Apple has been holding a special education press event in New York today, during which it announced a new iTunes U app for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch. Apple says that the all-new app enables teachers to create and manage courses, including essential components such as lectures, assignments, books, quizzes and syllabuses, and offer them to millions of iOS users around the world. With this new app, iOS users will have access to the world’s largest catalog of free educational content from top universities, including Cambridge, Duke, Harvard, Oxford and Stanford, and starting from today, any K - 12 school district can offer full courses through the iTunes U app. iTunes U is already very popular with students, with over 700 million downloads.

“The all-new iTunes U app enables students anywhere to tap into entire courses from the world's most prestigious universities,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services. “Never before have educators been able to offer their full courses in such an innovative way, allowing anyone who’s interested in a particular topic to learn from anywhere in the world, not just the classroom.”

Educators will be able to quickly and easily create, manage and share their courses, quizzes and handouts through a web-based tool, as well as utilizing content and links from the iTunes U app, the Internet, iBookstore, or the App Store, as part of their curriculum. They can also upload and distribute their own documents using such software as Keynote, Pages, Numbers or books made with iBooks Author.

Click here to download the free app: App Store - iTunes U

Source: Apple