Last week, the Columbia Center for New Media Teaching and Learning (CCNMTL) released a new Columbia University iTunes U public channel, featuring courses, events, campus resources, and promotional materials for the general public. The release of this channel coincided with the availability of the popular 2011 University Commencement collection.

The new Public iTunes U channel provides better access to open Columbia content on iTunes, iOS devices (iPad, iPhone, iPod touch), and web browsers using iTunes Preview. Columbia’s original iTunes U channel will continue to exist as a restricted channel for content that requires a Columbia University Network IDs (UNI) for access. Both the Public and Restricted iTunes U channels can be accessed from https://itunes.columbia.edu.

Since 2008, CCNMTL has maintained the Columbia University iTunes U channel, which has become a popular repository for faculty, schools, departments, and campus institutes to deliver media. We have seen a 53% year-to-year increase in course collections and the site now contains over 10,000 tracks. Each week, these tracks are downloaded over 20,000 times. This new channel will showcase public Columbia media, making it even more accessible to the world.