LS Blog

News and updates from the Learning Studio

Learning Studio helps take Cornerstone, one of the campus’s largest weekly gatherings, virtual for the first time

Cornerstone Spotlights are a tradition. Once a week during the fall semesters, freshmen at ACU have packed into Cullen Auditorium to hear a member of ACU’s faculty give a talk about their respective field of study. The Learning Studio has been intimately involved from the beginning, helping structure, design and film each presentation, and preserving them online for later viewing.

[Watch: What is Cornerstone?]

The talks, called Spotlights, have long represented the largest weekly course gatherings on campus—a polished, professionally produced experience in which virtually every ACU student from the past decade has participated. But auditorium lectures aren’t very pandemic-friendly, so this year the Learning Studio needed to help Cornerstone adapt, without losing the engaging and dynamic ethos that has always characterized the live talks.

In filming sessions before and during the semester, Learning Studio staff filmmakers Matt Maxwell and Nathan Driskell, along with Cornerstone Director Trey Shirley, met with Cornerstone faculty and produced each of their talks direct-to-camera, packaging them with a uniform look and feel that included custom graphics and animations.

Each of this year’s 11 Cornerstone Spotlights is available to watch online.

@learningstudio

LS Productions

Your Story Starts Here – Learning Studio trailer

Dutch Lady – faculty member discovers new play

Vision in Action – spotlight on Halbert-Walling project

Cup of Coffee – Chandler Graf’s talk for TEDxACU 2017

Making Magic with Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom

Making Magic with Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom

Since the Learning Studio opened in 2011, we’ve enjoyed giving students opportunities to work with professional photographers and equipment. This fall we added Canon 6D full-frame DSLR cameras to our checkout pool, so trained students now have access to pro-level gear...

Making Movies with Adobe Premiere Pro

Making Movies with Adobe Premiere Pro

Planning on catching up on some Netflix over the break? In 2015, streaming video and audio accounted for 70% of all internet usage in North America (Sandvine). But ACU students aren’t just binging on video; they’re also producing their own films and stories....

Making with Adobe Illustrator

Making with Adobe Illustrator

This week we’re partnering with the Maker Lab on #MakeMerry. Many of the projects wrapping up the semester in the library start with tools like Adobe Illustrator CC. Whether you’re designing a logo or poster in the Learning Studio or cutting the outline for...

Snacks and Software Today!

  Swing by the Learning Studio today for your chance to #MakeMerry. We’ll be helping students download Adobe Creative Cloud for a little holiday making over the break. We’ll also have holiday snacks at the main desk (while supplies last), so you can kick off...

#MakeMerry this holiday

The Learning Studio and Maker Lab want to help you #MakeMerry this holiday season. This Christmas we want to help you use the break to make something with Adobe Creative Cloud. Never used Photoshop or Illustrator? No problem! All day Dead Day we’ll help students...

Branding Photography Workshop

Branding Photography Workshop

This fall we brought back Asia Eidson to lead a hands-on workshop introducing ACU students to photography for social media branding. In the all-day workshop, she introduced the visual decisions professional photographers make when taking pictures that affect the way...

Outdoor Drawing in Albany

Outdoor Drawing in Albany

This fall we took faculty to Albany for our first Outdoor Drawing workshop as part of the 20/20 Teaching Innovation program. Dan McGregor, Art & Design, introduced the basics of contour drawing, one and two-point perspective through a series of...

Kicking off with Creativity

Kicking off with Creativity

We kicked off the semester with our first faculty workshop for the 20/20 Teaching Innovation program. Mike Wiggins, Art & Design, and Kyle Dickson, director of the Learning Studio, introduced a range of approaches to creativity to faculty from across campus....

FilmFest brings Filmmakers to Abilene

FilmFest brings Filmmakers to Abilene

Last week, ACU's 12th Annual FilmFest gave students the opportunity to screen original films at a red-carpet gala at the Paramount Theatre. This year also provided students unprecedented access to training and feedback from filmmakers on campus and around the country....