An excellent example of community college learning is Introduction to Digital Publishing (Windows or Macintosh), a course at George Brown College. Hands-on computer training covers the principal features of Adobe Illustrator, InDesign and Photoshop.

The night school course costs $168 (Canadian currency). Over 7 weeks, students meet in a weekly computer laboratory for a 3-hour class. While Adobe and many third-party providers offer online training in digital applications, community college classes enable students to quickly learn the shortcuts, pitfalls and most useful features of the software.

An experienced instructor, who makes a living using Adobe applications, leads the course. Each class starts with a demo of the software projected on a large screen at the front of the computer lab. The demo is followed up with practice exercises that enable students to reinforce those skills at their own computer stations.