100 Hand-picked Freebies for Learning Designers

You need resources for creating eLearning, videos, presentations, websites, and animations, right? Here are twelve sets of freebies to help you get the job done. There was no effort to list AI tools (there are so many of them now!), but some are AI-enhanced.

Some tools and assets require registration to download. Please be careful when downloading freebies to be sure there is nothing malicious. I attempt to list reputable sites, but cannot vouch for each one. Enjoy!

Download version 5a of the list below.

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1. KEEP LEARNING

1. 250 AI Prompts for Learning and Development: from Josh Cavalier
2. Accessibility From the Ground Up: A Guide to Making eLearning Barrier Free: Important guidance on inclusivity from the eLearning Guild (you can register as a free member)
3. Creating Compliance Training Learners Will Love: Expert advice and tips
4. Field Guide to Human-Centered Design: Scroll down to download the free book as a PDF or purchase the print version
5. Generative AI Courses for Every Level: Free Courses from Google
6. Learning Technology Manager’s Guide to xAPI
7. Learning Transfer-Evaluation Model: Research-based evaluation method by Will Thalheimer
8. Leaving ADDIE for SAM Poster: Explains an Agile methodology for instructional design
9. The New World Kirkpatrick Model: Improved version of the previous model
10. Visually Captivating Presentations: eBook covers presentation and visual design basics

BONUS: Top Tricks for Creating Learning Pathways

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2. FREE STOCK PHOTOS

1. Burst: Decent collection of free stock images
2. Disabled and Here: Inclusive stock images of celebrating disable people
3. Disability is Beautiful: Free stock images provided by the disability community
4. Freepik: Good selection of free and paid images plus AI tools
5. Gratisopgraphy: Quirky stock photos
6. ISO Republic: Good selection of stock photos and videos
7. Nappy: Good selection of photos featuring Black and Brown people
8. Pexels: One of the better sites for photos of people working variety of jobs
9. Picography: More free stock photos
10. Startup Stock Photos: Yep. Photos of people in startup type environments
11. Unsplash: Giant collection of artistic, creative photographs
12. Women of Color in Tech: Helps close the diversity gap for tech photos

BONUS: Vintage Stock Photos: Retro and vintage images

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3. FREE ICONS AND ILLUSTRATIONS

1. DryIcons: Well-designed icons, attribution to the company required
2. Flaticon: Thousands of free icons
3. Free Design File: Illustrated vector icons
4. Iconmnstr: Good selection of filled and line art icons
5. Icons8: Both free and paid icons in a variety of styles as well as AI tools
6. Illu-stations: Illustrations and icons where you can customize the color
7. Lummi Illustrations: Unusual doodles and illustrations (may not be vector graphics)
8. Pixabay: Choose vector graphics in the Images drop down in search bar
9. Stockio: Vector art, icons, photos and videos too
10. StorySet: Customizable illustrations
11. Undraw: Cool little illustrations you can customize by color, plus VisualPharm: Categorized collection of icons in varied styles

BONUS: Chartopedia: Guide for choosing the best chart for your purpose

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4. FREE CUT-OUT PEOPLE

Use these sites for eLearning characters in scenarios because they come in different poses.

1. 25 Free Illustrated Characters from Articulate.
2. eLearning Brothers: Sign up for a starter pack of eLearning characters, templates, and more
3. Faster Course: Six cartoonish characters in different styles
4. Interactive Solutions: Silly cartoon character packs (scroll down at the page)

The following cut outs are made for architectural renderings. They might work best in backgrounds to add realism.

5. Mr. Cutout: Good selection of individuals and groups
6. XOIO: Office people. Use the button on the right at the linked page to download some cutouts
7. Skal Gubbar: Cut outs to add realism to scenes (made for architectural renderings
8. Viz Hopper: Over 200 free cut out people to download
9. Viz People: Scroll through to find cut out people and animal

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5. FREE VIDEO FOOTAGE AND CINEMAGRAPHS

Some of the free video footage is not the highest resolution but will probably okay for eLearning.

1. Burst: Limited number of free cinemagraphs (photo with subtle looped animation)
2. Coverr: Free video clips and music
3. Freepik: Library of free stock video
4. Ignitemotion:  Free motion backgrounds
5. Motionplaces: Geographically oriented footage
6. Pexels: Free stock video footage
7. Pixabay: One of the better selections of free video footage
8. Pond5: Video, music and sound effects
9. Stockio: Free stock video footage (plus other media assets)
10. Videezy: Decent selection

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6. FREE MUSIC AND SOUND EFFECTS

1. Audionautix: Free music
2. Digccmixter: Free music, including for video games, with attribution
3. FreeSound: Search for sound effects and music
4. Gamesounds: Music and sound effects
5. Musopen: Catalog of public domain music
6. Pixabay: Free sound effects
7. Sonic Squirrel: Free music in many different genres
8. Soundjay: Good collection of sound effects
9. YouTube Audio Library: Free music downloads for your projects (sign-in for access)
10. ZapSplat: Access to a large creative commons sound effect library

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7. FREE FONTS

These sites have a reputation for providing legitimate (legal) free fonts.

1. 1001 Fonts
2. Abstract Fonts
3. DaFont
4. FontSpace
5. FontSpring
6. Font Squirrel
7. FontStruct
8. FontZone
9. Google Fonts
10. UrbanFonts

BONUS: Behance: Here you can find free fonts directly from the typographer. Scroll through the examples to a download button at the bottom. Donation requested.

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8. FREE MULTIMEDIA TOOLS

1. Audacity: Perhaps the most well-known free audio recording and editing app.
2. Auphonic: Automatic audio post-production (two free hours of audio per month).
3. Canva: Graphic design app for presentations, infographics, etc. Offers free and paid images to add to your designs.
4. Contrast Analyzer: Improve visual accessibility with better contrast.
5. Enhance: A free tool that cleans up audio files. It’s part of Adobe’s Podcast Studio. Create an account to use it.
6. Handbreak: The best app I’ve seen for serious video compression. Also does format conversion.
7. Inkscape: Top of the line app for creating and editing vector graphics.
8. Krita: Free open-source paint program.
9. Loom: Record and share AI-powered video messages
10. OBS Studio: Desktop application for video recording and live streaming
11. WebAim Contrast Checker: Tests whether the contrast between text and background meet WCAG standards

BONUS: OpenShot: Free desktop video editor.

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9. FREE INFOGRAPHIC, CHART, AND DIAGRAM TOOLS

1. AsciiFlow: Simple free diagramming tool for quick starts
2. Chartify: Turns raw data into a chart
3. Chartsbin: Create interactive maps, currently free
4. Ease.ly: Lots of templates
5. Google Chart: Create interactive charts for websites; displays live data
6. Infogram: Charts, maps, infographics, reports
7. Lucidchart: Nice diagramming tool
8. Napkin: AI tool for creating diagrams
9. Snappa: General design tool with a lot of infographic templates
10. Venngage: For creating infographics
11. Visme: Good features but infographics on the free plan are public.

BONUS: Diagrammer: Free diagrams created as PowerPoint slides.

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10. FREE WORK AND PRODUCTIVITY TOOLS

1. Calendly: Scheduling tool
2. Diigo: Online bookmarking
3. Doodle: Meeting scheduler
4. Feedly: A feed reader where you select the sources
5. FoxitOnline: Read and edit PDF files online
6. GoogleKeep: Digital notetaking in the cloud by typing or speaking
7. IFTTT: Automates integration of various apps and devices
8. Pomodor Timer: Use for the Pomodoro method or other timing techniques
9. RescueTime: Download and track where you spend your time online
10. ToDoist: Popular task manager with a basic free plan
11. Zapier: Automates integration of apps

BONUSES: Brain.fm: Music for focusing. Several free sessions.

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11. FREE AUTHORING TOOLS

1. Curriki Studio: Authoring tool with 40 types of interactivity
2. Genially: Creates gamified and interactive experiences
3. H5P: Creates browser-based interactive activities (h5p.org). Free when hosted on Drupal, WordPress or Moodle. Find paid hosting services at H5P.com.
4. iSpring Free: Slimmed-down version of iSpring Studio; works as a PowerPoint plug-in
5. SC Training (previously EdApp): Creates interactive content; free for up to 10 learners

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12. UNIQUE SEARCH TOOLS FOR YOUR WORK

1. Creative Commons Search: Search for assets available under a CC license (they recommend checking the license tool
2. Everypixel: Image search using AI to search across 50 stock photo agencies
3. Every Stock Photo: Search engine for free stock photos
4. FindSounds: Search engine for sounds and sound effects
5. Google Scholar: Finds resources from academic journals
6. One Look: Reverse dictionary. Describe a concept and get related words
7. ResearchGate: Millions of researchers submit their work for anyone to access. You may need to request access to a published article.
8. SimilarSites: Discover sites similar to ones you find useful
9. TinEye: Reverse image search finds where an image appears online. I use this to find the original image for copyright restrictions on photos SMEs give me.
10. Visual Hunt: Search engine for free high quality stock photos
11. Wolfram Alpha: Enter a question and the app computes expert level answers

BONUS: Elicit: AI-powered research tool that summarizes answers to a research question and provides a report. As with all AI tools, check for accuracy.

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Download this list of freebies by entering the info below. You’ll also get my monthly The eLearning Coach Newsletter with articles, resources, and more freebies.