How Canva Magic Can Elevate Student Design Capabilities in Higher Education

In today's interconnected world, digital skills are no longer a luxury but a necessity. For digital marketing undergraduates, a strong foundation in design is paramount. From the introduction to the fundamentals of design to advancing practical skills underpinned by theoretical research and concepts, students should be introduced to the power of generative AI in content creation to support creative skills and digital 

 competency skills.

It is our responsibility to enable students to successfully navigate between a plethora of creative options to achieve the requirements of their assessments and bolster the skills required for future opportunities.

One such option is Canva Magic, a tool that increases productivity, saves time, and brings student ideas to life within seconds. Thus, evolving students into imaginative and efficient content creators with strong and adaptive skills ready to thrive and grow in a marketing career by building competency skills in content marketing that support the demands of visually appealing campaigns for consumer engagement. 

The Power of Canva Magic

Some of Canva Magic's AI-powered features have empowered our students to revolutionise the design process and master essential fundamentals by gaining proficiency in image editing, manipulation, and creation to achieve pixel-perfect results with minimal effort and precision. 

The tools have accelerated workflows by streamlining tasks like removing backgrounds, resizing images, and extracting text. By enhancing their creativity, students can generate unique design elements and explore innovative visual concepts. We will take a look at just some of the tools we use often in our undergraduate design workshops.

Magic Media, particularly its text-to-image feature, is a game-changer in the realm of digital design. By simply inputting a text prompt, users can generate diverse and visually appealing images tailored to specific needs. This innovative tool empowers students to quickly create custom visuals for any particular purpose. The ability to experiment with different styles and aspect ratios further enhances creative possibilities. Whether it's a minimalist design or a vibrant illustration, Magic Media allows students to bring their ideas to life effortlessly, saving time and boosting productivity.

Background Remover is a tool that deletes the entire background within seconds, thereby reducing the amount of time painstakingly removing the background manually using a Lasso Tool. This handy tool has helped students extract foreground information/subjects to construct designs without the restraint of the original background, now they can create their own.

Magic Eraser has allowed students to carefully select elements and parts of their photos for deletion to reduce distraction. Either using the Brush tool in which parts of the image can be painted out or the popular Click feature which allows the AI to scan the photo and pick out many key objects for a simple click-and-delete function. 

Magic Edit has enabled students to carefully select particular elements of their designs and replace them with something else more meaningful to the overall design with the text-to-image feature. In a few moments, the elements are replaced with something more suitable to the designer’s vision.

Creative problem-solving

Problem-solving is a key transferable skill we focus on developing in our students by introducing creative tools that allow them to think outside of the box and explore innovative design solutions through AI-powered features. A couple of these Canva Magic features that have enhanced the capabilities of the students for content marketing purposes have been:

Magic Expand is a powerful and awe-inspiring tool that allows the user to expand their design outside of its boundary box. This has been particularly handy for students when looking to engulf their canvas with a full-frame representation of the world/design they have created.

Grab Text has been a game-changer for some of our students when looking to recreate a branded design (for practice purposes) from scratch and utilising their branded typefaces and font styles. By scanning the graphic, design, or photo, the Grab Text feature can extract the text and enable it for edible purposes.

Using such features has streamlined the design process for the students with automated features and even templates when presenting their work. They have enhanced time management and efficiency, especially when compared to previous years of content creation, students are producing higher quality work half the time by using Canva Magic which has a profound effect on their learning and development. 

Students have found that by bringing their ideas to life in an easily achievable way, they've experienced reduced stress and anxiety associated with content creation. Those who don't consider themselves ‘creative’ have

especially benefited from this approach.

An AI Balancing Act

As AI continues to advance, its integration into higher education holds immense potential for students to advance their professional capabilities within digital design. Canva Magic can revolutionise the learning experience, empowering students to become innovative thinkers and industry-ready digital marketers. By mastering AI-powered design tools, students can develop essential digital skills and gain a competitive edge in the job market.

However, it is crucial to strike a balance between technological advancement and human creativity. While AI can enhance the design process, it should not replace human ingenuity. Students should use AI as a tool to augment their creativity, rather than relying on it to do all the work. By fostering a blend of human creativity and AI-powered efficiency, we can prepare students for a future where technology and human innovation coexist. By leveraging AI tools like Canva Magic while prioritising human creativity, educators can equip students with the skills needed to thrive in an increasingly digital and innovative job market.