Apple today, just a short while after updating iMovie, has pushed an update to its iTunes U app on iOS. The update bumps the app to version 3.1 and includes a handful of new features, enhancements, and under-the-hood fixes.
For one, posts made in iTunes U can now include images. This will be incredibly useful for students and teachers to easily show the progress being made on a certain task or how to do something. The grade book has also been refreshed to display a student’s average grade within a course, a capability that probably should have been there from the beginning. The grade book can also now display minimum, maximum, and average grades in a class for an assignment.
Perhaps most notably, this update a design that better takes advantage of the larger display of the forthcoming iPad Pro. The iPad Pro will likely be incredibly popular among the education market, so it makes sense that Apple updated one the top education apps prior to the device’s launch. Finally, Apple also notes of various stability and performance improvements, as well.
iTunes U 3.1 for iOS can be downloaded now from the App Store for free. The full changelog can be seen below:
What’s New in Version 3.1
- Posts can now include images
- Grade book displays student’s average grade within a course
- Grade book displays minimum, maximum and mean grades for an assignment
- iTunes U is now designed to take advantage of the larger canvas of iPad Pro
- Includes minor stability and performance improvements
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I love the idea of iTunes U, but does anyone actually use it?
That seems like an odd question, no disrespect intended. A lot of people, and i have computer savvy friends also, who never attended college and don’t care about it, but I think a couple of years ago they had over a billion and a half downloads. The universities who offer courses exceeds like 1500 (Cambridge, Yale, MIT, Oxford, etc) and kindergarteners teachers the same number. My grandpa was an educator so it was after he retired, but loved the concept and kept his mind agile taking courses outside his areas of studies. About 60%, roughly, it was reported, of the users were outside the US. A well known chem prof at Ohio State had 100,000 downloads for gen chem. first year it was offered. (Had I taken that maybe i would be in medicine today instead of film and writing,) I have friends who used it to prep for GRE, SAT and others. If anybody has an interest in learning, it’s a great free opportunity Apple has gifted to the public. Pretty amazing.
No disrespect taken.
It just seems like it doesn’t get much media or tech-blog coverage, so I didn’t know if anyone uses it.
I have browsed some of the classes, and the number and breadth of subjects covered is quite impressive.
I just never really read about anyone using it. It certainly could be a reflection of what I read, and not the actual use.
I’ll take another look and see about taking a few classes.
I do use it actually along w/ others I know. It gets more use out of people living outside America mostly coz it helps us access good quality courses that we’d not be able to. It’s a novel idea.
I’m wondering that too. Although i think it needs more support. A web app for windows users or a native app for mac would boost it’s usage probably
I think those are great ideas.
The iTunes app for Mac supports iTunes U and all its features. Though a separate app would be even better.
And if Apple release it for other platforms, it is gonna make a lasting impression on masses for sure.
But then it wont be exclusive for the iOS users and unlike Microsoft, Apple is not yet in such desperate situation.