cover

Interviewer: So, how is ACA recognized in the work place?

William Cavada: I would like to know more about that, I don’t actually know.

Interviewer: So you said you are a fine art teacher, did you bring ACA to your school?

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William Cavada: Ah yes.

Interviewer: Ok. The school didn’t have ACA before that?

William Cavada: No it didn’t.

Interviewer: Okay. Wow so um, where did you get the teaching materials?

William Cavada: So there is a class between the ACA and Adobe Youth voices, that’s where we got the materials.

Interviewer: Okay, so is it flexible to change them?

William Cavada: Um, so our material had a mix between Adobe youth voices and broad the ACA., the program a little.. not fully in to the program.. that’s why we have .. and just the online material that it provided.

Interviewer:  If you can change one thing about the certification, what would that be?

William Cavada: Um. I think it’s um. I think I ll change.. um.. I would like to have a creative component to it.

Interviewer: Do you challenge the students to go beyond the ACA?

William Cavada: Yes. The creativity. And then we don’t really do the “printing side”. There is a really technical, printing part.. esp when it come to photoshop. It has a premier For me, which I haven’t given yet. Because I have a total different version on my computer so it’s hard to match the test since there are so many different versions. Since I am only certified for photoshop, I would like to..try the premeir and aftereffect for the ACA.. that’s something I would like to go into. For photoshop, I found it interesting in terms of get matches up with kind of my students who are taking now which the common core they have to demonstrate their knowledge as multiple choice which was a really “opener” with what students have to do in the real world. So that’s part of the.. is really interesting. Although we work with shortcut, in the real world and design. it’s all about shortcut and that’s how they want you to work in the industry.. but the test makes you do everything from the manual and then sometimes we don’t even know where the manual is. We just using shortcut. I know when I want to hire designers, they want me to know all the shortcut and not going up to the manual cause that’s too time consuming and so they didn’t know some of the function works cause there were short cut. So I guess I would like changes .. cooperating shortcuts. But I don’t know how would that work but ideally they will work with using shortcut because manual is on the web browser. .. And then I think I would get rid of the multiple choice part if possible and have it a hundred percent skills-based test and there were mc questions. I think everyone of the MC quesiotns could have been answered somehow skill-based away.

Interviewer: Yup. How did you learn about ACA?

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William Cavada: Through Adobe Youth Voices.

Interviewer: So you have been an ACA instructor for three years, how long have you been a fine art teacher?

William Cavada: 15 years.

Interviewer: Wow. That’s a long time. So through the Adobe Youth Voices you learned about the ACA and you decided to be certified?

William Cavada: Yes. They gave us the opportunity to become certified three years ago. I would like to see that partnership more, between Adobe, ACA and Adobe Youth Voices.I would like to see that partnership work out a little bit more.

Interviewer: So what has the process like for becoming certified for you? was it hard?

William Cavada: The process was easy because we got it at the corporate headquarter they brought all of us there we took the test, if we pass we are ACA certified We put what we are really good in and somewhere. .. They set it up for us so we didn’t need to fix the time, place.. no costs associated for us.. they walked us through the test, they have an ACA instructor there.. if we have any question.. everything was set up.. we just took the test.. If we pass we got the certificate so it was really simple.

Interviewer: Ok so do you need to renew your certificate?

William Cavada: Probably.

Interviewer: So from your perspective, do you think ACA is important?

William Cavada: I think it is somewhat important, and it can become more important

Interviewer: Ok. And how do you connect with your ACA peers? Do you have like a group?

William Cavada: My ACA peer, the only one that I connect with are those same one who were in the Adobe Youth Voices who went through the training and became ACA instructors so we work together.

Interviewer: So what gives your satisfaction when teaching ACA to students?

William Cavada: Not that (M)any of my students have the exam but that they challenge themselves to a really high standard and they () things they didn’t know, .. such as technical side of printing..

Interviewer: How do you stay updated in Adobe products?

William Cavada: Well….through Adobe youth voices and creative Cloud.

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Interviewer: Um What social media channels are you active on?

William Cavada: I active on Adobe youth voices channel, I am active on Adobe education exchange channel, Adobe photoshop users channel,

Interviewer: What do you do in your free time?

William Cavada: in my freetime, I really like to work in Photoshop and typography.

Interviewer: So are you part of any professional groups?

William Cavada: Not ACA instructor group, but the Adobe Youth Voices professional group.

Copy of survey

1. Please enter your email address. (We want to be able to contact you if you are a winner of the $25 gift card.)

2. Are you currently an Adobe Certified Associate (ACA) Instructor or Proctor?

3. How long have you been teaching digital media/Adobe products?

4. How long have you had your ACA certification?

5. How long have you had your Adobe Certified Instructor certification?

6. Who decided to offer an ACA class in your school? (Check all that apply)

7. How long have you been an ACA instructor?

8. Who in your organization makes decisions on digital media certification exam funding? (Check all that apply)

9. Why did you decide to prepare your students to take ACA certification exams? (Check all that apply)

10. In which school(s) do you teach ACA? (Check all that apply)

11. How do you stay up-to-date with Adobe products?

12. How often do you prefer to be contacted by the certification exam providers?

13. What type of information would be useful to receive about ACA certifications?

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(Briefly describe)

14. Choose your preferred method of being contacted by ranking the following list in order of preference (1-8, with 1 being your first choice and 8 being your last choice).

o Postal Mailo Work Emailo Personal Emailo Work Phoneo Home Phoneo Cell Phoneo Text Messageo Social Media

15. Select the top three social media channels that you use most.

16. Rank these top three media channels in order of importance to you.

17. On average, how many students do you teach per semester per class?

18. On average, how many of those students take the ACA certification exam?

19. On average, what percentage of these students pass the ACA exam?

20. Do you feel you have benefited from your ACA certification? Briefly describe.

21. Where do you find your teaching curriculum? (Check all that apply)

22. Please identify the Adobe programs that you teach as part of your ACA instruction?

23. Which Adobe programs do you use outside of teaching? (Check all that apply)

24. What is your gender?

25. What is your age?

26. What is your ethnicity/race?

27. What is the highest degree or level of school you have completed? If currently enrolled, highest degree received.

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Descriptive statistics, breakdown for survey

1. No correlation between a teacher’s certification and the success of the students.

2. No correlation between a teacher’s education level and the success of the students.

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13. 80% of students that take the course take the exam. 58% of the students that take the exam pass.

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