November 3, 2006

Purdue enhances classroom podcasting with Apple's iTunes University

Bart Collins, director of digital content at Purdue, said that iTunes will make it easier for students to subscribe to course podcasts so that lectures are automatically sent to students' computers.

"Although students can syndicate our content through our current BoilerCast system, this will save them several steps," Collins said. "Many students already use iTunes, so this will also let them work directly with a system that they are very familiar with."

Purdue's BoilerCast system replaced the use of audiocassettes to record some classes. Before, students had to check out the audiocassettes from the library. With BoilerCast, students can listen to the files on their computers via streaming, or they can download the audio files to mp3 devices such as the nearly ubiquitous iPod.

"The iTunes University system will work in conjunction with BoilerCast. It will not be a replacement," Collins said. "iTunes University will make it easier for student to syndicate the classroom content so that it will automatically update their files when they connect their portable devices to their computers."

BoilerCast is thought to be the first podcasting service to be delivered as a central service by a university. During its first year, BoilerCast was used for 130 courses on campus and delivered more than 240,000 audio files in the popular mp3 format.

"Because we hear from students that most people stream the content instead of downloading it, I would speculate that we delivered as many as 1 million files in the first year," Collins said.

Podcasting has gained popularity at Purdue and other universities because it allows students to review class lectures.

"We see the numbers turn up sharply right before finals when students are reviewing the semester's content," Collins said.

Collins said he is often asked if students use the service to avoid going to class, but he says there is no evidence that this is happening.

"The audio portion is just a small band in the overall class experience, and our students recognize that," he said. "None of the professors using the BoilerCast system have reported a noticeable change in their classroom attendance."

Beginning in the spring 2007 semester, students will be able to receive Purdue course content through iTunes University, which is a part of Apple's popular site for downloading and subscribing to digital content. Each participating professor will decide whether to limit access to course lectures to Purdue students or to make them publicly available through iTunes.

"BoilerCast has become the most successful academic podcasting service in the world," Collins said. "By partnering with Apple, we are bringing together the two leaders in academic podcasting, and there will be tremendous innovation and benefits."

The iTunes University service will be available through iTunes, which is available for free from Apple. Purdue has approximately 75 courses available in its BoilerCast system, but that number is expected to increase with the next version of BoilerCast.

"Our next version of BoilerCast will have many improvements," Collins said. "Now, for example, professors can only podcast from classrooms that are equipped with the proper technology. With BoilerCast 2.0, professors will be able to create podcasts from any computer in any location and deliver them to our system."

BoilerCast is an audio system only, but because iTunes can distribute videos, Collins said that professors may be able to provide their own video content to supplement their courses in the future.

Writer: Steve Tally, Information Technology at Purdue, (765) 494-9809, tally@purdue.edu

Source: Bart Collins, (765) 496-3685, bcollins@purdue.edu

Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu

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