Is your digital content accessible? What are OSU Extension’s legal and ethical obligations in producing accessible content? Accessibility is an ever-increasing topic of importance. This session provides participants with an introduction to The Ohio State University’s non-discrimination policy and share best practices and guidelines for producing accessible digital content. We explore the digital gender divide as well as how to ensure all audiences feel safe and welcomed in our face-to-face and online learning opportunities.
Author: Danae Wolfe
Engaging Online Audiences
There are many reasons to use audience engagement tools in Extension and academic programming. Whether you want to gather instant feedback during a presentation or check participants’ knowledge before and after the event, there are several tools you can use to simplify the process and make the learning event more meaningful. This presentation takes you beyond simple polling and discusses how an audience engagement tool can be used to teach and develop relationships with participants before, during, and after an event.
Creating Fillable PDF Forms
Hey everyone! Check out our recent webinar on creating fillable PDF forms!
From fair entry forms to program registrations, we work with PDF documents all the time. Gone are the days of printing and manually writing data into forms. You can use Adobe Acrobat Pro DC to create and customize fillable PDF forms complete with “submit form by email” buttons and so much more!
Video Production Bootcamp
Session 1: Digital Storytelling
The most effective videos used in extension and teaching are ones where the creators have identified the goals of the video ahead of time and also laid out different “scenes”. This upfront work makes the editing process later much easier and time efficient. In this session you will learn skills in storyboarding, scripting and branding for both in-the-field and studio recordings.
Session 2: CFAES Video Studio Orientation
In this session we orient you to the equipment and software tools available in both the Wooster and Columbus Studio spaces. This includes equipment you can use for recording videos in the studio or checking out to take to the field, as well as PC and Apple tools you can use in the studio for editing your files. We will briefly demonstrate how to use each. Topics of discussion will include camera setup, on screen participant wardrobe considerations, lighting considerations, audio considerations in the studio and in the field, and how to handle mistakes and retakes.
Session 3: After the Shoot – How to Edit and Brand Videos
In this session we focus on editing video/audio to produce a final product, exporting files, closed captioning, and video hosting/storage options. A brief demo of Clips, iMovie and Adobe Rush will be provided to give you a glimpse of editing software platforms. Clips and iMovie are Apple device only software. Adobe Rush can be used on Apple devices and PCs with Windows.
Best Royalty-Free Image Sources
Images are a wonderful, and almost necessary, addition to blog and social media posts, marketing materials, and websites. A great photograph can help convey your message and grab your audience’s attention. Research suggests that social media posts, for example, garner more attention than text-only posts, but finding high quality and royalty free images can be a drag!
While a Google image search may help you in diagnosing a pest or plant disease, it is NOT a proper way to find images for use in marketing or educational materials. Many of the images you may find via Google image search are not licensed for public use. If you find an image online that you would like to use, but cannot find any licensing information, you should attempt to contact the original author for permission. Not receiving an answer from the author is not implied permission. If you do not hear from the author, it is best to find a suitable image licensed under Creative Commons.
If you need a refresher on the types of Creative Commons licenses and allowable image uses, you should watch this helpful video.
The following royalty-free image resources can serve as a starting point in your image search. This is not an exhaustive list, but the resources here offer fairly extensive image libraries that cover a wide range of topic areas.
Pixabay
Pixabay tends to be my first stop when looking for high quality stock images. I don’t always find exactly what I’m looking for, but the site offers thousands of images that cover nearly every topic imaginable (unless you’re looking for something ultra-specific). All images are released under the Creative Commons CC0 license as public domain and are free to use for both personal and commercial projects with no attribution required. Be careful not to click the subtle ShutterStock ads that will take you to the fee-based ShutterStock website.
StockSnap.io
StockSnap.io is a new (2017) stock photo website with tons of great images. From gorgeous images of food to business savvy photos for presentations, you’re sure to find a great selection of royalty-free Creative Commons CC0 images here.
PikWizard
PikWizard offers tons of great images across a diversity of topics. From technology to landscapes, PikWizard is easily searchable and offers tons of exclusive images you won’t find on another stock photo sites.
Foodies Feed
FoodiesFeed offers searchable, high quality, and beautifully colorful photos of food. You’ll find tons of well-composed photos of ingredients and prepared meals, but not many shots of people. No attribution is required for using the photos. I did notice images downloaded as very large files. The image below downloaded at a size of 9.4MB so I used Photoshop to resize to something more manageable (181KB).
Unsplash
Unsplash features a variety of high quality and searchable images. You can even subscribe to receive 10 new photos in your inbox every 10 days. All images are released under the Creative Commons CC0 license as public domain and are free to use for both personal and commercial projects with no attribution required. Below is an example of the great images available on Unsplash.
Free Images
Free Images offers many great images that are free for editorial purposes including education. When used for an editorial purpose you should provide proper credit to “FreeImages.com/Artist’s Member Name.”
Public Domain Pictures
Public Domain Pictures is a repository of free amateur images available for download. The free images are released under the Creative Commons CC0 license. Be sure not to click the many ads for fee-based stock photography sites.
Flickr Creative Commons
Flickr offers millions of photos licensed under Creative Commons. You can search for images by each type of Creative Commons license. Always make sure to follow license restrictions for each photo you’re using.
Getty
Another great resource for free images is Getty, though you can only embed free Getty images on websites, blogs, or social media. You will not be able to use free Getty images for printing, PowerPoints, use in 4-H project books, etc.
RGB Stock
RGB Stock offers a lot of great stock photos, all with Creative Commons CC0 license. You will have to register for a free account to download images, but it’s worth it for free access to high quality images!
CFAES Photo Library
The CFAES Photo Library is a great place to find images that represent OSU landmarks, programs, and people.
Bugwood
If you’re looking for images of plants, insects, and plant diseases, Bugwood is one of the best! The database is searchable and offers tons of great species-specific images. When downloading and using Bugwood images, you MUST provide attribution. Images are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 and Creative Commons Attribution/Non-commercial 3.0. If you’d like to use photos for a commercial purpose (e.g. in a bulletin that will be sold), you must get approval from the image author.
If you’re ever in doubt about allowable uses for stock images, check out the website’s about page. Most sites offer additional information about the licensing of their images and appropriate uses.
Whether you take your own photographs or download images from stock sites, keep the following in mind:
- Your images should be relevant to their use
- You should use only high quality and in-focus images
- When required by the image license, provide proper attribution
- Never use an image without permission, unless licensed under Creative Commons
Questions? Contact Danae.