Apple will remove iTunes U in late 2021, according to a new support document posted on the company's website.
While you may have never heard of that application, the U in iTunes U represented the University, and that application contained the materials that universities and educational institutions published as free resources for everyone to download.
Announced in May 2007, as a specific section within iTunes, it took Spanish educational institutions until 2009 to be able to insert content and in January 2012 iTunes U was launched as a standalone app for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad.
According to Apple, the iTunes U tools have been replaced by new applications for teachers and students, such as Classrooom and Schoolwork, in addition to the Apple School Manager tool.
Apple states in its statement:
Apple has worked hard to create a new generation of apps for both teachers and students:
- Classroom turns your iPad into a powerful learning aid, helping teachers guide students through a lesson or topic, see their progress and track them.
- Schoolwork helps teachers save time and maximize each student's potential by making it easy to share class materials, perform in-app tasks, collaborate with students, and view student progress.
In addition to Classroom and Schoolwork, Apple also introduced Apple School Manager to allow IT managers to easily manage iPad, Mac, Apple TV, Apple ID, books and apps, while ensuring that data is secure and private.
Apps like Pages, Numbers, Keynote, GarageBand, iMovie, Clips, and Swift Playgrounds have particularly well-suited features for education commonly used by teachers and students.
With this in mind, Apple will drop iTunes U at the end of 2021. iTunes U will remain available to all current customers until the end of the 2020-2021 academic year.
According to Apple, customers who add public content to iTunes U will be able to continue accessing it until the end of the 2021 academic year, but Apple suggests starting the migration to Apple Podcasts or Apple Books (which will no longer be able to use Apple iBooks Author, instead c 'is to use Pages).
Apple suggests private content creators start using the Schoolwork app, and Apple plans to add ClassKit support to iTunes U to ease the transition. Course materials in iTunes U can be transferred to Schoolwork Handouts, and iTunes U will also have an export option so that those who wish to switch to other applications or learning management systems can do so without any hassle.
As we said earlier, iTunes U appeared in 2007 and was incorporated into the iTunes app to provide a space for lectures and college content. iTunes U allowed you to create courses with audio, multimedia, homework, ebooks, and more, which could be accessed from the iTunes U app on an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.
When it started leaving Apple iTunes in 2017, iTunes U content disappeared as a separate feature and was merged with the Podcast app and the Podcast section of iTunes.
Since then, support for iTunes U has declined as Apple's attention has turned to its new educational tools.
