The University officially launched its own iTunes U channel last Tuesday, allowing professors, schools and departments to post their own content directly to Apple's web-based media application.
Professors can provide content exclusively to students in a particular class by linking the course's Collab site to iTunes or can choose to make content available to the general public by adding their courses to the University's public site, said Jonelle Kinback, assistant director of web communications in the Office of Public Affairs.
Mike McPherson, associate vice president and deputy chief information officer, said the site connects course material with students' lives in a way that few other media sources can.
"With the predominance of iPods and iPhones and iPod Touches as music and video players, making course materials available in a format that is very easily downloaded to the player that most people have is a win," he said.
A trial version of the channel launched last March, Kinback said, to allow departments and schools to get a feel for how to post content and what content was best suited for the site. Now that the site is fully operational, she said she hopes it will serve as a tool that will allow students and followers of the University to subscribe to content they find most interesting and engaging.
The main page of the University's public site scrolls through new and featured content, highlighting recent events and the latest postings, Kinback said.
Amanda Lotas, audio-video editor in the Strategic Communications Office, selects the items featured on the main page, and said the Darden School is doing the most right now in terms of the amount of files and features available both publicly and privately.
"They do a great job maintaining their site," she said, noting that Darden's audio series, "GreenPod," and UVa Today's weekly radio show are two of the site's most downloaded features. Lectures from figures such as Nobel Peace Prize winner Mohammad Yunus, who recently spoke at the University, also are available for download.
"I think if we lay out in the open events that are going on and people who come to visit to give lectures and so many other things, then I think that's going to make the community more excited about having the University in their midst," Lotas said.
The Admissions Office also has added content aimed at prospective students, which, Lotas said, will allow the University to be portrayed in new and engaging ways. Prospective students can explore the site to get a direct feel for the University's classes and course structure, Lotas said.
Fourth-year College student Chris Hooe said he is excited about the new channel, though he has yet to visit it. "I think it'd be good to have as another resource for students to go to," he said.
Students in some classes have even begun generating their own content, said third-year College student Dane Cash, whose Modernist British Fiction class creates podcasts for the site as part of its curriculum.
"If this was 10 years ago, we would have just made a display board," Cash said, noting how technology has changed the way students learn.
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