Apple Discontinuing iTunes U at the End of 2021

[doobydoooby]

Such a shame, it was one of those things for the public good that a multi billion dollar company could be respected for providing without it being a big money spinner. Ah well back to reality. Does anyone have alternative suggestions where we can find good educational material from universities? I found that Yale do provide quite a bit on their own website, that’s the only one I’ve seen.

 

[honglong1976]

Ok, take a deep breath Apple has lost the education market with its ham fisted approach so far. There is little evidence Apple has any clue what the education market needs, wants and can afford.

Covid19 was the perfect time for educational app to show what they can do.

Zoom, Teams, have all going from strength to strength.

I work in education and it's obvious from iTunes U, it is not something that's an Apple priority.

I don't blame them, stick to phones where they make a killing.

 

[bollman]

I expect a lot more of this coming. Skip all stuff that's not hip, cool and enables Apple to charge an arm and a leg.
There's not much left of the Apple software division besides the different OS:es.
I expect Server, and of course ARD to get the axe very soon.
Next up: Logic and FCP.

 

[himanshumodi]

I have always lamented that Apple's push into books never took off. It was a mistake to not release a dedicated e-ink reader and to allow Amazon to dominate the e-reader space through the 3rd party acquisitions of Audible and Comixology.

Yes. It’s a monopoly. So far, not a problem as a consumer. Audible productions are absolutely stellar. And while e-ink tech feels stuck - I don’t know how many people would want a complex feature rich e-reader. And the catalog of kindle books is massive and quite reasonably priced. That said, competition would have been nice in this space.

 

[throAU]

Noooo! I loved iTunes U!!! Apple just sucked at advertising it.

this

there is so much quality content on there from people who actually know what they’re talking about.

 

[urtules]

I learned Objective-C and Swift through iTunes U. Sad to see it's go. I hope they can automatically migrate all the content to the Apple Podcasts. Some great content there.

 

[MacBH928]

Apple is cleaning the house and that is a good thing, I don't like clutter. While the idea behind iTunes U is great, it was just a mess and was not well organized, using the app was not pleasant. You can see tumbleweeds in there.

 

[kemal]

Schools won't care if it doesn't run on Chromebooks.

 

[TPadden]

Schools won't care if it doesn't run on Chromebooks.

Yep, I have grandkids on both coasts, Virginia and Califronia; all 7 of them have Chromebooks from schools. I know it's a small sample but 100% is a large percentage 😁.

 

[AxiomaticRubric]

Tim Cook is a been counter with no grasp of what the education market wants or needs.

The bigger issue is that teachers had a difficult time with integrating iPads into their curriculums. Beyond the initial hardware sales Apple offered no help in that regard.
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I'm well out of school, but have browsed through iTunes U for content and learned quite a bit. This is really sad. I don't understand the motivation.

This was a far better platform than YouTube for content like this. Merging it with Podcasts was the beginning of the end. It functioned better as a stand alone app. I'm guess Apple intended it to be picked up by more Universities in their day to day and are disappointed that didn't work out. Still, as a self learning tool it was fantastic.

It was a great idea. However it fell flat on its face in terms of integration with existing school IT infrastructure. IT staff at schools and univerisities couldn't figure out the best way to connect iTunes U with existing content and grading systems.

 

[sincere11105]

...Aperture, Back to my Mac, Airport Routers...

mobileMe before turning into icloud 😁

 

[PBG4 Dude]

I learned Objective-C and Swift through iTunes U. Sad to see it's go. I hope they can automatically migrate all the content to the Apple Podcasts. Some great content there.

I’m guessing there won’t be any more CS193p classes with Paul Hegarty now, :-(

Been watching his course since the 2009-2010 time frame.

 

[insomniac86]

How and I supposed to sneak into University classes for free now?

In Australia you can attend any uni lecture you want for free. Hell you can even sit an exam but it would be an anon submission. You just can't put your name to it as you're not paying for the degree.

 

[urnotl33t]

mobileMe before turning into icloud 😁

mac.com before becoming MobileMe; iTools before becoming mac.com. there was that partnership with Mindspring at the time of iTools, too. [yeah we're back in, what, 1997 timeframe here?]

 

[JagRunner]

I never used iTunesU. I deleted it immediately. But that is just me.

 

[pers0n]

A lot of the stuff on there was old and never updated. I guess its great for subjects that dont change (unlike technology based topics)

 

[glowplug]

What is iTunes?

 

[spotlight07]

What a bummer. I learned so much from iTunes U as a non-student.

 

[MacsRgr8]

Further agenda of Tim Cook making Apple 'Cooks Apple' (anyone else see the similarities of current vs former presidents here)? Books still exists though, Apple Photo Books now that was really nice. Anyone have those?

Yep, had one created of a lovely holiday we had in the USA back in 2010.

 

[cflem]

If classroom is your idea of “fantastic”... I’d hate to see what qualifies as bad. That thing is utter garbage, unintuitive, and blah to look at.

Legit question - are you a teacher?

 

[BuffaloTF]

Legit question - are you a teacher?

No. But as a parent tasked to be a teacher over the past several months for kids in 2 different grades -- it sucks as a user. Like, I can't imagine it being worse. It's like a Facebook feed, cluttered by comments and no clear direction on what is relevant and not.

 

[cflem]

No. But as a parent tasked to be a teacher over the past several months for kids in 2 different grades -- it sucks as a user. Like, I can't imagine it being worse. It's like a Facebook feed, cluttered by comments and no clear direction on what is relevant and not.

LOL...

It's great. And I'm an Apple fanboy - Google Classroom has destroyed Apple in the education space. Period.

 

[BuffaloTF]

LOL...

It's great. And I'm an Apple fanboy - Google Classroom has destroyed Apple in the education space. Period.

OK... Google Classroom sucks, and that's independent of any alternatives available. It objectively is terrible on every level. The look, the UI, the function. It's a pathetic attempt at... something.

 

[cflem]

OK... Google Classroom sucks, and that's independent of any alternatives available. It objectively is terrible on every level. The look, the UI, the function. It's a pathetic attempt at... something.

LOL... okay.

 

[TPadden]

OK... Google Classroom sucks, and that's independent of any alternatives available.

Moot point when the only alternative available must run on a Chromebook ... because that's the platform the schools choose. 😁