www.le.ac.uk

iBooks, iTunes U,and the learning materials revolution

Terese BirdLearning Technologist & SCORE Research FellowUniversity of Leicester

JISC East Midlands RSC e-fair, Nottingham, 21 June 2012

www.le.ac.uk

SPIDER Project www.le.ac.uk/spider

What will we talk about?• iTunes U FAQs

• Ebook trends

• How to make an ebook for different devices

Photo courtesy of womensnet_gallery, Flickr

iTunes U: free learning since 2007

iTunes U how to: mp3, mp4, pdf, epub

iTunes U v YouTubeYouTube iTunes U

Ease to publish Easy Not so easy

Ease to grab Easy-ish Easy

Ease to adapt Not so easy Not so easy

CC Catered for but hidden Catered for and ?

Formats Video Audio, video, epub, pdf

Academic quality Mixed, diluted Very Good

Internet connection Required at the time Not required at the time

Software Any browser Free iTunes software

Time limit 10 – 15 minutes* None

Restrictions Banned in China, others

None

Restrictions in UK Schools don’t like Some unis don’t like

Mobile-ready Smartphones, tablets All including non-smart iPods, best on Apple

Ads Irritating ads No ads

How universities make use of iTunes U

• Both current learning and marketing

• “It’s the great learning material that brings the registrations.” (Bean, 2011)

• Research vignettes

• Library and resources

• Usually both iTunes U and YouTube

Download numbers Nov 2011 (Bird, 2012)

International reach

3 June 2008 – 2 January 2012

International reach – opinions on Sina Weibo

Trends

Magrid Associates (2012)

Trends

Magrid Associates (2012)

Trends

Magrid Associates (2012)

Trends

Trends – Apple is dropping prices• One-third of US high school students own iPhone

(price drop on iPhone 3Gs) (Slivka, 2012)

• iPad2 for £329

• In our Spring 2012 survey, 34% of students owned a tablet computer (same percentage as iPhones), up from 29% in Fall 2011 and 22% last Spring. Of those tablet owners, 70% owned iPads, 19% owned Android tablets, and 11% owned Kindle Fires. 53% of iPad owners also owned an iPhone, demonstrating the halo effect of entry devices like the iPhone.

iPads in learning• Over 600

American school districts are using iPads (StaffWriters, 2012)

• Many UK university iPad pilots

• Leicester iPads(Iman, 2012)

Now iTunes U has ‘Courses’

• Course: A series of educational lectures, lessons, interviews, and so on, in a particular subject. Courses consist of info (including an overview, outline, and instructor profile), posts (including assignments), and materials (for example, audio and video items). Instructors can create and prepare content for a course by recording lectures, developing assignments, creating videos and podcasts, uploading keynote presentations or other documents and handouts, and much more. (Apple, 2012)

Now iTunes U has ‘Courses’

Now iTunes U has ‘Courses’

How to make Courses

• Need to be in iTunes U

• Apple’s own instructions ‘iTunes U Course Manager’ (Apple, 2012)

• Cedar’s School of Excellence tutorials on iTunes U are excellent (Speirs, 2012)

eBooks for all devices!

• Calibre – free, open-source, cross-platform

• mobi – Kindle

• epub – everything else

• iPads read epub!

• There’s always pdf but…

eBooks for all devices!

• How-to video on YouTube and iTunes U, view on http://www.le.ac.uk/duckling

• Instructions at: http://tinyurl.com/calibreinstruc

• Findings from DUCKLING project – JISC-funded

Should we just ignore Apple, iPads & iTunes U?• Must keep them in sight

• iPad2 discount – affordable?

• Apple playing a long game (Hill, 2012)

• iPad is number 1 tablet in education, no one else is doing anything like iTunes U

Try epub,consider iTunes U

• www.le.ac.uk/ manufacturingpasts as example of trying all formats

Thank you!Apple. (2012). Using iTunes U Public Site Manager: Glossary. Using iTunes U Public Site Manager. Retrieved June 19, 2012, from

http://sitemanager.itunes.apple.com/help/Glossary/chapter_998_section_1.html

Hill, P. (2012). Apple is Playing the Long Game with iBooks 2 and iTunesU App | e-Literatee-Literate. eLiterate Website. Retrieved June 20, 2012, from http://mfeldstein.com/apple-is-playing-the-long-game-with-ibooks2-and-itunesu-app/

Iman, F. (2012). University of Leicester takes learning into the heart of conflict zones — University of Leicester. University of Leicester website. Retrieved June 19, 2012, from http://www2.le.ac.uk/offices/press/press-releases/2012/march/university-of-leicester-takes-learning-into-the-heart-of-conflict-zones

Magrid Associates, F. N. (2012). A Portrait of Today’s Tablet User Wave II. Retrieved from http://onlinepubs.ehclients.com/images/pdf/MMF-OPA_--_Portrait_of_Tablet_User-Wave_2_--_Jun12_(Public).pdf

Slivka, E. (2012). One-Third of U.S. High School Students Now Own an iPhone - Mac Rumors. MacRumors website. Retrieved June 20, 2012, from http://www.macrumors.com/2012/04/03/one-third-of-u-s-high-school-students-now-own-an-iphone/

Speirs, F. (2012). Creating iTunes U Courses - Download Free Content from Cedars School of Excellence on iTunes. Cedars School of Excellence iTunes U site. Retrieved June 20, 2012, from http://itunes.apple.com/gb/course/creating-itunes-u-courses/id535005672

staff writers for Online Universities.com site. (2012). 18 enlightening ipad experiments in education » online universities. Online Universities.com website. Retrieved June 19, 2012, from http://www.onlineuniversities.com/18-enlightening-ipad-experiments-in-education