University College London is to be the first European university to distribute free lecture material through iTunes.

Educational content for Germany and Turkey to build joint university in Istanbul ...
Doctors to assess duke's recovery ...
Dolly institute joins vet school ... students is already available from universities in the United States through this music downloading software.

But UK universities are now set to join this service, providing video and audio material such as lectures to be downloaded for use by students.

The service will include recordings of lectures from leading academics.

"Our students will be able to revisit materials presented to them in lectures, so they can learn anywhere and anytime," says Professor Peter Mobbs at University College London.

Lecture on demand

When the service goes live on Tuesday, the initial offerings will include material about neuroscience, the university's "lunch time lectures" and an audio news round-up.

This will be available from iTunes U, launched by Apple computers last summer as a non-charging education area within the iTunes online music and video store.

It is intended to make lectures available to students at the institutions and to a wider public audience.

This has been used by leading US universities to provide lectures and research news, including Harvard, Yale, Stanford, UC Berkeley and MIT. Now University College London will be the first European university to make its content available in this way.

Many universities in the UK have been making their own podcasts of lectures, but this will be the first time they have been distributed on the iconic iTunes service.

A recent market survey showed that four billion songs have been sold through the service since it launched five years ago, making it the biggest music retailer in the United States.

The iTunes service gained its dominant position in online music as the downloading service for the iPod player.

A spokesperson for University College London said that the service would appeal to "techno-literate students" and "reach new audiences around the world".

(BBC)

<< Back