UA’s iTunes U Site Continues Traffic Growth

November 4th, 2009 - Filed under: News

Faculty and staff who have contributed content to The University of Alabama on iTunes U are beginning to see the reward for their efforts. Since the site became public in early August of this year, 90,708 tracks have been downloaded or otherwise viewed from by more than 120,000 visitors to the site, said Dr. Rachel Shuttlesworth, coordinator of faculty development at the OIT Faculty Resource Center. UA’s iTunes U site has been featured on Apple’s main iTunes U page twice—once for the Book Artists and Poets Series from Steve Miller, professor in the School of Library and Information Studies; and more recently, a series by English and Honors instructor Steve Hoade on zombies in literature and popular culture. During the week of Oct. 11, The University of Alabama on iTunes U had more than 66,000 visitors and more than 52,000 downloads or previews.

Dr. Ivon Foster, assistant to the provost for special projects, points out that the list of top downloads doesn’t include content previewed by site visitors. “If you preview something in iTunes U, you get the whole thing, as opposed to the 30-second snippets for music and other downloads,” she said. Taking that into account, she added, lectures and other posted content likely are reaching a wider audience than that reflected in the download rankings.

Foster also reminds faculty and staff that the OIT Resource Center offers tools to help with content production, such as podcast kits that may be checked out. Grant funding is also available to cover the cost of video recording for notable events; apply through the site.

More information is available at http://itunes.ua.edu. The site lists faculty and staff liaisons for coordinating content production, plus information about posting and other basics. For an RSS feed of the 40 top downloads in the site’s history, visit http://tinyurl.com/uaitunesu.

Top 10 Downloads from UA’s iTunes U Site

More than 120,000 visitors have viewed The University of Alabama on iTunes U since it went live in August. Among the 90,708 downloads, these have emerged as the most popular.                       

  1. “Zombies! – Intro to Zombie Studies” – Sean Hoade, Department of English (Zombies! The Living Dead in Literature)  
  2. “Capriccio for solo viola Op Posth” – Dr. Daniel Sweaney (Kaleidoscope Music Showcase)  
  3. “Julie Chen” – Steve Miller and Julie Chen (Book Artists and Poets)  
  4. “Information for Alabama Football Gameday” – The University of Alabama Athletics News  
  5. “Podcast for October 6, 2009” – Paul W. Bryant Museum  
  6. “Intro to Podcasting” – Dr. George L. Daniels (Journalism on the Go)  
  7. “Speech and Silence in American Law – Welcome and Introduction” – Dean Ken Randall and Professor Austin Sarat (Law, Knowledge and Imagination)  
  8. “Crimson Promenade” – The University of Alabama, UA Undergraduate Admissions (iTour Bama)  
  9. “Tracy Sims – Advertising & Public Relations” – Tracy Sims (Writing Center)  
  10. “Anthony Steele – Why I Chose My Major” – The University of Alabama (About UA Engineering)
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