Classrooms of US Universities Open on iPod
By Cho Jin-seo
Staff Reporter
A quick browse on an iPod can give a glimpse of Stanford, Duke and MIT to boys and girls who dream of studying overseas. Classrooms of some of the top U.S. universities have been opened for the popular portable music player from Apple, which launched the iTunes U service worldwide last week.
The iTunes U features free video and audio contents such as course lectures, language lessons, lab demonstrations and campus tours provided by 16 top-class institutions including Stanford, UC Berkeley, MIT and Texas A& M. They can be viewed either on iPod player or on PCs using the iTunes program.
``From its earliest days, Stanford has sought to serve the public by sharing the knowledge generated by our faculty and students,'' said Stanford Provost John Etchemendy in a press release. ``Our partnership with Apple and iTunes U provides a creative and innovative way to engage millions of people with our teaching, learning and research and share the experience of intellectual exploration and discovery that defines our university.''
Browsing through the iTunes U, users can find a variety of programs that also have disparate qualities. The contents are still very limited compared to the school's offline courses, but there are full-semester classes available from master scholars such as Leonard Susskind (physics, Stanford) and Walter Lewin (physics, MIT), to name just two.
Another eye-catching item for young students are campus tour programs. Each school has video and audio introductions that show the everyday life of students, as well as its traditions.
The free online classes have potential to be a big hit as a free guidebook to U.S. schools. America is becoming a more popular destination for young students and their parents who have become disappointed with South Korea's education system. Currently, there are more than 50,000 Korean students studying in U.S. institutions, which is the third largest ethnic group after India and China. Many high schools here are operating special classes for students who want to enroll at prestigious U.S. universities.
It can also be a killer application for Apple's relatively sluggish Korean business. Apple is by far the world's largest music player seller with its iPod series having sold more than 100 million units worldwide. But in Korea, it is behind local brands such as Samsung and Reigncom's iRiver.
The critical point for the success of the online classroom service will be whether it can support Korean language subtitles, though the company hasn't revealed an official plan yet. But the job could be done by volunteers just like the subtitles of American TV dramas circulating on the Internet, an industry source said. ``Technically, it is easy to add Korean subtitles on the iTunes U contents,'' he said.
Studying via the Internet is not a recent event in South Korea. A number of colleges have been providing online diploma courses, and dozens of private institutions are thriving selling video classes for high school and middle school students. Revenues at Megastudy, the leading player in the junior education market, exceeded 36 billion won in the first three months of the year, with an operating profit of 9.6 billion won.