iLounge

Following success with the “Stanford On iTunes” initiative, Apple has expanded its iTunes U service in recent months with partnerships with several schools, including Duke University, Drexel University’s School of Education and the University of Michigan School of Dentistry.

Apple describes iTunes U as “a free, hosted service for colleges and universities that provides easy access to your educational content, including lectures and interviews 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.” The service is based in iTunes and is navigated and used just like the iTunes Music Store.

While most of the participating universities are just getting started with content for students, Stanford says it is now offering nearly 500 tracks, such as lectures and lessons, that are available to anyone for free. “One of Stanford’s primary missions is to educate the public,” says Scott Stocker, director of Web communications. Allowing the public to access the content “just felt like the right thing to do,â€? says Cindy Pearson, director of alumni programs.

Stanford says that over 130,000 tracks were downloaded from the site in the first two weeks, and that more than 15,000 tracks, on average, were downloaded per week through the end of the fall semester. The university says it is considering adding recordings of sports events, virtual tours or guided audio tours to the service.