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Illinois on iTunes U

by Doug Mills, CITES EdTech Consultant

iTunes U is an Apple-sponsored service provided to universities and colleges allowing them to take advantage of the iTunes Store infrastructure to deliver their multimedia content. The University of Illinois has a growing presence in iTunes U which is available at itunes.illinois.edu. Once logged in, the site will launch the free iTunes software (available for Windows or Macintosh at http://www.apple.com/itunes/) and take you to the Illinois site. There you'll find audio, video and "enhanced" podcasts (audio with synchronized images) on topics ranging from the Library's creative podcast on "Popular vs. Scholarly Articles" to 17 of the presentations made at the "Race, Diversity and Campus Climate 2008" conference in April.

iTunes U content can be made available to the world. This feature together with the high profile of the iTunes store and iTunes U make it an excellent platform for distributing promotional content. Several campus units are currently exploring this opportunity. Conversely, iTunes U provides the means to restrict access to content to select groups. One obvious application of this ability is choosing to set up a course-related podcast accessible only to students enrolled in a course, but this could also be used to restrict access to research groups or others and is not limited to on-campus collaborators. 

A common question is how podcasting is different from sharing audio or video files directly from a website or a streaming server such as the streaming service offered by CITES EdTech. The key difference between a podcast and other means of delivering multimedia via the internet is that podcasting is based on a subscription model. With this feature, as opposed to needing to actively go out and see if the instructor has posted additional multimedia files to the course website, students enrolled in a given class can subscribe to the course podcast and get updates automatically when they start up their podcast-aware software such as iTunes. In addition, although podcasts can easily be accessed on computers, they are also easily transferred to portable devices such as MP3 players to listen to on the go.

How might a podcast be used for educational purposes? Of course one thing that comes to mind quickly for many is podcasting lectures. This has been a popular application in many places and indeed lecture capture technology options are actively being investigated and implemented here at Illinois. Other more innovative "value-added" uses of podcasting for education include highlighting key points and study questions for the week, going over problem solutions in depth when there isn't time in class to do so, providing access to relevant authentic audio (such as historical content, political speeches, bird calls, musical content), interviewing experts in a field, requiring students to produce podcasts as group projects, and weekly class updates.

Podcasting, of course, doesn't require the use of iTunes U, so why might you choose to use iTunes U?  First, because it's well known and popular. Particularly if you are considering the use of podcasting to promote your department or college, iTunes U is a well-known venue that should be included in your considerations along with YouTube and others, but even for restricted course-based use, iTunes software is popular with students, free, and easily accessed. Second, iTunes U is a relatively user friendly way to distribute a podcast. Third, iTunes U provides the option of restricting access to a podcast to specific groups rather than necessarily being wide open to the world. Fourth, an iTunes U site can be set up to allow students to contribute podcasts, either for instructors only in a dropbox style mode, or for the whole class to access.

So what if you'd like to explore further the possibility of using podcasts to promote your department or as a resource for a class you're teaching?  Educational Technology consultants would welcome a meeting with you to discuss or brainstorm the potential for your situation. You can contact us at edtech@illinois.edu. Ready to request an iTunes U site?  There is a link to the request form at the login page at itunes.illinois.edu.