The Impact on Learningof iTunes U

Open Educational Resources

Terese BirdLearning Technologist and SCORE Fellow

Beyond Distance Research AllianceUniversity of Leicester

23 March, 2011

iTunes U for University

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?

iTunes U Impact SurveyN = 126

iTunes U Impact Survey24.6% had already used educational

material from iTunes or iTunes U

Open University iTunes U Site

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

Photo courtesy of Sigalakos on Flickr