ITunes U
From Academic Computing
This is myUSF-specific documentation for the iTunes U building block. For more general iTunes U information, please see Apple's iTunes U Documentation.
Contents |
[edit] About iTunes U
From Apple: "iTunes U is a free service provided by Apple that allows instructors, administrators, and affiliates to manage, distribute, and control access to educational audio and video content for students within a college or university using Apple's iTunes Store infrastructure."
The itunes U Building Block is an extension of myUSF/Blackboard that has been developed to make iTunes U accessible from within the course shells at USF. It has the added convenience of automatically checking your authentication credentials through Blackboard, and bringing up relevant course content.
[edit] Launching for the First Time
iTunes U is found in the Course Tools area of each course.
After clicking on the iTunes U link, a pop-up window should open. If no window has opened, your browser may have pop-up blocking enabled. In this case you will usually see a notification area that will let you disable pop-up blocking for this instance.
Click on the Options button to disable:
Right clik on the yellow bar to bring up the popup menu.
If there is no notification shown and iTunes U simply does not load, consult your browser's Help menu to find the steps to disable the pop-up blocker.
[edit] Internet Explorer 7 Error Message
If you are using Internet Explorer 7 you may receive an error message similar to the one below. This is caused when the user is enrolled over a certian number of available courses and organizations. We are aware of this error and are working on a solution. To have imidate access please install Mozilla Firefox.
[edit] Installing iTunes
If this is the first time you have loaded iTunes U on the browser you are using (or have deleted your cookies), the launcher will appear which allows you to specify whether you already have the iTunes application installed:
If you select "I Have iTunes," the browser will attempt to load the application. If you select "I Do Not Have iTunes," the launcher will take you to Apple's website to download and install it before you can proceed.
When selecting contact options, you do not have to leave either box checked, nor do you have to provide an email address:
[edit] Launch Warning
After iTunes has been successfully installed, a link warning dialog box will come up behind your main window, asking you to make sure that you want your browser to load an external application. Simply select the "Launch" button in order to proceed:
[edit] Navigating iTunes U
Now that you are in, you should see a few main sections, several with general USF content, and one with content specific to your courses:
Clicking on any of these icons or "containers" will open the idividual course content and allow you to experience the media which your instructor has made available for that course:
[edit] Navigating Within Course Containers
Once you are in the course container the screen is broken into two segments.
The top half give you information regarding the course such as instructors name, when the material was last edited and more. You will may also have a list of links on the right hand side.
In the bottom half you will see the material that the instructor has uploaded. This material may be separated into different tabs depending on how the instructor organizes their material.
[edit] Getting Tracks
There are 2 ways to get materials from your course. You can either download each track separately by clicking the 
button which appears next to the track you would like to view/listen too. Another option for downloading course material by using the 
button. This option allows you to download all the tracks in the course at once.
If your instructor changes course material throughout the semester you may choose to subscribe to the course using the 
button. This will keep your tracks up todate as the semester goes on, these subscription are located in the Podcast section of itunes.
