Active Learning Image Guide

Including images with your Active Learning content can be an involved process, so it is important to carefully consider when and how you do so. Our ultimate goal is to eliminate or minimize the need for costly image permissions fees so we can offer your Cognella materials at the best possible price for students. Therefore, it’s important to focus on using images that are content-driven, provide educational value to students, and will not incur fees.

Image Use in Active Learning

Images are a powerful tool for building effective and engaging learning exercises. We encourage our authors to select quality images to use in Active Learning activities to illustrate concepts, provide in-depth details, allow students to explore through different modalities, or help students to assess their mastery of a topic.

Accessibility Requirement

In consideration of meeting accessibility requirements, any instructional image used in an activity must be accompanied by alternative text (alt text). Alt text is a term used to describe text that is read by a screen reader in place of an image. When a screen reader encounters an image within an activity, it will skip over it unless there is alt text provided to read in its place. This renders the activity incomprehensible.

See the Quick Guide: Writing Alt Text for further guidance.

Activity Types with Images

The following activity types are examples of Active Learning content that may benefit from the use of images.

  • flashcards (example here)
  • skill-builders and matching activities (example here)
  • original videos (example here)
  • interactive maps (example here)
  • scenarios (example here)
  • quizzes
  • slides and infographics
  • assignments
  • original writing

Please ask your project editor to see additional examples of images used within Active Learning.