My Favorite Things about MSi’s ACA Curriculum

Finding your perfect curriculum and learning product soulmate is a bit like dating. You may have to go through several options before you find your perfect match. As part of our Adobe Academy program, we asked a few teachers to tell us about their favorite Adobe Certified Associate (ACA) learning program. One of the favorites: MSi.

Check out why teachers, like Sean Kassler from FL, rank this as their go-to curriculum for preparing students for the ACA exams:

“The grade book is a piece of cake and exports grades to save me time.”

Keeping track of students’ grades and progress is especially important during these times of remote learning. When you log into your MSi account, you will see a list of students for each course and their progress. Plus, the grade report shows each module, activity and project so you can see how students are progressing.

The best part is exporting the grades and seamlessly importing them into your district or school gradebook. You can even customize the grading scale and other benchmarks to make sure it matches your class standards.

“It meets different student learning needs through guided text, video-based lessons, and interactive practices.”

No doubt, students in your classroom cover all types of learning styles: visual, auditory, reading/writing and kinesthetic. MSi’s “Read. Watch. Do” philosophy covers all these learning styles. Each course is broken down into lessons, covering specific learning objectives. Each lesson includes the specified learning objectives (that tie directly into the objective domains for the ACA exams), digital textbook material, a video, an activity and an assessment.

The students begin each lesson with a short reading in the digital textbook, covering your reading/writing style learners. A simple reading comprehension question follows all textbook entries.

Next, a short video reinforces the reading. The video is close-captioned and narrated and lasts about 90 seconds, making it easily digestible for students, especially those with visual and auditory learning styles.

After reading and watching a video, the student will perform tasks in a hands-on simulation activity. Even if the student doesn't have the software on their home computer, they can experience the software through the web-based simulation. Your kinesthetic learners will be able to translate their knowledge and apply it in a real-life scenario.

Each lesson ends with an assessment and project that incorporates all the topics learned in the chapter. MSi gives you peace of mind, knowing that the content will cover all your students’ different learning needs.

“The courses offer comprehensive sequential learning modules with clear objectives and standards for each chapters’ lessons. I can even customize the content for specific classes or small groups.”

As we’ve covered in the section above, MSi is all about breaking down concepts into digestible chunks. Students don’t need to be overwhelmed when they get to a lesson.

To keep students focused, the first page in every MSi lesson is the Learning Objectives page. Students can see exactly what they will learn, how it relates to what is covered on the certification exam, and key vocabulary that may be new to them. Laying the foundation like this gives students an excellent launching point before they dive into the actual content. You’re able to set expectations and help students see the relevance of the lesson to key learning objectives.

If you’re worried about students getting overwhelmed by future lessons or trying to jump ahead before they master the basics, you can lock any number of lessons from the administrator portal. Plus, you can add activities or resources into lessons and chapters if you feel your students need additional time on a particular topic. You can add anything from a URL to a specific site you’ve built, to files with additional content, to glossaries that cover key terms. There are so many ways to make sure the content is fully customized to students in your classes.

“MSi presents dynamic, standard-based simulations with helpful feedback.”

Once students finish watching their video lesson, they have the option to “Practice in a Simulated Environment”. When students open the simulation, they will see the application, along with a set of specific tasks. If students get stuck on a specific task, MSi will “Christmas tree” the area where they should click next.

The practice simulation is then followed by a quiz that mirrors the same topics and ideas. However, in the quiz, the students don’t receive the same guidance from the practice, since it is a graded portion of the course. These simulated practices and quizzes help students see what areas they understand and where they need some additional studying.

“They have a very user-friendly interface for the instructor and learner (with Chromebook compatibility!)”

Last but not least, the MSi platform is easy to use, with simple navigation. You can take a peek into the interface here. Plus, because all MSi’s quizzes and projects are simulation-based, you don’t need to worry about students having access to the software, making it a great option for distance learning and schools with Chromebooks.


Ready to take the plunge and learn more about MSi for your ACA students? Connect with your Certiport Territory Manager here.