Stanford on iTunes Project Debuts and Expands
by Victoria Szabo and Scott Stocker
Stanford on iTunes made its public debut in October during Reunion Homecoming Weekend, providing more than 400 Stanford-related audio programs to alumni via Apple's popular iTunes application. The audio content includes faculty lectures, speeches, sports broadcasts, and Stanford music, and offers a new way for alumni - as well as the general public - to stay connected to the university.
The response from alumni was overwhelming, with over 100,000 downloads within the first weeks of operation. The project also generated substantial interest from both other campuses and the national media, including among others The Chronicle of Higher Education, Newsweek and (much to the delight of project team members) MTV.com.
Course-Related Audio
In addition to content targeted at alumni, the Stanford on iTunes project includes course-related audio exclusively for Stanford faculty and students.
Instructors in the Introduction to the Humanities (IHUM) program began using the tool last spring to distribute lectures, music and readings to students. During the fall, SULAIR's Academic Computing partnered with Apple to integrate Stanford on iTunes into CourseWork, the campus course management system. The system is now available as a CourseWork "tool" for those who request it. Courses in IHUM and Music are currently using the tool, with additional courses in History, Communications, Writing, and Languages under development.
Faculty and TAs can manage their own audio content and control student access to materials through class lists. An enhanced administrative interface makes it simple to upload content and to control how students access it. For example, content areas can be flagged for download, streaming-only, drop-box (so students can submit files themselves) or podcast (so content can be downloaded automatically). These features both empower instructors to develop their own iTunes environments and to provide content that is subject to "fair use" restrictions.
New Features Coming
This winter, the Stanford on iTunes project team will add the ability to distribute video files through the system and will begin to develop standards and recommendations for video production with the tool. They will also explore methods for including still images with audio, a feature that has been used in other contexts to create museum talks and to synchronize presentation slides with a lecture. In addition, the team is working closely with Creative Commons to integrate their flexible copyright licenses with Stanford on iTunes. They look forward to piloting Creative Commons licensing later this year.
Steering Committees
As the Stanford on iTunes project evolves, two steering committees have been organized to help guide future directions of the project. One committee, led by University Communications and the Alumni Association, will help to develop guidelines for content and features of the public Stanford on iTunes site. The academic-use committee, which includes representatives from Humanities and Sciences, Engineering, Business, Medicine, VPUE, and Academic Computing, will focus on Digital Resource Management issues, priorities for course-focused feature development, and integration with other campus systems.
For More Information
The Stanford on iTunes team continues to encourage interested faculty, students, and staff to contribute to the project. Departments who wish to submit audio content to the public site should contact stanford-itunes@lists.stanford.edu. Instructors interested in setting up course sites should contact Victoria Szabo. The URL to access Stanford on iTunes is:
