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=Technology Toolkit for Educational Design Services=

In general, be aware that there is no such thing as a free lunch. When you use free tools, you need to give something up in return: generally your privacy. However, if you know the rules, there is no reason why you shouldn’t try these tools. Many of them offer paid versions with additional features and additional security. Using the free versions gives you a chance to familiarise yourself with the tool before committing anything to it.

Specifically be aware of:
 * Future proofing. Ensure that the details of the account are safe and can be passed on to the next person who may need to make changes. For this reason, it’s a good idea to use third party web applications only to enhance your course offerings, rather than to use for anything integral. This is important because most of them are not supported by our IT team.
 * Browser settings: test whatever content you create in a number of browsers. Chances are it’s going to look different on different devices and in different browsers.
 * Flash: still a popular program for animations but not widely supported anymore.
 * If you’re uploading a file to Online Campus, be aware of the 100mb size limit.
 * Make sure you’ve got some understanding of multimedia principles and design before you start putting lots of bling on your course. It could be distracting and do more harm than good. (You could show a picture that uses the rule of thirds to illustrate this point)
 * Copyright: be very, very careful. Just because we’re an educational institution doesn’t mean we can automatically use all those creative common ‘freebies’. Often it's a no-no if we’re using it for commercial purposes. Read the fine print.

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