Open Educational Resources

Open educational resources are course materials that anyone can freely retain, revise, remix, reuse and redistribute.

Finding OER images

There are a huge number of OER images available online for educational and illustrative purposes.

The list below is a only small selection of where you can find OER images.

Unsure where to start? Try CC Search

Clip Safari
Collection of vector graphics licensed under CC0.
Creative Commons Search
CC Search is a tool that allows openly licensed and public domain works to be discovered and used by everyone.
CSIRO Science Image
Science and nature CC licensed images from the CSIRO.
Encyclopedia of Life
Online collaborative encyclopedia about biological life on earth containing CC licensed images.
Europeana
Collection of cultural material from European institutions. Find OERs by filtering the search results using the "Can I use this?" option. See the guide below for more details.

Finding Creative Commons works on Europeana

Flickr
Find OER images by filtering results by licence type (top left of results). See the guide below for more details.

Finding Creative Commons images on Flickr

Getty Open Content Images
Collection of public domain works from the J. Paul Getty Museum and the Getty Research Institute.
Google Image Search
Select the "Tools" button and limit your results by "Usage Rights". See the guide below for more details.

Finding Creative Commons images using Google

OpenStreetMap
Openly licenced collaborative street map of the globe.
NASA Image and Video Library
Extensive collection of free to use space related images.
Noun Project
Collection of CC licensed vector graphics (free account registration required for download).
Pixabay
Collection of stock photographs and images free to use for commercial use.
Public Domain Review Image Collections
Curated collections of public domain or CC licensed images.
Raw Pixel Public Domain Collection
Curated collections of high resolution public domain art and images.
Smithsonian Open Access
Access to nearly 3 million 2D and 3D digital items from the Smithsonian’s 19 museums, 9 research centers, libraries, archives, and the National Zoo.
Unsplash
Collection of high resolution stock photographs which are free to use for commercial use.
US Government Science Images
List of US Government sites with free to use images.
Wellcome collection
CC licenced digitised books and images from the historic Wellcome Collection. Can limit search results to images.
Wikimedia Commons
A searchable collection of public domain and freely-licensed educational media content (images, sound and video clips).

NOTE: many free stock photo sites do not require attribution, however for academic integrity purposes it is still best practice to identify the creator and source wherever possible.