Apple Releases Free 'iTunes U' Software to Colleges for Coursecasting

By JEFFREY R. YOUNG

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Apple Computer will allow any college or university to set up a customized portion of the iTunes Music Store to distribute course content and other audio and video material. The free service will let institutions limit use of some materials to certain people and make other content available to all.

The service, called iTunes U, will allow colleges to set up collections of materials that can be accessed using the free iTunes software, but that can be customized with the college's colors, logos, and photographs. The service was announced late Monday.

Colleges that participate will be given software tools that will make it easy for professors or students to upload content to iTunes, the company said in a statement about the service. The files themselves will be stored on servers run by Apple, but college administrators will have control over who can see the files. Colleges will be able to integrate the system with their existing network software so that students can log into the iTunes store using their campus user ID's and passwords.

The service's Web site notes that participating colleges "must enter into an iTunes U Service Agreement before being eligible to use the iTunes U service," and that "Apple reserves the right to determine eligibility." Apple officials could not be reached on Tuesday to provide details.

The company's offer is the latest indication of the popularity of "coursecasting" -- making recordings of class lectures available online in a format that students can download to their portable music players (The Chronicle, October 28).

The idea is that students can use the recordings to review, and can do so while they walk around campus, work out, or engage in other activities away from their computers. Some professors, however, worry that the growing availability of course recordings will lead to empty classrooms as students skip lecture sessions and tune in later.

The move could help Apple maintain its dominance in portable music players on campuses. Though the iTunes software works on both Macs and PC's, the only portable players it connects to are iPods; it will not work with players made by other companies.

Over the past year, Apple has worked with six institutions to test the service: Brown, Duke, and Stanford Universities; the University of Michigan School of Dentistry, at Ann Arbor; the University of Missouri School of Journalism, at Columbia; and the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

At Michigan's dentistry school, the iTunes service is used to deliver recordings of most of the school's courses. Lynn Johnson, associate professor of dentistry and director of dental informatics, says the idea to offer recordings of lectures came from the students, who volunteered to help make the recordings. At first, the dental school set up its own Web site to distribute the recordings, but it recently switched to the iTunes service instead, says Ms. Johnson.

"They really needed and wanted the audio because they could be mobile with it," she says. She says that the project is a success, and that many students use it. Student volunteers are in charge of starting and stopping the recording process for each lecture, using a Macintosh computer that is tied into the classroom's sound system. "The fact that they keep recording more lectures -- that just speaks for itself," she says.

Brian S. Brooks, associate dean of undergraduate studies and administration at University of Missouri's School of Journalism, says that the school used the service for a few classes on a trial basis last fall, and that the system worked well.

"It makes a lot of sense to deliver course content to students in a medium they're all familiar with," he says, noting that many students already use iTunes, and many own iPods.

He says that the college is looking into putting materials on the iTunes service that would be available to anyone, with the hope that alumni and others interested in the university would tune in.

Both Mr. Brooks and Ms. Johnson say that their biggest concern in committing to the project was security, but that Apple officials persuaded them that the system is safe.

• Stanford U. Makes Podcasts of Lectures Available Through Apple's iTunes (11/4/2005)

• Lectures on the Go (10/28/2005)

• Abandoning Cassette Tapes, Purdue U. Will Podcast Lectures in Almost 50 Courses (9/9/2005)

• Drexel U. Will Give Free iPods to Students in School of Education (3/2/2005)

• Duke U. Will Give iPod Music Players to All Freshmen (7/30/2004)