Boston University is collaborating with iTunes U to present educational, downloadable media, allowing students, faculty, alumni as well as those outside the BU community to search, download and play BU audio and video content, BU and Apple officials said.
The service from Apple offers lecture and discussion podcasts that can be downloaded onto any iPod or computer, including commencement addresses, talks by visiting professors and lectures on similar topics by other professors from other schools, Associate Provost for Undergraduate Education Victor Coelho said.
“It’s the idea of 24/7 learning,” Coelho said.
Coelho said iTunes U has had a large impact at schools like Duke University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, the University of California at Berkeley and University of Pennsylvania.
iTunes U captures class discussions, creating accessible study guides, he said. It also gives BU the ability to showcase its classes and professors to the rest of the world.
BU’s medical campus is already putting its courses on iTunes U, and although there is minimal undergraduate content on the site yet, the College of Arts and Sciences Core curriculum will hopefully go online soon, Coelho said.
The feedback has been phenomenal from both students and faculty, because it increases the student’s ability to return to their courses, Coelho said.
“You can be connected to your course content at all times,” Coelho said. “People love it.”
All content on iTunes U is free, Apple spokesman Todd Wilder said. The success of iTunes U is a collaborative effort between universities and Apple.
“Apple has had 30 years of education, and in that time, we’ve tried to work closely with educators,” Wilder said.
iTunes U started with pilots at Stanford and Duke in 2000. Eight years later, after such positive feedback, there are over 250 universities and colleges part of iTunes U, presenting downloadable media, Wilder said.
“While top universities use iTunes U, other institutions have educational content to share as well, such as museums and radio stations,” Wilder said.
Though all classes at BU may not have downloadable media yet, students said they think the concept of downloadable educational material is a good idea.
“It’s a good concept,” CAS sophomore Amanda Ackerman said. “I have a lot of friends at the UC schools that watch their lectures through iTunes U when they need to review or for some reason miss class.”
While iTunes U could give students clearance to skip class, the benefits outweigh the costs, College of Communication sophomore Jacqueline Paris said.
“There are days when you just can’t get to class, or you miss something during the lecture,” Paris said. “We pay a lot of money to come to school here, and if there is any way that professors can reach out to their students, this is the way.”