Great quality images, graphics, and video are integral to eLearning. Well-chosen visuals can improve the overall design, look and feel of an online course. But perhaps more importantly, they can help learners to relate to content, to break down more complex ideas and to improve knowledge retention. Sourcing high quality assets for eLearning can be a challenge. Many stock photo sites may not align with your budget. This is where free media comes in.
Navigating copyright issues and knowing what media you can use can be confusing. Always check licence agreements for stock sites to be sure your use of free media is in line with the licence terms.
There several free sites where you can source high-quality, royalty-free imGS, graphics, and video to slot seamlessly into your next eLearning project. Most of these sites have what is called a CC0 or Creative Commons Zero licence. This licence means you can use and edit these images freely. You don’t need consent from or attribution of the creator for commercial or non-commercial projects.
To help you along your way to designing great eLearning, we have compiled a list of our top 5 sites for sourcing free images and video.
Unsplash
Unsplash has over 2 million high-resolution, hand-selected images for you to freely download and use in your eLearning course. It’s easily searchable and organised by topic, making finding the right photo or video for your eLearning project almost effortless. Attribution or crediting the photo author is appreciated, though not required. But it’s a nice way to help promote a photographer’s work.
Read the Unsplash licence agreement.
Pexels
Pexels has a mission of “Empowering Creators”, offering hundreds of thousands of free stock photos and videos, with new media added daily. The platform makes it easy to search photos and videos for your next eLearning design project. You can even use the ‘Discover’ function to find photos and videos by categories such as colour, topic, trending, and more.
Read the Pexels licence agreement.
Pixabay
Similar to Unsplash and Pexels, Pixabay’s searchable interface offers over 2.3 million stock images, vector graphics, illustrations, videos, and even music. Pixabay is also powered by a community of photographers, videographers, and creatives who share a great selection of royalty and copyright-free images on the site. Pixbay offers free download to all. It’s assets are safe to use freely in your online course design, even for commercial projects.
Read the Pixabay licence agreement.
Reshot
Reshot is perhaps not as well-known as the others on this list. However, not only is it home to a great selection of royalty-free photos and illustrations but also a diverse library of 40,000 icons, perfect for use in eLearning design. Downloadable icons are available in SVG, PNG, and even vector format. Reshot offers instant downloads with no sign-up. There’s also no need to worry about copyright or attribution, making Reshot is a great option for sourcing unique eLearning assets.
Read the Reshot licence agreement.
StockSnap.io
StockSnap.io features hundreds of high-resolution images with new photos added every week. They are all under the CC0 licence and free for use in your online courses. Images from StockSnap.io are handpicked and include many beautiful and unique photos you might not see elsewhere. It’s a good place to source more niche or difficult-to-find images for your eLearning design.
Read the StockSnap licence agreement.
Knowing where to source high quality free media and having these sites in your toolbox is a valuable way to save time, money and resources when developing online training. Check out our re-usable eLearning template to further reduce your eLearning course development time. Our eXcolo Template is designed to help you develop consistent, highly interactive eLearning.
