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When creating a course, images are an essential component to help learners understand and retain information. They can help explain complex concepts, break up text-heavy slides, and add interest to your content. However, finding the right images can be challenging. In this post, we’ll go over some tips for selecting the best stock images for your course slides and suggest some resources for finding them.
Determine the tone and message of your course
Before selecting images for your course slides, it’s essential to determine the tone and message you want to convey. This will help you choose appropriate and relevant images for your course content. For example, if your course is about mindfulness, you may want to select calming, serene images. If your course is about marketing, you may want to choose more dynamic and exciting images.
Choose images that support your content
Once you have established the tone and message of your course, it’s important to select images that support your content. Avoid selecting images just because they look nice or catch your eye. Instead, choose images that help clarify your message or provide visual aids to your content.
Consider the composition and quality of the images
When selecting images, consider the composition and quality of the images. Ensure that the images are not blurry, low resolution, or pixelated. Consider the rule of thirds when selecting images for your course slides. The rule of thirds is a composition guideline that suggests dividing an image into thirds vertically and horizontally and placing the subject of the image at one of the intersections. This creates a more visually appealing image that draws the viewer’s eye to the subject.
Choose images that are royalty-free or licensed for commercial use
Using images without proper licensing or permission can result in copyright infringement, which can lead to legal troubles. Ensure that the images you select are royalty-free or licensed for commercial use. You can find royalty-free images through stock photo websites or through creative commons licenses.
Resources for finding stock images
There are several resources for finding stock images, including free and paid websites. Here are a few options to consider:
- Adobe Stock: A paid website with millions of high-quality images, videos, and templates
- Canva: Get images and add your creative touches such as borders, different backgrounds, etc
- Pexels: A free website with high-quality images
- Pixabay: Another free website with high-quality images
- Shutterstock: A paid website with over 300 million royalty-free images, videos, and music tracks
- XOXO Templates: Stunning Canva templates for your courses
- Unsplash: A free website with high-quality images from photographers worldwide
- YayImages: 13.5 million royalty-free stock photos, vectors, and videos
Editing images to fit your course slides
Once you’ve selected the images for your course slides, consider editing them to fit your course style. You can crop, resize, or adjust the colors of your images to ensure they match your course’s overall style.
Final Thoughts
Selecting the right stock images for your course slides is crucial for conveying the right message and keeping your learners engaged. Consider the tone and message of your course, choose images that support your content, consider the composition and quality of the images, select royalty-free or licensed images, and consider editing images to fit your course style. By following these tips, you can create visually appealing and engaging course slides.
8 thoughts on “How to Select the Perfect Stock Images for Your Course Slides”
Wow, great information for selecting images for online courses. Although I do not have a course yet, this information works well for writing blogs as well. Looking through your site, I really like the content of your blogs. Welcome to the UBC. Hope to see more of your posts. Thank you for sharing.
Thanks for your feedback, Jaime. I am really passionate about what I do and most of what I write is based on discussions with clients. I am happy you find my posts informative.
Great resources here. Thanks for sharing! Canva is my favorite source for royalty free pictures. I have a pro account which gives me access to more options.
Elisa, Canva is amazing! And I like the fact that it makes designing super simple.
This is so important…. “choose images that help clarify your message or provide visual aids to your content” I really love adding images to my blog posts and online work. I love your tips to help select perfect images. Yes, it is so important to choose images that are Royalty-free or licensed for commercial use.
Diana, I don’t think I could emphasize enough how important it is that we choose royalty-free images. When I started my business, I would use images from Google without applying the filter for ‘licensed for commercial use’. I did this out of ignorance until I learned how to choose photos wisely.
I agree completely! It is important to be aware of your rights and responsibilities about copyright. Using images without proper licensing or permission can result in serious legal troubles.Getty Images is famous for shaking down people that use images illegally. Doing a bit of research beforehand can save you a lot of hassle later on – like you mentioned, make sure that the images you select are royalty-free or licensed for commercial use, and take advantage of stock photo websites to save your butt from any potential copyright infringement.
Paul, I actually plan to do a review of all of my images to ensure I am safe. Sometimes, we use an unlicensed image out of ignorance so I hope this post reaches far and wide.