The Impact on Learningof iTunes U

Open Educational ResourcesTerese Bird

Learning Technologist and SCORE FellowBeyond Distance Research Alliance, University of

Leicester

What’ll we talk about?

• A Bit of History• Is iTunes U an OER channel?• Impact• Positives and negatives• Futuregazing

Photo courtesy of quiroso on Flickr

iTunes U: the coolest OER channel

Photos courtesy RJ Lammers, LHG Creative Photography, Flickr

iTunes U for University

Power Search

Not just universities

Way back in 2005…

What was the purpose?

Photo courtesy of morberg on Flickr

Is iTunes U OER?

Under the category “OER Tools and Services”

What is OER?

Photo courtesy of aflcio on Flickr

What is OER?

Is iTunes U OER?

How do we measure impact?

David Wiley said:

“I think OERs are like toothbrushes”

Photo courtesy of Michael_Lehet on Flickr

It’s all in the downloads

University Downloads

Open University, UK Over 32 million since June 2008

University of Oxford Over 8 million since June 2008

Coventry University 2.5 million in 2010 alone

University of Warwick 1 million Jan ‘09 – June ‘10

Open University iTunes U Site

22 March 2011

Snapshot via Twitter

• 5th – 10th March 2011• “iTunesU”• 101 tweets

– 73 English– 28 non-English

Characterising iTunes U TweetsCategory of Tweet Number

Use iTunesU material to teach others 4

Use for oneself – just interested 13

Use for oneself – learn something specific 10

Technical discussion 7

Academic discussion 15

General positive 20

General positive – OER-related 3

Negative 1

What are iTunes U users thinking?

What are iTunes U users thinking?

iTunes U Impact Survey

N = 126

iTunes U Impact Survey24.6% had already used educational

material from iTunes or iTunes U

http://tinyurl.com/surveyitunesu

University of LeicesterMicrobiology Bytes iTunes podcasts

164 episodes; each file downloaded average of 73x every month at peak(Courtesy of Dr Alan Cann, University of Leicester Department of Biology http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/microbiologybytes-enhanced/id177803088)

Other Impact• PhD student applications improve• Hits on university website increase• Multimedia OER• Mobile OER• Beyond Campus• K-12

Photo courtesy of superkimbo on Flickr

Positives and NegativesPositives Negatives

Excellent profile for institution Not a browser

Three standard formats iTunes in public lab computer - issues

Excellent on Apple mobile devices Not easily accessed on nonApple handheld

Download files – constant internet unnecessary

Not very good for conversation with learners

Fast download Copyright – not always right for re-use

Good search capability Apple is a corporation

Reaches places YouTube can’t (China)

Pushes OER agenda and brings uni together in discussion

Apple is a corporation

Futuregazing

Photo courtesy of smemon87 on Flickr

Futuregazing

Photo courtesy of FHKE on Flickr

Futuregazing

If….

Photo courtesy of Sigalakos on Flickr

Must leverage and manage

Image courtesy of bluekdesign on Flickr

References

• http://wiki.creativecommons.org/What_is_OER%3F

• http://opencontent.org/blog/archives/1780• http://projects.kmi.open.ac.uk/itunesu/impact/