Using Creative Commons Images in Canvas

Using Creative Commons Images in Canvas

Do you want to add related images to your Canvas course to clarify text or to add visual appeal? Creative Commons (CC) licensed images are just the thing. CC Licensed images are those that are available to use in your course materials and shared freely. The CC license ensures that you have permission from the author to use the image.

How to find a CC-licensed image

Please follow the steps below:

Go to http://open4us.org/find-oer/

Scroll down a bit to see the categories. Find the category that is most suitable for your needs. Since we are looking for an image, click Photo/Image from the Categories highlighted in blue.

In this example, we will use Flickr.* Remember there are many other sources for CC images.

Go to https://www.flickr.com/creativecommons/ . Many Flickr users have chosen to offer their work under a Creative Commons license and you can browse or search through content under each type of license. Flickr organized their collection based on the types of CC licenses.

Click "See more" under any type of CC collections. Type your keyword in the search window.
Images will appear. Please click on the image you need. In this example we chose an elephant.

Check the license setting on the right side. If it says “Some Rights Reserved,” it means it is Creative Commons licensed and is safe to use.

To download the image, click More Actions icon that resembles three dots.

You will see Download/ All sizes option. Select the size of the image and click Download. Make note of where you download the image so you can find it and add it to your course.

Add the image to your Canvas course by following the directions in the Canvas Guide. Watch this video that demonstrates various methods of adding images to your Canvas Course.

*Another way to add images to Canvas is to use the built in Flickr tool by following these instructions. However, there are many other sources for CC images and you can follow the steps above to find and use them.