Late in April, Stanford reminded its alumni about the school's iTunes content, telling them, "we've just added lots of new tracks - including faculty lectures, interviews, events, sports and music." The message continued:
Here are just some of the topics you can tune into on Stanford on iTunes U:
* Is Global Warming Real?
* The United States and Asia: Risks and Opportunities
* 21st Century Medical Advances
* Charter SchoolsYou'll also find complete University courses and more content being added each week. Looking for a specific topic? All content is now searchable by keyword...
And iTunes U isn't just for Stanford alumni. Anyone can download tracks to a computer or mp3 player (like an iPod) and use iTunes to listen.
Stanford's Director of Alumni Programs, Cindy Pearson, gave her MINARY-L colleagues more info:
Though it's been "live" since October 2005, this is our first big marketing push to alumni. It is a public site, so anyone can access it, and we have been averaging over 15,000 downloads a week.
So far, though, Stanford can't track what fraction of users are alumni.
Meanwhile, Stanford has structured the site to give departments and schools a "home" for their content. "So far," says Cindy, "the alumni response has been very positive." The partnership is a good example of entrepreneurial spirit combined with a societal trend. Alumni doing something anyway? Figure out a way your organization can participate in a way that makes sense to everyone. Putting academic content into the iTunes pipeline puts Stanford's unique content in the hands of alumni - and the public at large.
Rewind: Forbes Magazine covered Stanford's iTunes move back in January of 2006.
Click images for larger screenshots of the main Stanford page in iTunes (top) and the Alumni Association's content (bottom).
