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iTunes U Guidelines Creating and managing your public site
Overview
Welcome to iTunes U, the worlds largest digital catalog of free
education content. Millions of people across the globe visit iTunes
U every day using a Mac, PC, iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch.
Leveraging the familiar interface of the iTunes Store, iTunes U
offers over 500,000 audio, video, PDF, and ePub assets as well as
full courses that cover every imaginable topic. This extraordinary
content comes from hundreds of colleges and universities, K12
school districts, and respected museums, libraries, and public
broadcasting stations. And now youre a part of it.
Following these guidelines will help you create an iTunes U
provider page thats well organized and inviting. The more engaging
and well constructed your site is, the more likely it is to attract
and retain users.
ContentsOverview 1Creating your collections 2Creating courses 4
Customizing your provider page 5Putting it all together 7
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Creating your collections
Building great collections is the key to attracting an audience
to your iTunes U provider page. A collection is a grouping of
downloadable audio, video, PDF, or ePub files that focus on a
single topic or concept. These files, or items, can be lectures,
speeches, demonstrations, exhibits, study guides, or anything else
thats unified around a common concept. That concept can be anything
from a lecture series (such as Saturday Morning Physics) or
educational podcasts (such as Ask a Biologist) to primary source
resources (like a collection of historic films). Its important to
create a focused theme around which to organize your collection,
include good metadata that describes your collection, and provide
appealing artwork that pulls it all together.Create focusBuilding a
focused collection helps visitors navigate your content easily and
find what theyre looking for. As you build your collections, look
for opportunities to split groups of items into more specific
collections. Its the difference between an unwieldy collection of
300 items labeled Science, and smaller, easier-to-navigate
collections such as Plant Life or Organic Chemistry.
On the other hand, dont be too granular. A collection page
should never be used for only a single item. Instead, look for
similarities in items that can bring them together into a single
collection, such as How to Start a Business or Authors Discussing
Authors. This makes it easier for users to discover related or
sequential content. And if your content expands over time (with
additional lectures, for instance), a user can subscribe to the
collection and automatically receive updates as you post new
items.
Collection too broad Collection too specific Focused
collection
Science Lecture 10: Molecular Biology 1 Introduction to
Biology
Military History Waterloo.epub The Battles of Napoleon
Below are some good examples of focused collections:
Theodore Roosevelt His Life and Times on Film Library of
Congress
Elements of a collection
Collection title
Item name
Collection summary
Item description
Collection author
Item length
Philosophy TalkStanford University
The Free Will Theorem LecturesPrinceton University
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Include good metadata Metadata is information about a digital
file thats embedded in the files structure. It describes what the
content is and helps surface the content through search. Because
most people look for iTunes U content through search, its critical
to be thorough and precise when entering your metadata.
Keep the following in mind as you enter your metadata:
Pay close attention to the title, author, summary, and keywords
tags at the item and collection levels of your feed because these
are the fields that iTunes indexes for search. This metadataalong
with your artis your product packaging. It affects whether your
content shows up in relevant searches and determines whether users
who find your content are likely to click the Subscribe button.
Create a specific title for your collection and for the items
within your collection. A collection called Lecture Series is vague
and wont attract subscribers, no matter how compelling the content.
However, the title Lectures from Technology Innovators is
descriptive and inviting. Because long titles will likely not
appear in full, keep important words at the beginning of the title.
Check the user interface for iPhone and iPod touch; youll want to
be sure that enough of the title shows while the content is
playing.
Take advantage of the collection summary tagyour chance to tell
potential subscribers all about your content. Describe your subject
matter, media format, and other relevant information so they know
what theyll be getting when they subscribe.
Tip: Consider making a list of the most relevant search terms
that you want your item to match and build them into your summary.
The following summary from the collection History of Jazz
incorporates these best practices:
These programs are created by Dr. Gordon Vernick, Associate
Professor of Music at Georgia State, and produced by WMLB 1690
Atlanta Voice of the Arts. Each segment is intended to shed light
on important individual creative jazz musicians and specific
movements/genres within the jazz canon. They are intended for jazz
lovers and those who are merely interested in this important
American musical art form.
Minimize the use of keywords. Almost nothing belongs in the
keywords tag that isnt better handled in the title or the summary
tag. Keywords are best saved for common misspellings of your name
or title so that users can find your content through search despite
spelling errors. To prevent the overuse of keywords, iTunes indexes
only the first 12 keywords found in this tag.
To make your content easy to find, youll want to include a
category so that users can find what theyre browsing for in the
pull-down category menu in iTunes U or from the category listing in
your provider page.
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Provide compelling artworkEach of your collections has its own
page within your iTunes U provider page. One of the most important
elements of that page is the collection artworkan image that
appears next to the collection title. (A smaller version of that
artwork also appears in search results.)
The artwork for your collection should provide insight into the
collections unifying concept. Good art communicates the value of
the collection with a simple picture and a few words. You can also
use artwork at the item level.
Though not required, consider including your institutions badge,
crest, or logo in collection artwork. It helps to distinguish your
content when its featured in the iTunes U home page or in an iTunes
Store search.
Be sure to create a graphic for your collection or item thats
recognizable when scaled down to 50 by 50 pixels. Apple recommends
a JPEG file of 600 by 600 pixels for your cover art; do not exceed
this size, as the artwork wont render properly in smaller
versions.
Creating courses
Now you can invite instructors to create courses that you can
include on your iTunes U provider page. Users select courses to
download from your provider page onto the iTunes U app for iPad,
iPhone, and iPod touch.
Courses allow instructors to add context and structure to all of
the great educational content available in places like the App
Store, the iBookstore, iTunes U, and the web. Instructors can also
upload videos, audio, presentations, handouts, and original
materials. And they can communicate directly with everyone taking
the course through posts, notifications, and assignments.
To invite instructors to create courses, add them as
contributors to Public Site Manager. Then send the URL for iTunes U
Course Manager, a web-based tool used to create courses. When a
course is ready to be shared, get the course link from the
instructor, add it to Public Site Manager, and publish your
site.
For more information, see iTunes U Guidelines: Creating your
course.
iTunes U GuidelinesCreating and managing your public site
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Collection artwork example:
Alice in Wonderland by Lewis CarrollUSF Lit2Go
iTunes U categories
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iTunes U GuidelinesCreating and managing your public site
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Customizing your provider page
You can control how your institution is presented within the
iTunes Store. You can customize your main banner image, feature new
or important content, and build a browsing structure that allows
users to explore your content.
Site bannerIn building your provider page, a first consideration
is your site bannerthe large image that appears at the top of your
iTunes U provider page. Your site banner is the best opportunity to
create a distinctive look and feel, or brand, for your site.
For a clear, clean look and feel, Apple recommends that your
banner contain an image that incorporates your proprietary colors
and logo (brand), along with the name of your institution. Keep in
mind that in your iTunes U page, the banner transitions from your
provided imagery to a solid background, as shown above.
Tag pagesYou have the flexibility to feature and organize your
content for viewing by creating tag pages. You can assign tags to
collections and create a page for designated content. For example,
you can create a social science tag or an environment tag and put
collec-tions in those pages. A single collection can be featured in
multiple tag pages, allowing you to group collections in various
ways. Tag pages can be thematic or by department, or by any
grouping that works for your institution.
Institution name
Institution logo
Site banner
Feature box
Elements of a provider page
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An example of a tag page. You can add custom artwork to make tag
pages distinct.
In addition to the automatically generated feature boxes (Whats
New, Top Downloads, All Courses, and Highly Rated Collections), you
can create up to three additional custom-ized feature boxes in your
page. They can include individual items or entire collections and
can be organized to fit your institutions needs. Some examples of
customized feature boxes include Featured this Week, University of
Virginia (shown below); African American History Month, Florida
Department of Education; Welcome to the University, Oxford; and
Student Showcase, Georgia Department of Education.
Example of a custom feature box
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7iTunes U GuidelinesCreating and managing your public site
Preview and publishIts easy to manage the iPad, iPhone, and iPod
touch versions of your site. Using a single page you can customize
the look and feel of your provider page across all devices. You can
make a set of changes and preview them before publishing them all
at once. And you can include custom artwork for these
collections.
Putting it all together
As you get ready to publish your site, keep a few key points in
mind. Remember that the audience for your provider page goes far
beyond the walls of your institution. People everywhereon your
campus, in your community, across the country, and around the
worldbrowse iTunes U every day looking for something new and
thought provoking. Think through the following questions before you
publish your site to ensure youve presented the most compelling
content possible:
Is the content great?
Is the content organized into a clear, focused collection, and
does it feel complete?
What does the collection or course teach? What is the expected
learning outcome?
Does the metadata accurately identify the content?
How is the content presented on iPad, iPhone, and iPod
touch?
Is the artwork engaging, and does it represent the content
well?
By following these guidelines, youll not only create a
successful provider page for your institution, youll also help
Apple promote and feature your content in the iTunes Storegiving
global exposure to your world-class content.
We hope you enjoy building your site, and we look forward to
discovering the great content you create. If you need additional
help or guidance, visit the iTunes U support page at
www.apple.com/support/itunes_u. Youll find how-to instructions for
administrators and collaborators, and you can browse the discussion
boards.
2012 Apple Inc. All rights reserved. Apple, the Apple logo,
iPad, iPhone, iPod, iPod touch, iTunes, and Mac are trademarks of
Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. iTunes U is
a trademark of Apple Inc. App Store, iBookstore, and iTunes Store
are service marks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other
countries. Other product and company names mentioned herein may be
trademarks of their respective companies. January 2012