Guidelines for Selecting YouTube Videos – Page 2

Check to see if the YouTube account is “verified,” indicated by a check mark next to the username. If so, great! This video is good to go.

As an example, the following image shows a selection from the official Disney Music VEVO channel on YouTube. VEVO is a consortium of several of the largest record labels, offering official music videos, live performances, interviews, and more. Any videos posted on YouTube by VEVO are approved for use in Cognella Active Learning.

If the YouTube account is an official artist channel, it will be indicated by a music note next to the username. If the music note is included, the video is good to go.

If there is no “verified” check mark or music note, see if you can determine if the account user is the owner or producer of the video content. 

• Look at the “About” section of the account and other videos uploaded by the user to determine if they appear to be the official source of the video.
• If you are unsure, add the video to your video log and our licensing team will review it.

If the user appears to be a random person uploading videos to YouTube from different sources, it’s best to look for a different video. These types of videos likely won’t be approved for use by our licensing team.

For music from YouTube: If a video is mainly music, look in the video description for the statement “licensed to YouTube by” as an indicator that it can legally be used in your course. Please note that this is only an indicator for the music in the video. If the footage or other content in the video is clearly not owned by the person who uploaded it, it’s best to look for a different video.

Firsthand Accounts
TED Talks
The Moth

Education
TED-Ed
Crash Course

News
PBS NewsHour
CNN
NPR
NBC News

Music
NPR Music
VEVO

Business
The Wall Street Journal
Forbes
The Economist

Pop Culture
Netflix
VOX
ESPN
Masterpiece PBS

Videos on Vimeo should be posted by the original source. See if you can determine if the account user is the owner or producer of the video content.

• Look at the “About” section and other videos by the user to determine if this appears to be the official source of the video.
• If you are unsure, add the video to your video log, and our licensing team will review it.

If the user appears to be a random person uploading videos to Vimeo from different sources, it’s best to look for a different video. These types of videos likely won’t be approved for use by our licensing team.

Uploaders on Vimeo have the option to disallow embedding of videos. If this option is selected, we cannot include this video within Cognella Active Learning.