iTunes U is a free hosted content distribution system from Apple that enables colleges and universities to make audio and video material from lectures, interviews, audio books and other sources available to students with the ease of the iTunes Store. It allows users to download the content to their Mac or PC, transfer the information to a portable device and view or listen to it anywhere and at any time. Apple offers an
introductory video for more information.
UQ on iTunes U is a university-wide educational site that provides educational, marketing, and service content using a multi-media experience (video, audio, and PDF) that appeals to the user’s mobile lifestyle (MP3 Player, iPod/iPod Touch, iPhone)
UQ students, faculty and staff download podcasts from iTunes U. Our service is also open to the general public. Future and former students are also connecting with UQ through iTunes U.
No, you may listen to or view podcasts using a Microsoft Windows based personal computer by installing the free
iTunes software.
If you have a non-Apple MP3 player you will not be able to play .mp4 AAC files. To re-encode the AAC (.mp4) files into MP3 format, download the content into your iTunes application. Next, in the iTunes preferences, click on the “Advanced” icon and navigate to the “Importing” tab. Then select “MP3 Encoder” in the import using menu. Finally, highlight the file(s) that you wish to convert, go to the Advanced menu, and click on “Convert Selection to .mp3.”
No, the valuable educational content and iTunes software are available at no charge.
All material submitted to the UQ site will be free and not require entry of any kind of credit/gift card information. The same applies to most other iTunesU material.
UQ media files actually live on UQ servers so they don’t come from student quota. They are downloaded from UQ. iTunes media player updates are part of our acami cache so they don’t come from student quota. The small amount of traffic from the iTunes shop (before the media file is downloaded) will come from the student quota as will any non UQ media they download from iTunes.
There are three types of content: Video; Audio; PDF. Audio and video files can be played directly from the iTunesU section of the iTunes store. They can also be played after downloading them to your media player. PDF can only be viewed after being downloaded. To play files directly from the site, select the file and press enter (or double click). To download files to your media player select the file and click the “Get” button. The file will appear in the iTunesU section of your library (V9 and above). Remember, PDFs can only be viewed after being downloaded. Click the “Get” button and locate the downloaded file in the iTunesU section of your library.
First, make sure you have the most current version of iTunes installed on your Mac or PC computer. To download the application, visit
www.apple.com/itunes/download/. Also make sure that you are running the most current update of your system software. Next, launch the iTunes application and click on “iTunes Store” in the Store list. Select “iTunes U” in the top right navigation area, and search for “The University of Queensland” on the resulting page. Alternatively, you can go directly to our iTunes U page at
www.uq.edu.au/itunes.
Contributors
- Subscriptions: Once you subscribe to a feed you automatically reveive any material releases on that feed. This is great for students who automatically course material as its released.
- Portability: Students can view the content on the run. Great for revision.
- Popularity: iTunes U leverages iTunes which has a very significant share of the media player market
There are two parts to the site: Public and Private: Content on the public site can be viewed by anyone. The private iTunes U site will be restricted to UQ users only. This is where most course related material is expected to be. This interface is part of Stage 2 due 2010.
Educational content, informational podcasts, campus services and resources, news, and topics of interest to the general public are some of the options. Content must:
- Contain no profanity
- Comply with all copyright laws
RSS is way of subscribing to receive future content posts automatically.
Manually-uploaded content is placed directly on the UQ server.
Audio — AAC, MP3, with .m4a, .mp3 extensions. Windows .wmv files are not compatible with iTunes.
- Data Rate: 128kbits/sec
- Channels: Stereo Output
- Sample Rate: 44.100 kHz
- Encoding Quality: Better
Video — MPEG-4, H.264 with .mp4, .m4v, .mov file extensions.
- File type H.264 will work best with iPods for those of you anticipating that your files will be downloaded to an iPod.
- Data rate: 256 kbits/sec
- Image size: 320 x 240
- Frame Rate: 30
- Key Frame: every 24 frames
PDFs — .pdf extensionFor those who are hosting their content on Apple servers, the individual file size limit has been increased from 500MB to 1GB. This will enable the upload of larger files.
To convert files using your own computer, several application software programs are available such as Hand Brake. Please consult with your IT representative. Internet Media Services provides free transfer services if the content is related to course material or promoting your educational program.
Individual faculty and UQ retain all ownership rights, including copyright, patents, trademarks, and other intellectual property of the content uploaded to UQ on iTunes U. Apple has the right to store UQ content that is uploaded to Apple servers and to serve UQ content through the UQ on iTunes U site. Apple also has the option to use UQ public content for promotional, marketing, and demonstration purposes. More information is available in the iTunes U Terms of Use agreement.
If you are intending to contribute content to the University’s public iTunes U site, please follow the following simple guidelines:
- 1. You may upload content where you are the copyright owner of the entire work
- 2. You are not the owner of the entire copyright work if, for example, you have shot a video and added music content from a third-party source. In this case, see the following point;
- 3. You may upload content that includes third-party material where you have received express written permission for that purpose – please include reference to any permission in the “comments” section of the file upload form;
- 4. University teaching material should not be uploaded to the iTunes U public site. This material is only intended for use by UQ staff and students and will often contain content included under statutory and/or commercial licences which prohibit its availability on a public website;
- 5. If in doubt in relation to any copyright issues, DO NOT upload content until you have discussed the matter with the University’s copyright lawyer, Tom Joyce – ext. 56755 or t.joyce@library.uq.edu.au
Please see your division marketing coordinator.
To request submitter access for a staff member, or report a service outage contact
ITS Helpdesk
For problems using iTunes please contact your local IT support staff.
For look, feel, site-layout or general queries contact the service owner which is
OMC or
itunes@uq.edu.au
