Apple’s iTunes U program has reached a milestone: more than 300 million downloads. An educational branch of the iTunes music store, iTunes U hosts content from more than 800 universities worldwide.
Stanford was the first university to offer free academic content to the public via the iTunes Store when the project launched in October 2005. As of Aug. 22, Stanford’s site had more than 22.8 million downloads.
According to BRENT IZUTSU, senior program manager for Stanford on iTunes U and YouTube, Stanford has more than 3,200 files available and maintains about 1 million downloads monthly. The most popular program on Stanford’s iTunes U site is a course in iPhone application programming. Other popular downloads include a course on the exploits of Hannibal, The Future of the Internet, Programming Methodology and Structure of English Words. The weekly Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders seminars are also consistently popular tracks.
Over the past several months, Stanford joined a handful of other schools piloting a new iTunes U system. The university launched the third version of its iTunes U site over the weekend. The site has been rebuilt from the ground up and now features improved search capabilities, social media integration, community ratings and comments, a contributor-centric organization structure and fresh graphics.
iTunes U offers a method for universities to post a variety of audio and video content, from course lectures to sporting events. Much of the content is publicly available for free. According to Apple, iTunes U has more than 350,000 audio and video files available at present.
—Sam Julian
