A tool created by Vanderbilt University Libraries to allow easy integration between the course management program Blackboard and Apple’s iTunes U will be available to all universities using Blackboard, thanks to a new partnership between Blackboard and Vanderbilt.

The partnership was announced July 15 at BbWorld, the annual meeting of Blackboard's user and developer communities, in Washington, D.C.
 
iTunes U is an iTunes application that allows faculty and students to access audio, video and other multimedia presentations. All of the content can be downloaded and played on personal computers as well as mobile devices. Vanderbilt’s iTunes U presence can be accessed at http://itunesu.vanderbilt.edu or through the iTunes Music Store.
 
“We found that an increasing number of faculty wanted to use multimedia in their classes – everything from capturing lectures to developing and sharing multimedia presentations for students,” said Cindy Franco, OAK (Online Access to Knowledge) manager at Vanderbilt. OAK is Vanderbilt’s set of course management systems, including Blackboard, and other technology-related learning tools. “We looked at a number of solutions but they all had limitations. Working with iTunes U gave us an efficient way to share content within our existing system and tied to our courses so faculty and students can use it easily.”
 
Vanderbilt University Libraries led development of the latest version of the integration in collaboration with a group of other universities and consultants from Blackboard and Apple. Blackboard will make the integration for Apple’s iTunes U available to all Blackboard clients, providing a popular tool to other institutions looking to support the use of multimedia content in courses.
 
While interest in multimedia content has grown dramatically, resources to organize and access that content easily and effectively have not kept pace. The iTunes U integrations developed by Vanderbilt enable institutions to more effectively manage and create access to multimedia content developed by instructors and students, as well as more than 175,000 other educational audio and video files on iTunes.

Contact: myvu@vanderbilt.edu