WikiMedia picture of the year, 2013, by photographer Stefan Krause

Vist Wikimedia Commons (the Commons), find an image for reuse in your course and add this to a WikiEducator page.

• The advantage of using the Commons is that all license types are compatible with WikiEducator’s copyright policy and the Mediawiki software will copy the image metadata and attributions, automatically saving time and effort.
• Visit your Sandbox link in WikiEducator, and add an image from the Commons to your Sandbox page. Follow the instructions for using Mediawiki’s VisualEditor for adding images from the Commons. In summary:
  • Copy the identical file name for the Commons image you have selected, for example: “Eighty-eight_Butterfly_(Diaethria_anna).JPG” from the url link: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Butterfly#mediaviewer/File:Eighty-eight_Butterfly_(Diaethria_anna).JPG (The file name is what appears immediately after “File:” in the url.)
  • Login to WikiEducator and click on the “Edit” link of your Sandbox page to launch the VisualEditor.
  • Click on Insert > Media and enter (paste) the file name you copied from the Commons in the search field. A thumbnail of your image should appear in the results.
  • Click on the image and a thumbnail version will appear in WikiEducator in the edit view.
  • Click on the image on the page and then click on the “Media” icon to open the Media settings dialogue box. Add a caption and alternate text. Under “Advanced settings”, select the image placement and display options. Click “Apply changes”.
  • Once you are satisfied with your image on the page, remember to click “Save page“. Add an edit comment, and then click “Save page” again.
  • In the published view, click on the image and you will see that all the metadata and image attributions have been copied to WikiEducator.
  • Note that when entering the file name in the search field in the VisualEditor you can search for images on both WikiEducator and the Commons without visiting the host site.

• Refer to the Finding OER page presented earlier in the course for ideas on source websites.
• Use a repository which supports searching by Creative Commons license type. (flickr and pixabay are popular sites.)
• Record the url for the individual images you choose because you will need this information to complete the metadata and license attributions when you upload the images to the WikiEducator website. (For example, keep the individual image pages open in a separate browser tab or window for ease of copying the relevant information.)
• Download a local copy of the files from the respective websites (right click, and select “save as”). Be sure to retain the file extension, for example .png, .jpg, or .gif.
• Login to WikiEducator and click on the “Upload file” link located on the left-hand side of your browser under the “Tools” menu.
• Follow the instructions on screen to progress with the upload on WikiEducator. (Note that there is a 2MB file restriction for uploads on WikiEducator so be sure to select image sizes within these parameters. On most sites, the options for small, medium, and large should be fine.)
• Important: The attribution url should link to the individual image page on the source website, not the homepage of the repository.
• Once successfully uploaded on the WikiEducator website, add the two images to pages using the VisualEditor by searching for the identical file name. You can test this on your Sandbox page.

• The Mediawiki software keeps track of all images users upload in the wiki and provides an easy way to find images you have uploaded.
  • Login to WikiEducator, and click on the SpecialPages link under “Tools” on the left-hand side of your browser.
  • Scroll down to the subheading “Media reports and uploads”. Click on the “File list” link.
  • Enter your Username and click “Go” for a listing of all the files you have uploaded in the wiki.

• On the main Google search page, enter your search term and click on the “Images” link.
• To refine your search, click on the “Search tools” button, select the “Usage rights” pull down option and choose a license filter.
• Click on the resultant image you would like to verify, then click on the “Visit page” button. (Note that images from the Commons may be included in the search results.)
• Explore the website to verify the copyright license, for example the “Copyright” page, or visible image attributions. In the absence of a clearly identifiable Creative Commons license for the image you must assume that the image is all rights reserved. When using the Google advanced search, it is always a good idea to verify the attribution link if provided and check that this link goes to the url for the source image with a clear open license statement.