Sheffield on iTunes U - Introduction and future

directions

Dr Graham McElearney - Sheffield on iTunes U manager

Stephen Thompson - Digital Manager, Andrew Twist - Digital Content Producer

Professor Mark Winter - Academic Lead

Programme for today

•What is iTunes U?

•Sheffield on iTunes U

•Examples of educational materials

•Review

• Future directions

iTunes U•Part of the iTunes Store

•Universities make audio-visual materials available for free

•Accessed via iTunes software on PCs, Macs

•Mobile access on iPhones and iPads using the iTunes U app

•Android users access using TuneSpace (free from Play)

Why are we doing it?

•A responsibility to share knowledge with the world

•To raise the international profiles of individuals, their discipline, department and the University

International

Russell Group

Sheffield

Russell Group

Sheffield

Oxford’s global reach

• 19 million downloads from iTunes U

• 4,200 podcast items processed

• 3,480 academic speakers and contributors

• Downloads from 185 countries

• Inclusion in Apple’s global marketing

• Click through links to university departments

• 50% of material has a CC license million downloads from iTunes U

• 4,200 podcast items processed

• 3,480 academic speakers and contributors

• Downloads from 185 countries

• Inclusion in Apple’s global marketing

• Click through links to university departments

• 50% of material has a CC license

iTunes U and YouTube• Both offer video and audio content for free

• Both are channels - don’t have to be mutually exclusive

• iTunes U - not blocked in China

• iTunes U - downloadable content - content available offline

• iTunes U - content can be structured as a “course”

• YouTube can have distractions

iTunes U and MOOCs

• MOOCs:

•Typically weekly structure of content

•Often provide assessment activities such as quizzes, blog postings

•Encourage interaction between other students

•Offer certification for completion

iTunes U and MOOCs

• iTunes U:

•Content grouped as collections or “courses”

•No timetable

•No formal support or assessment

•No certificates or credit

Meaning of iTunes U to TUoS

•A vision:

•To take the fantastic diversity of excellence that is the University of Sheffield, and distil, distribute and celebrate it in digital form

What else should be here? What shouldn’t be here?

Excellence in......•Learning and teaching

•Research

•Public engagement

•Outreach

•Supporting the student experience

•Student generated materials

A demo.....

•Materials organised into collections

•Audio, video, screencasts

•PDFs and eBooks can also be added

•Collections have “cover art”

•Metadata - title, description, keywords

Learning and teaching

Examples......

Screencast tutorials....

Learning and teaching

Examples......

Talking head - voice of expert or discussion....

Learning and teaching

Examples......

Instructional video.....

Learning and teaching

Examples......

Audio....

Excellence in

Supporting the student experience

Video Interviews

Research

Excellence in

Video produced by external agency

Public engagement

Excellence in

Audio recordings

Examples......

Student projects

What sort of content?

• But must be legal

• No copyright infringing material

• Contributors need to consent

Who is the audience?

Thomas Pleil CC BY NC 2.0

Activity• In pairs:

• Think of an idea from your own work to contribute

• Identify which category (learning and teaching, research, public engagement, outreach, student experience,

student generated)

• Identify type of content (e.g. instructional video, audio interview)

• What sort of support would you need?

What sort of content?• Lecture recordings - timetabled or special events

• Specialist interviews or discussions with colleagues

• Instructional videos

• Screencast tutorials

• To provide learning resources on location e.g. field work

• Answers to Frequently Asked Questions

• Student generated

• Limited only by imagination.......

Review of the current site content

• Over 500 individual items

• 75 collections

• All Sheffield based Faculties

• Professional Services

Review of the current site content - access

• 7,992 Streams

• 12,333 downloads

• 10,322 visitors

• 2,622 subscriptions

Review of the current site content - access by country

80% Traffic from outside of UK

Review of the current site content - access across time

Review of the current site content - popular items

SiTU - Future directions

• Academic lead - Professor Mark Winter

• Dy to day management - Corporate Affairs Digital Team

• Content production and technical advice - Creative Media Team in CiCS and Corporate Affairs Digital Team

Available Support

•Creative Media Team

•Equipment loan

•Editing facilities

•Support and advice

•Direct support for production

•Training and support for your students

•Freely available software for audio and video editing

Web-based support• SiTU support site at www.sheffield.ac.uk/itunesu

•Information for contributors

•Gallery of examples

•Request support

•Consent form and explanation

•Technical information

•Other useful downloads - branding files and Adobe encoding presets

Telling the academic story.....

• Shift emphasis away from a specific platform

• Engage more with the increased interest in using media to tell the academic story e.g. Tales From the Ivory Tower

Produce once - publish many

• Move away from hosting content in a number of places e.g. Apple’s servers, YouTube etc

• Have one hosting platform with the ability to publish into YouTube, UoS website, iTunes U, MOLE......

Come and join us!

• www.shef.ac.uk/itunesu

• itunesu@sheffield.ac.uk

• m.winter@sheffield.ac.uk

• creativemedia@sheffield.ac.uk

Session Feedback

•We would welcome your feedback on this session, via this URL

•http://goo.gl/ReRYkH

•Thank you