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iTunes U for iPad offers full courses, teacher updates, class enrollment

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The new iTunes U application for iPad unveiled by Apple on Thursday will allow college students to view course materials, receive updates from their teachers, and even sign up for classes.

“The all-new iTunes U app enables students anywhere to tap into entire courses from the world's most prestigious universities,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services. “Never before have educators been able to offer their full courses in such an innovative way, allowing anyone who’s interested in a particular topic to learn from anywhere in the world, not just the classroom.”

In its presentation to the press, Apple showed off an online course from Duke for "Core Concepts in Chemistry." In the iTunes U application, students can get an overview of the course, view teacher details, obtain the class syllabus, and even access information like the teacher's office hours.

The iTunes U application for iPad has sections for "Info," "Posts," "Notes" and "Materials." In the "Posts" section, teachers can provide updates to students, including assignments.

The assignments can even be context sensitive, allowing a student to tap on it and automatically be sent to the appropriate section of a textbook in iBooks. When an assignment is completed, it can be crossed off of the included task list.

In the "Notes" tab, users can access and modify their class notes, even highlighting certain text. And the "Materials" tab shows off all of the material for a course, including textbooks, videos, audio, and documents.

The iTunes U application will even allow students to sign up for courses from directly within the software. Courses and professors can even be rated through iTunes U for iPad.

While books and applications required for courses do have costs, the iTunes U application itself is free and now available on the iPad App Store. Participating schools that have had early access to the software are Duke, Yale, Harrisburg Area Community College, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and The Open University.

12 Comments

tallest skil 15 Years · 43086 comments

Seems that? crap, who was it. He predicted credits for iTunes U? was exactly right.

I just wonder if these are LEGIT courses that count for real-world credit.

prof. peabody 15 Years · 2858 comments

Quote:
Originally Posted by AppleInsider

The new iTunes U application for iPad unveiled by Apple on Thursday will allow college students to view course materials, receive updates from their teachers, and even sign up for classes.

In its presentation to the press, Apple showed off an online course from Duke for "Core Concepts in Chemistry." In the iTunes U application, students can get an overview of the course, view teacher details, obtain the class syllabus, and even access information like the teacher's office hours.

The iTunes U application for iPad has sections for "Info," "Posts," "Notes" and "Materials." In the "Posts" section, teachers can provide updates to students, including assignments.

The assignments can even be context sensitive, allowing a student to tap on it and automatically be sent to the appropriate section of a textbook in iBooks. When an assignment is completed, it can be crossed off of the included task list.

In the "Notes" tab, users can access and modify their class notes, even highlighting certain text. And the "Materials" tab shows off all of the material for a course, including textbooks, videos, audio, and documents.

The iTunes U application will even allow students to sign up for courses from directly within the software. Courses and professors can even be rated through iTunes U for iPad.

While books and applications required for courses do have costs, the iTunes U application itself is free and now available on the iPad App Store. Participating schools that have had early access to the software are Duke, Yale, Harrisburg Area Community College, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and The Open University.

This is going to create HUGE problems in Education outside of the USA.

It could potentially supplant the Education systems of entire countries and replace it with the US one (or at least there will be great pressure to do so form the teachers themselves), when in fact it's use would be mostly illegal in other western countries. It will be interesting to see what happens in regards the laws and wether it will change to accommodate Apple, or whether Apple will change to accommodate the law.

So ironic that the US is doing this also when the US education system is recognised world-wide for it's poor quality.

ascii 20 Years · 5930 comments

Just been looking through the courses. I already know them all. But hopefully this is just the start.

toruk 14 Years · 38 comments

Quote:
Originally Posted by Prof. Peabody

This is going to create HUGE problems in Education outside of the USA.

It could potentially supplant the Education systems of entire countries and replace it with the US one (or at least there will be great pressure to do so form the teachers themselves), when in fact it's use would be mostly illegal in other western countries. It will be interesting to see what happens in regards the laws and wether it will change to accommodate Apple, or whether Apple will change to accommodate the law.

So ironic that the US is doing this also when the US education system is recognised world-wide for it's poor quality.

The Open University is a British institution operating by Royal Charter.

conrail 14 Years · 489 comments

Quote:
Originally Posted by Tallest Skil

Seems that? crap, who was it. He predicted credits for iTunes U? was exactly right.

I just wonder if these are LEGIT courses that count for real-world credit.

I imagine it's as legit as any other online course from an accredited school.