November 13, 2017

How to Access iTunes U Content in the New iTunes

For those of you who are fans of the free audio & video courses and lectures on iTunes U and you downloaded iTunes 12.7, you might’ve been shocked and dismayed to learn that the ability to browse iTunes U is no longer a main menu option within iTunes on your desktop. As of their September 2017 iTunes 12.7 release, iTunes U was merged with the Podcasts section. So while the iTunes U content is still there and you can search for it, the ability to browse it is now difficult in iTunes. You can browse it within the iTunes U iOS app on your iPhone or iPad. But if you don’t have an iPhone or iPad, it’s harder to find all this great free educational content. Also after browsing the iOS app we found that a lot of the content that universities are offering is not easy to find within the iOS app, but it is still up in iTunes. It’s a little confusing, but Apple has now divided the iTunes U content into Podcasts and Course Collections and the Course Collections are not accessible outside of iOS. But a lot of the actual courses are listed as Podcasts and are accessible via iTunes.

Anyway after some digging we did locate the link to the iTunes U browse page on iTunes. Here it is:

New iTunes U Browse Page on iTunes

But for desktop users this browse page doesn’t help a whole lot because for the most part it only links to the Course Collections that are only accessible on iOS. It does not link to the Podcasts which offer a lot more iTunes U content than is accessible in the iTunes U app.

So in this blog post we’ll try to help you out with locating all that iTunes U has to offer in iTunes. Hopefully in the future Apple will make an iTunes U Podcast browse section of their podcast directory and hopefully they’ll make the iTunes Course Collections accessible to all (not just iOS users). For now we thought we’d aid you with links to the top college & university providers on iTunes and their new Podcasts pages, along with links to iTunes U content that we’ve featured on our site.

You can access a lot of the iTunes U content directly through the university podcast provider pages. We went through all of the providers in iTunes U and picked out the best ones to link to. So we’ll start by providing you with links to some of the top iTunes U providers on iTunes:

Stanford University on iTunes

Harvard University on iTunes

Yale University on iTunes

Columbia University on iTunes

MIT OpenCourseware on iTunes

UC Berkeley on iTunes

UCLA on iTunes

Duke University on iTunes

University of Southern California on iTunes

Ohio State University on iTunes

Arizona State University on iTunes

Oxford University on iTunes

University of London on iTunes

The Open University on iTunes

University of Pennsylvania on iTunes

UCTV on iTunes

University of Chicago on iTunes

La Trobe University on iTunes

DePaul University on iTunes

The University of Texas at Austin on iTunes

Caltech on iTunes

Carnegie Mellon University on iTunes

American University on iTunes

Emory University on iTunes

Chapman University on iTunes

UC Davis on iTunes

Cornell University on iTunes

Georgetown University on iTunes

Missouri State University on iTunes

New York University on iTunes

UC Irvine on iTunes

University of Arizona on iTunes

University of Notre Dame on iTunes

Reformed Theological Seminary on iTunes

University of Glasgow on iTunes

And here are some iTunes U providers that are not universities or colleges:

Library of Congress on iTunes

The Aspen Ideas Festival on iTunes

U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum on iTunes

Center for Strategic and International Studies on iTunes

U.S. National Archives on iTunes

Smithsonian Folkways on iTunes

Also we still link to a number of iTunes U offerings through LearnOutLoud. Here are some of courses and offerings we’ve collected over the years:

Over 70 Courses & Lectures from Stanford University on iTunes & YouTube

30 Courses from La Trobe University

Over 20 Free Courses from UC Davis on iTunes & YouTube

10 Courses from Arizona State University

Over 15 Courses from East Tennessee State University

12 Courses from the University of New Orleans

9 Courses from Utah Valley University

3 Courses from the University of Oklahoma

7 Courses from Johns Hopkins University

15 Courses from Liberty University

30 Courses from Missouri State University on iTunes & YouTube

13 Courses from New York University on iTunes & YouTube

8 Courses from Ohio State University

12 Course from Seattle Pacific University

9 University of Michigan Courses

22 Courses from Harrisburg Area Community College

5 Courses from Parkland College

8 Courses from the New Jersey Institute of Technology

18 Courses from Covenant Theological Seminary

3 Courses from DePaul University

30 Courses from the Reformed Theological Seminary

4 University of Arizona Courses

And here is over 50 other iTunes U courses we link to:

50 More iTunes Courses

And here are some of the individual courses and offerings we’ve featured over the years:

Exploring the Hobbit

In this free course provided by iTunes U on audio download, Corey Olsen offers a thorough, chapter by chapter discussion of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit, discussing character, plot, and thematic elements in lovingly exhaustive detail. Olsen stresses Tolkien’s careful choice of words, the importance of poetry and music in The Hobbit and the careful tonal balance the author keeps between whimsical prose and serious subject matter. In the end, Bilbo Baggins’ journey mirrors the reader’s journey from mundane every-day existence to an ever-expanding vista that becomes more fantastic, more magical and more dangerous as the story progresses. With Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit film adaptation coming to a close, this course is a perfect way to dig into the source material, learn more about Tolkien’s work, and explore how The Hobbit fits into the grander story told with the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

The Literature of Crisis

In addition to their other offerings through Stanford on iTunes, Stanford University is offering this course for free through iTunes U on audio download. This Intro to Humanities course entitled “The Literature of Crisis” explores crisis when it occurs at the personal, familial, and societal levels through six major works of literature. Professor Martin Evans and Marsh McCall are both dynamic lecturers that lead listeners through these works. While it seems a lot can be derived from the lectures without reading the works, you may want to read (or listen to) some of the works yourself in conjuction with listening to the lectures. Here are the works they examine (with links to these titles on audio book): Apology by Plato, The Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius, Oedipus the King by Sophocles, Hamlet by Shakespeare, The Aeneid by Virgil, and Candide by Voltaire.

Story of Freedom in America

Professor J. Rufus Fears was an American historian, scholar, teacher, and author, who was best known for his many courses he taught through the Teaching Company that produces The Great Courses. Now you can get one of his “great” courses absolutely free from the University of Oklahoma through iTunes U. In a series of 18 dynamic audio & video lectures supplemented by downloadable documents, Professor J. Rufus Fears tells the story of how America’s vision of freedom became a model for the entire world. As Fears argues in the first lecture, one of the main reasons America has endured is because the founding fathers used lessons from the past to make decisions in the present and plan for the future. This sense of what works historically and what we should avoid has given the great American leaders (from Jefferson to Lincoln to FDR) a sturdy precedent that can be used as a tool to forge ahead. With that established, Fears says the purpose of the course will be to reflect upon the lessons provided by major turning points in American history and how we can use this history to tackle the problems the world faces today. Enjoy this course from a truly great professor and historian.

Introduction to Human Anatomy

Utah Valley University Professor Michael J. Shively leads a course that will explore the structure and function of the most remarkable machine on earth: the Human Body. In a series of video lectures, Shively goes over how human anatomy is broken down to the sub-atomic level, back up to the “gross” or observable elements we can study with the naked eye. As they progress through the course, Shively asks his students to continually build upon what they are learning, providing a cell by cell, bone by bone picture of how human beings function and how we differ from other living beings. Fun and easy to digest, Shively’s dynamic videos easily draw both the student and the viewer in on a fascinating topic. This 38 lesson course is available on free video via iTunes U.

History of Modern Philosophy

In this free audio course from iTunes U, Professor Clarence Mark Phillips from the University of New Orleans presents a philosophical survey from the 17th century to the beginning of the 19th century (from Descartes to Kant) and tracks how rational thought splintered into fields such as political science, economics, and evolutionary psychology. It focuses on on how certain Renaissance-era thinkers began to respond to earlier philosophical traditions from antiquity, leading to new concepts that became hallmarks of the Enlightenment period and laid the bedrock for the modern mind. Phillips stresses that one of the main points of the course is to engage the learner to grapple head-on with the concepts discussed so they might develop analytical tools that go beyond the subject at hand and so they can be used in everyday life. Download or listen to this audio course through iTunes.

Jerusalem: The Holy City

UCLA professor Robert Cargill teaches a class that considers how the the three major world religions focused on Jerusalem as a center of holy significance. Cargill begins the course by tracking why a regionally unexceptional city became so important in the first place. Starting chronologically with Genesis, he traces the history of Jewish settlement in the region, to the rise of Christianity and the latter development of Islam. Throughout each lecture, Cargill tethers every historical era to the physical geography of the city itself, showcasing how cultural and religious development was mirrored by the changing significance of specific landmarks. Viewed in this light, Cargill’s course demonstrates how different cultures externalize and maintain their religious beliefs through physical objects and places. This course is available on video through iTunes U.

Colonial and Revolutionary America

The ways in which scholars and teachers approach American History has gone through a major shakeup in recent years, and in this free course presented by Stanford, students will be given a chance to assess the new ways we might investigate American origins. Historian and professor Jack Rakove identifies two strands of thinking when it comes to American history: the first, more conventional take examines American history through the prism of British colonial involvement and the transplantation of English institutions into North America. The second, more contemporary view sets the clock back to European “discovery”, starting with Columbus and tracing the vast exchanges over what became known as the Atlantic Ocean. Setting up his survey in these terms, Rakove explains that writing a strong narrative of American history has always been tough to do, and the course will try to navigate the complex series of interactions that led to the development of the North American continent up the Revolutionary generation. This course is available on audio through iTunes U.

Romanticism Course

Who were the Romantics? In this free course conducted by Timothy Morton, listeners will learn about an innovative literary period between 1790 and 1820 that produced influential writers such as William Blake, Jane Austen, William Wordsworth, John Keats, and Mary Shelley. Centered primarily in England at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, the Romantic poets began to grapple with a changing world that was dominated by capitalist ambition, a growing consumerism, and the explosive development of democratic political reforms. Morton also feels that with this change there came a new self-awareness that the romantics tapped into, where many became conscious of a newfound intellectual and expressive freedom. The course will not only cover the writers and their work, but also pay special attention to how their thinking helped influence modern self-understanding. It’s being offered on audio on iTunes U.

How to Think Like a Psychologist

In this free mini-course provided by Stanford University, Upside of Stress author and psychologist Kelly McGonigal hosts a survey of current trends in psychology and how they might offer strategies for use in daily life. With each class, cutting edge psychologists offer a lecture on their specific areas of study, followed by lively interviews with McGonigal and questions from the class. Fascinating topics covered include how to use meditation to combat anxiety, finding practical techniques to manage our emotions, and what really makes human beings unique. A must for anyone interested in the role psychology plays in daily life, and for those that want to learn more about the newest, exciting innovations in the field. This course is available on video through iTunes U.

Hopefully this post helps you find the riches of iTunes U!