“Each of Professor Pam Watkins’s 70 podcasts took almost two hours to produce. Then she spent another 100 hours uploading and editing her handouts,” Mitch Smith reports for Inside Higher Ed. “The result is an intermediate algebra course that is one of the first classes in Apple’s new iTunes U library.”
“Apple, which approached a handful of colleges universities last spring to start work on the classes, unveiled its new platform at a Thursday press conference in New York City. Most of the courses — which anyone with a computer, iPad, iPhone or iTouch [sic] can download for free – are posted by major research institutions such as Duke and Yale Universities,” Smith reports. “The six offered by Harrisburg, ranging from differential equations to astronomy, are the only ones from a community college.”
Smith reports, “Unlike previous versions of iTunes U that offered audio and video podcasts but few supplementary materials, the new offerings are more like self-contained courses where students can download handouts and worksheets while following recorded lectures.”
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