Apple announces iTunes U on the iTunes Store

[AppleInsider]

Apple on Wednesday announced the launch of iTunes U, a dedicated area within the iTunes Store featuring free content such as course lectures, language lessons, lab demonstrations, sports highlights and campus tours provided by top US colleges and universities including Stanford University, UC Berkeley, Duke University and MIT.

"iTunes U makes it easy for anyone to access amazing educational material from many of the country’s most respected colleges and universities," said Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of iTunes. "Education is a lifelong pursuit and we’re pleased to give everyone the ability to download lectures, speeches and other academic content for free."

Created in collaboration with colleges and universities, iTunes U makes it easier to extend learning, explore interests, learn more about a school and stay connected with an alma mater. Content from iTunes can be loaded onto an iPod with just one click and experienced on-the-go, anytime, making learning from a lecture just as simple as enjoying music.

"From its earliest days, Stanford has sought to serve the public by sharing the knowledge generated by our faculty and students," said Stanford Provost John Etchemendy. "Our partnership with Apple and iTunes U provides a creative and innovative way to engage millions of people with our teaching, learning and research and share the experience of intellectual exploration and discovery that defines our university."

Apple's iTunes Store features the world’s largest catalog, adding the new education content to over five million songs, 350 television shows and over 500 movies. The iTunes Store has sold over 2.5 billion songs, 50 million TV shows and over two million movies, making it the world’s most popular online music, TV and movie store.

[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]

[andrewcod]

Digg it

[Chucker]

Um, iTunes U has existed for well over a year.

[eggstone]

This isn't new. I know about iTunes at Stanford for quite a long time, because I downloaded the famouse Steve's commencement address there. We (at Duke University) have been using it for a while too. Unlike Stanford, the iTunes Duke requires log in using the Duke netID. It seems that now they've made part of the iTunes University in each participated Universities open. However, I must say, the power of iTunes U is still under used, at least at Duke. We had a French course, but we still post the homeworks and other media files through blackboard, not iTunes, and there is basically no interesting materials when I browsed other categories I can access. The only good thing is everyone get a discounted iPod 30G black with a free voice recorder, and the teacher uses iPod to show slides (so no need to bring a laptop to class with powerpoint/keynote)...

The website: http://www.apple.com/education/itunesu/ is re-designed, and there is a dedicated iTunes page now. Initially, you can only go to specific iTunes U from outsider specific links. Anyway, it seems iTunes U are going to grow...

[wilkie]

uhhh itunes U is old. did you know it's old?...cos it's like, yehhhh...old.

[icibaqu]

still not on my main page for the itunes store. also not on the main page is the itunes plus information. seems an odd omission.

[philb]

I was just about to make my standard snarky comment about it not being available in the UK store, but it does seem to be . Seems to be all US content at the moment though.

[philb]

Originally Posted by icibaqu

still not on my main page for the itunes store. also not on the main page is the itunes plus information. seems an odd omission.

It's not on my main page either - you seem to have to go via search.

Try searching on 'Doctorow', and you'll see an iTunes U link at the top of the search results (alongside Music, video, podcast etc). Or use advanced search where you can search by title, description or institution

[philb]

Originally Posted by icibaqu

still not on my main page for the itunes store. also not on the main page is the itunes plus information. seems an odd omission.

And you can reach the iTunes Plus info via Your Account. Can't find any actual tracks though

[Chucker]

Just go to http://deimos3.apple.com/indigo/main/main.xml

[BrianMojo]

This.. doesn't make much sense to me. I understand that putting things in a central location can make sense, but this is just kind of like Apple Internet™ or something. And it definitely doesn't seem to have much of a place in iTunes.

[blackbird_1.0]

Originally Posted by andrewcod

Digg it

Dugg.

[shetline]

Originally Posted by eggstone

This isn't new.

What I would hope is new, however, is that starting with iTunes 7.2, free stuff doesn't have DRM -- which seems pretty stupid when it's free.

I remember when I first downloaded free copies of political debates and speeches from iTunes being surprised that those things had DRM just like paid-for music, but I suppose that was only because iTunes simply didn't have any ability to turn DRM off -- whatever was sent from the iTunes servers to the iTunes client app, the client app automatically wrapped that content in DRM tied to the iTunes account you were signed into, no matter what.

[aegisdesign]

Originally Posted by philb

I was just about to make my standard snarky comment about it not being available in the UK store, but it does seem to be . Seems to be all US content at the moment though.

It's a little bizarre isn't it. I'm not sure why we'd want US university courses in the UK. I get enough free offers of diplomas in my mail already anyway.

And I'd doubt many people outside the US know what K-12 is either. Is it an upgraded Doctor Who robot assistant?

Usually Apple segregate non-local content pretty well.

[Porchland]

I was hoping the new EMI non-DRM albums would include Radiohead finally coming to iTunes. Or the Beatles.

Alas, no.

[Producer]

anyone know if these universities offer a private site on iTunes for just their students and how that works?

[eAi]

Originally Posted by Producer

anyone know if these universities offer a private site on iTunes for just their students and how that works?

They offer a site, I don't believe its private. Google for iTunes U and you'll find a few sites like Stanford's. I'm not sure if these are identical to the sites we see on iTunes now.

I'm in the UK, and I find this quite useful. I'm studying Computer Science at university, and access to these resources could be quite useful to me and other students. It'd be nice if we could search by course title, not just by university...