iTunes U Surpasses 100 Million Downloads

With iTunes U we could each spend 24 hours a day educating ourselves about random topics. Maybe it'll come in handy when we're on the Jeopardy! TV show.

I've been watching an MIT lecture on the evolution of trichromatic color vision. I'm glad I don't have to sit in a cold lecture hall to see it and that I can watch it whenever I want. The only trouble is that the lecturer won't answer my questions if I raise my hand!

Good resource. The MIT maths and physics lectures have been invaluable in my UK Open University degree.

Education + Apple = we have a winner here. Itunes U is great

I LOVE iTunes U! What a wonderful resource we have at our fingertips to be able to audit classes from Ivy League schools and universities all over the world for FREE. To me, education is a life pursuit and I wish many, many more people would realize the power they have available to them! Oh how we take things for granted!

Thanks to Apple and all of the schools! :)

It's frustrating for me as I love learning about new stuff, but last time I looked, there was nothing that had subtitles or came with a script file.

So as I'm deaf, iTunes U is all inaccessible to me.

I've just had another look, and in the Power Search, there is now an option to search for files with closed captioning in iTunes U.

That's nice, but no matter what I search for, nothing comes up. Even entering generic topics like 'history' or 'ecology' returns zilch.

Shame, as apart from access issues, subtitle files are a massive boon for search and metadata engines, helping you find that exact segment of audio / video you need.

RedTomato: I think some Universities are better at providing scripts than other. Though as far as I remember, many lectures at MIT have transcripts on the lecture's website (usually there's a link on the iTunes U page, or a quick google will get you there). For example, there was a thorough transcript of the Linear Algebra lectures at MIT.

But I agree that on a general basis they are lacking, and they should also be implemented into iTunes U in some way.

Edit:
Here's the Math I was talking about:
http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Mathematics/18-06Spring-2005/CourseHome/index.htm

Here's a specific example of one of the lectures:
http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Mathematics/18-06Spring-2005/VideoLectures/detail/lecture02.htm

It's frustrating for me as I love learning about new stuff, but last time I looked, there was nothing that had subtitles or came with a script file.

So as I'm deaf, iTunes U is all inaccessible to me.

I've just had another look, and in the Power Search, there is now an option to search for files with closed captioning in iTunes U.

That's nice, but no matter what I search for, nothing comes up. Even entering generic topics like 'history' or 'ecology' returns zilch.

Shame, as apart from access issues, subtitle files are a massive boon for search and metadata engines, helping you find that exact segment of audio / video you need.

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This goes for all movies and TV shows on iTunes too. Support HR 3101!

Transcripts are swell, but they render even watching the lecture a waste of time in most cases.