Scrolling through his iPod, Kevin Baum finally settles on a playlist: Steve Jobs' commencement speech, organic chemistry lectures and reflections from the Dalai Lama.
Baum -- a junior at Stanford University -- is one of thousands who are loading their iPods with more than just music.
In a partnership with Apple Computer Inc., Stanford has begun offering online, public access to a wide variety of its learning materials. The free service, called "Stanford on iTunes," delivers faculty lectures, speeches, video and other academic content through iTunes U -- a new tool that lets colleges and universities upload content for general use. Jobs' address and the Dalai Lama's commentary have been the two most popular downloads so far.
Stanford has joined a small but growing number of universities undertaking ventures of this type.
Duke University, the Drexel University School of Education and the University of Michigan School of Dentistry also share some of their course content through iTunes U.
Penn has no organized plans to initiate a similar project, according to College Dean Dennis DeTurck, who added that there is scattered interest among faculty members.
Larry Gladney, a Penn physics professor, has posted some of his own material online before and believes that making content widely available is a good idea, but he added that not all Penn professors share that view.
The majority of professors don't mind sharing, Gladney said, but there is a "vocal minority" that does not want any of their material published in a public forum. Gladney added that intellectual-property concerns pose some issues for open content.
Stanford's project includes two Web sites: a public site and a restricted site usable only by students. While anyone can access the former, it is primarily targeted at alumni, according to information on the site.
The public site launched after Stanford representatives decided that the academic materials would be an effective way to enhance their alumni's connection to the university.
"More broadly, we see it as a way for Stanford to share knowledge with the world," said Cynthia Pearson, Stanford's alumni relations officer.
Stanford on iTunes averages from 10,000 to 20,000 downloads per week, and site traffic has been rapidly increasing, Pearson said.
This past week, the site crashed due to an influx of users.
Stanford is not the first university to share resources online. In 2001, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology created MIT OpenCourseWare, a Web-based publication of MIT course materials.
Lecture notes, problem sets and other documents are currently available for 1,250 MIT courses. The school plans on publishing materials for all of its undergraduate and graduate courses by 2007.
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