CCSC Pushes for iTunes U

More than just a source of music, videos, and podcasts, iTunes may become an educational device by the fall semester.

The Columbia College Student Council—working jointly with administrators, Columbia University Information Technology, the Columbia Center for New Media Teaching and Learning, Free Culture at Columbia, and Apple Computer’s education program—passed a proposal Sunday night to bring iTunes U to Columbia.

The program would provide lectures and other resources in a digital format that would be accessible to members of the University community.

CCSC sophomore class vice president Sue Yang said in an interview that she had first heard of successes in a similar program at the University of Pennsylvania, where the program had been spearheaded by the undergraduate student council. The iTunes U program has also been developed on other campuses across the country, such as Stanford, University of California-Berkeley, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Along with CCSC academic affairs representative Donna Desilus, CC ’09 and candidate for vice president for policy, Yang said that she began to investigate the various educational iTunes programs found at other universities.

Both Desilus and Yang stressed that while iTunes U would be mostly used as an educational tool for students, it would also be used for keeping the Columbia student body connected.

At the council meeting, Sara Partridge, CCSC freshman class representative, noted that the program is especially useful for classes with visual instruction that is more difficult for students to take down in notes.

“It could also mitigate the problem of over-enrollment. If students can look at lectures beforehand, they can make more informed choices” Partridge said about using the tool when choosing classes.

The ad hoc iTunes U committee has started to create a system whereby professors would be able to choose who can access their posted material. Desilus explained that there would be one password-protected level open only to students, a second for alumni and parents, and a third open to the general public.

But Desilus acknowledged that posting lectures on iTunes might lead to a dive in classroom attendance.

“It’s not about helping students skip lectures,” she said. “It’s more about further engaging students in the classroom as well as beyond it.”

She added that the committee has been exploring different possibilities that would encourage students to physically attend class, such as intentionally delaying the process of posting lectures by several days.

Desilus and Yang are hopeful that iTunes U will be instated in many of the large lecture halls by the fall semester.

Desilus also stressed that the program would not be used solely by professors, and that students would be able to upload their own material. She said that the initiative might be particularly helpful in language classes.

“If we could make language resources available on iTunes, it would change how Columbia does teaching and it would change the way we learn,” Desilus said.

Yang said that while there was still technicalities to be worked out, the administration has been supportive so far. “We’re very excited about the possibility of this happening in the very near future,” she said.

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