Northwestern uploaded its first videos to iTunes on Monday.
This morning, the university will become one of the most recent institutions to join iTunes U, a channel of Apple’s iTunes music store that provides free, iPod-compatible videos from universities, museums and public media to anyone with the digital media player.
“It’s another channel through which we can deliver a lot of content,” said Vice President for University Relations Al Cubbage. “It allows you to reach audiences that otherwise you wouldn’t be able to.”
The move is the culmination of efforts that began in 2006 when NU initially passed on the opportunity to join iTunes U, largely due to the service’s slow uploading speeds, said Robert Taylor, NU director of academic technologies.
“In (the last) six months we have renewed conversations and hammered out a memo of understanding,” Taylor said.
The use of the site does not currently cost the university a fee or use any of its bandwidth, Taylor said. The university will only need to use its own servers when it exceeds the amount of bandwidth allotted by iTunes U, something not likely to happen within the next year.
Cubbage said most of the 146 videos currently uploaded to the site were already available on NU’s YouTube channel established in 2007, which served as a showcase for campus events along with notable individuals.
“(iTunes U is) similar to YouTube and our own Web site in that it provides another outlet for people inside and outside the university to see the remarkable things done inside,” he said.
Anthropology Prof. Elizabeth Brumfiel, who was interviewed for a video on a Chicago Field Museum Aztec exhibit that is currently available for download, said she did not feel strongly about where her comments were viewed.
“I know that if it goes out over the Internet, it will reach a lot of people,” she said. “But one outlet versus another outlet, I can’t really give an opinion on.”
According to Cubbage, efforts are underway to provide more academic content through a system that would allow NU students to view videos specific to their courses. Although the new material does not have a specific “launch date,” it would be available either this academic year or the next one, he said.
The ability to make content course-specific was the major reason behind the university’s decision to join iTunes U, Taylor said.
“The iTunes U platform allows us to develop a controlled access to course sites,” Taylor said. “We’ll be able to post material for course sites or specific material for communities at Northwestern.”
This has been a major goal of Associated Student Government for about a year now, said Mike McGee, ASG academic vice president. This desire was indicated by a bill passed by the ASG Senate in the fall, urging the university to join iTunes U as a way to make taped course lectures available.
ASG was inspired by the content produced by other “peer institutions,” said the Communication junior.
“We’ve seen all those pages from schools like Duke and Stanford with different academic and student group content, so to know that we’re getting one now is very exciting news,” McGee said.
The next step is to convince professors to allow taping in their classes so students can better review lectures, McGee said.
“This is a really good start, but we’re going to expand this resource,” he said.
