Apple expands cloud service support for iTunes U

The new version of iTunes U puts more cloud services to work. Version 3.3 now lets you add materials you’ve stored on cloud services like Box, Dropbox, and Google Drive. But you’ll need to have these non-iCloud services installed and signed in to import your files. If you’re a student, Apple’s Classroom app will now also guide you to specific iTunes U courses. Teachers, on the other hand, can also import class rosters from Apple School Manager. The app now also brings Explain Everything and Notability project files as course materials for the staff or hand-ins by students.

Source: 9to5Mac

iTunes U gets iPad Pro support, adds new features

iTunes U is getting ready for the release of iPad Pro, which can be marketed in the education segment, with a slew of new features. The version 3.1 of the app gets things like the ability to include images so teachers and students can see how progress is being made on certain activities or even show how to do certain things. The grade book gets a refresh as well. It now shows a student’s average grade within a course, aside from showing minimum, maximum, and average grades in a class for a particular assignment. Apple has also thrown in the usual stability and performance improvements within the app.

Source: 9to5Mac | Download: Apple App Store (Free)

New iTunes U arrives in time for back-to-school season

Apple launched a significant update to iTunes U which offers tools for teachers to build, organize and publish dynamic educational experiences for their classrooms — all in one place right from their iPad. For students, it allows those who use iPads in the classroom  to submit homework assignments directly from their tablets, complete with time stamps to make sure work is turned in on time. 

There are over 15M iPads in education institutions worldwide, iPad is a proven learning platform and successful with teachers and students around the world. Aside from access to the widest selection of high quality Multi-Touch textbooks, iPad's now have access to over 100,000 educational apps and rich digital content. 

The new iTunes U features include:

 - discussions features that open up new ways for teachers to connect and students to contribute; 
- homework hand-in including PDF annotation for document mark up and timestamp delivery of term papers, book reports and problem sets; 
- support for importing teaching materials and student work directly to iTunes U from popular educational apps including Keynote, Pages, and iMovie as well as third-party apps Explain Everything, Stop Motion Studio, Book Creator and more;
- integrated grade book so teachers know exactly when a student’s work is complete and ready for review — or when it’s time to send a reminder push notification.

Apple updates iBooks, iTunes U apps for iOS 7

Apple has finally redesigned its iTunes U and iBooks app and store to match iOS 7’s look. iTunes U took out the dark interior textures for a lighter design and iBooks good rid of wooden textures and bookshelves to feature a more minimal design.