Seven unis take a bite of Apple site

SEVEN universities in Australia and New Zealand will make a great leap into online lecturing today when American computer giant Apple launches a local iTunes U education site.

SEVEN universities in Australia and New Zealand will make a great leap into online lecturing today when American computer giant Apple launches a local iTunes U education site.

Billing itself as the campus that never sleeps, in the business of "transforming learning on campus, off campus and where there's no campus at all", the website claims it is always in session to keep students motivated.

Expand the curriculum and transcend the classroom, it encourages lecturers, while inviting students to "study on your own schedule, no matter how crazy", noting that "learning has finally caught up with your lifestyle".

The participants that will offer their teaching and research free for download on iPods are Griffith University, Swinburne University of Technology, the Australian National University, the University of Melbourne, the University of NSW, the University of Western Australia and Otago University.

"It offers another window into the university and its processes," UWA's Centre for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning director Denise Chalmers said. "It's another tool to tap into the way in which people want that portability."

She conceded that plenty of information was already available on the university website but argued that "often on a university website you have to know where to go to find information, and each website is more or less amenable to that".

An Apple spokeswoman said there was "no dollar figure" on the partnership, that the company was providing the infrastructure and the universities the content.

Griffith University pro vice-chancellor (learning and student outcomes) Sue Spence said it had become essential to deliver flexible learning "as students increasingly become more mobile and seek to combine their study with work, family and other commitments".

The facility would also be useful for the public, who might be interested in downloading concerts and public lectures featuring staff, students and eminent keynote speakers at the university.

Swinburne Digital Learning Initiative educational co-ordinator Lisa Germany said the university's initial offering included stereoscopic 3-D movies from its Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing and short films by its film and television school students.

"Having a presence on iTunes U allows existing students and new audiences to discover Swinburne's key areas of expertise and to access contact wherever and whenever it's convenient," Dr Germany said. "You don't have to be a student to access university knowledge."

There are 300 educational institutions worldwide that already distribute free video and audio content via iTunes U.