Apple recently announced that all collections in the iTunes U, your platform for free courses, will be migrated to the part of Podcasts when the iTunes 12.7 is released in September.
The platform was launched in 2007 to allow the download of free educational content through the iTunes Store. Its own iOS app came in 2012 and allows course creators to provide more than audio or video, that is, handouts, activities, tests, ebooks and more.
On the Mac today, there is a specific area for iTunes U that will disappear in September and all of its content will be migrated to that of Podcasts. All “collections”, then, can be accessed directly in the Podcasts app on the iPhone, iPad, Apple TV and through iTunes on the Mac or PC. Still, the iTunes U iOS app will continue to function normally, but only with courses, not collections.
In the statement, Apple says that nothing needs to be done for anyone who makes their content available through iTunes U, but advises everyone to check whether it is possible to discard anything that is out of date or is unnecessary in the material. Another suggestion for content creators who choose PDF files or other types instead of ePub, which is not supported by the Podcasts app even though this page states that the app can, yes, reproduce this type of extension. Still, good to follow Ma's advice.
On the student help page, Apple also states that all links will redirect to the same content, but in Podcasts. In addition, it is suggested that if you want to download the content of the collection, do it before the change occurs, the material will be in the "downloads" part of Podcasts.
If you make any material available on iTunes U, see all the information on this link.
With this change, platform collections will have a wider reach in the audience, as podcasts have become increasingly popular. As John Voorhees of the MacStories, it may be that Apple just wants to stop having an iTunes U solution only on iOS, but he believes that, in the future, we may see a part app on macOS.
iTunes U
in Apple
Version 3.7.4 (40.3 MB) Requires iOS 11.0 or superior
