The University has taken another step forward in the world of new media. Last Tuesday, it officially announced the launch of its own iTunes U channel, giving professors, schools and departments the opportunity to post original content directly to Apple's media application. Currently, about 1,200 lectures, radio shows, videos and other forms of digital output are available to download.
The new channel presents an opportunity for the University to expand its new media content and better organize classroom material for student use. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology's channel, a forerunner in iTunes U, provides the best example of the project's potential. MIT offers a nearly comprehensive set of academic lectures on its page; for many courses, students can find videos for every class meeting of the semester. Other schools, like Yale and the University of California, Berkeley, have followed suit and have posted similar content on their channels. The University should quickly move in this direction.
Though it would be costly to provide each classroom with the necessary equipment to record lectures, the University can start on a smaller scale. Video recording devices could be set up in large lecture halls on Grounds, and videos of classes like Kenneth Elzinga's Principles of Microeconomics or Larry Sabato's Introduction to American Politics could be posted on the iTunes U channel. In time, this practice could be expanded to more courses at the University.
Some professors or administrators may hesitate to post lecture videos online for fear that students will simply skip class. That concern is reasonable, but the positives of digitally cataloguing lectures appear to greatly outweigh the negatives. The videos would serve primarily as an excellent tool for reviewing course material. Furthermore, in large lectures with several hundred students, the level of interaction experienced from sitting in class is not significantly different from watching the material being covered on video. Other incentives for going to class could be offered if professors are genuinely concerned about attendance.
Of course, logistical hurdles do exist in implementing such a project. The level of cooperation among professors, administrators and Information Technology & Communication staff has not always been ideal. The transition from Toolkit to Collab, for example, left some faculty members frustrated and unsure about how to best incorporate the new technology into their courses. Given such constraints on the relationship, it may take time before MIT's degree of collaboration can be emulated.
One mistake the University has made early on is offering professors the option to require a Collab log-in to access course material on iTunes U. Not only would such a move make using iTunes U more cumbersome and unnecessarily restrict access, but it also would undermine two of the project's strongest capabilities. First, the public posting of course lectures online would let students shop for classes more effectively, making it easier to find professors with teaching styles comparable to students' learning needs. Second, it would be advantageous for prospective students to be able to view such content. In this sense, the channel could be seen as both a classroom aid and a marketing tool for the University.
iTunes U is a valuable resource that should be fully exploited. If the University is not quick to promote relevant content, however, students will lose interest. This opportunity should not be missed. iLectures would make the University's iTunes foray much more productive.
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