Explainer Videos Creative Use Cases for Higher Education with Adobe Express

Overview: Why Video?

In today’s digital world, video isn’t just entertainment; it’s one of the most powerful ways to communicate, persuade, and tell a story quickly. For college-level work, video lets you combine researched insights and creativity to make your message more memorable, impactful, and visible to a broad audience.

Video enables such engagement due to its modes: static and moving images, music and sound effects, spoken and written words. Unlike essays, which rely solely on text, or slide decks, which often depend on live narration, videos offer full control over how a message unfolds—through stacked audio and visual channels arranged as scenes. When used and edited effectively, these modes can immerse audiences in your information, connecting them to your message on an intellectual and emotional level.

If you’re new to video editing, Adobe Express is a great place to start. It offers a quick and easy way to create professional-looking, short-form videos from a web browser—no downloading required! You can build your scenes directly from Adobe’s built-in libraries of free images, video clips, design assets, and soundtracks. You can even upload your own assets or record new vlog-style video and audio directly from Express.

To help you get started, this module includes an Express Video template. Use it as a launchpad for your own creativity, not a “fill in the blank” exercise. The best videos tell a story through every element—images, text, sound—in harmony. Achieving this balance requires careful planning, multiple drafts, attention to detail, and experimentation. Here’s the best part, though: it’s fun.