iTunes U for web glossary
The glossary defines terms you encounter as you use iTunes U help.
Term | Definition | ||||||||||
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administrator | A user who has administrative authority for networks, servers, databases, or other information technology assets. A unique iTunes U user with administrative access to iTunes U Public Site Manager. When your course is ready in iTunes U, your institution’s iTunes U administrator can use iTunes U Public Site Manager to publish the content live for users in the iTunes U catalog. | ||||||||||
affiliated instructor | An instructor at a K12 school district, college, or university whose institution has a site in the iTunes U catalog, and who was added as a contributor to the site by the iTunes U Public Site Manager administrator or the Apple School Manager administrator. Affiliated instructors can access iTunes U to create, design, and distribute public or private courses. iTunes U provides unlimited storage space for affiliated instructors. Compare unaffiliated instructor, owner, and contributor. Note: Managed Apple IDs are automatically affiliated with their associated organization and do not need to be added to iTunes U Public Site Manager. | ||||||||||
announcements | A message to your students. Unlike posts, announcements are not associated with any topic in your course outline and can be simply administrative notices to your students. For example, a canceled class or a change to a test date. Announcements are only available for in-session courses. | ||||||||||
Apple Books | A file created for Multi-Touch books and Multi-Touch textbooks on the iPad. Books you create in Apple Books (.ibooks) using Pages support rich typography, precise layout, and new interactive objects such as image galleries, quizzes, and slideshows. | ||||||||||
Apple ID | A unique user name that allows you to sign in with instructor access to iTunes U. All access is integrated with the ID. If you do not have an Apple ID, see My Apple ID to create a new Apple ID. If you have an existing account at Apple you can use the same account information. See Sign in with your Apple ID. | ||||||||||
Apple School Manager | An Apple service that allows organizations to buy content, configure automatic device enrollment in a mobile device management (MDM) solution, create accounts for students and staff, and set up iTunes U courses. Apple School Manager is accessible on the web and is designed for technology managers, IT administrators, staff, and instructors. See Apple School Manager Help. | ||||||||||
approved institution | An institution with an existing iTunes U Public Site Manager site. | ||||||||||
assignment | A task or to-do. You can enter as many assignments as you want for each post you add to a course, and if you want, attach materials to each assignment. You can specify an assignment due date, as well as turn on grading and homework hand-in for assignments in your private courses. | ||||||||||
assignment journal | A view in iTunes U displaying the history of a private conversation between you and a student in your private course. You can use the assignment journal to view private discussions with your students; including messages, assignment hand-ins, and grading information. See also private discussions. | ||||||||||
Atom feed | Atom Syndication Format feed. An XML language used for web feeds. Web feeds allow software programs to check for updates published on a website. Atom feeds allow each feed to contain multiple versions or formatting of course content for different devices. iTunes U allows up to 300 enclosures in a feed. However, for performance and usability, Apple recommends an upper limit of 50 enclosures in a feed. If a feed has a large number of enclosures, your content can be more difficult for users to search and browse in the iTunes U catalog, thus making your content less discoverable. Compare RSS feed. | ||||||||||
catalog | Catalog refers to the iTunes U area of the iTunes Store. The catalog features free lectures, language lessons, audiobooks, and so on. When your institution’s iTunes U administrator adds and publishes courses, the published courses appear in the iTunes U catalog in the iTunes Store. | ||||||||||
clean | A label used to identify an edited version of an explicit recording. Compare explicit. | ||||||||||
contributor | A managed, affiliated, or unaffiliated instructor who was invited to contribute to a course owned by another instructor. Contributors can help develop, edit, and manage the course, but do not have the same privileges as the owner. For example, contributors cannot:
The private course and upload storage restrictions associated with an unaffiliated instructor apply only when the unaffiliated instructor is the owner of a course, not the contributor. Compare managed instructor, affiliated instructor, unaffiliated instructor, and owner. | ||||||||||
course | A series of educational lectures, lessons, interviews, and so on, in a particular subject. Courses consist of info (including an overview, outline, and instructor profile), posts (including assignments with homework and grading), materials (for example, audio and video items) and a grade book (private courses only). Instructors can create and prepare content for a course by recording lectures, developing assignments, creating videos and podcasts, uploading Keynote presentations or other documents and handouts, and much more. Instructors can use iTunes U to create both public and private courses. | ||||||||||
Creative Commons | A non-profit organization that offers different types of licensing. See About The Licenses. | ||||||||||
dashboard | The iTunes U home page. To display the dashboard, click | ||||||||||
discussions | Discussions allow students and instructors in private courses to ask questions about the course or specific posts and assignments. A discussion thread is made up of the initial discussion and all the associated replies. If you enable discussions for your course, you agree to be solely liable and responsible for all related activity, including preventing, monitoring, and addressing inappropriate activity, including removal of a discussion thread and/or participant. Discussions are only available for private courses. | ||||||||||
download | To transfer files from one computer or system to another. For your iTunes U courses, students and users can download individual materials or subscribe so supported materials are automatically downloaded as they become available. | ||||||||||
enrollment code | A unique code associated with a specific iTunes U private course. Instructors can share a course enrollment code with students, and the students can then request access to the course by entering the course enrollment code in iTunes U on iOS (iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch). Note: Enroll codes are case-insensitive and dashes are not required. | ||||||||||
EPUB file | An electronic publication file. A digital version of a printed publication, created according to the EPUB book format. The EPUB book format is a free, open ebook standard developed and maintained by the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF), a nonprofit standards organization. You can use Pages to export your documents in EPUB book format for reading with Apple Books on iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch. See Use advanced book creation options in Pages. | ||||||||||
explicit | A label issued by media producers that alerts consumers to content that might be inappropriate for children. Compare clean. | ||||||||||
grade book | A view in iTunes U displaying information about how students in your private course are progressing with their course assignments, including whether or not a student viewed an assignment, handed in homework, or sent you a private message. To display the grade book, click a course name in the dashboard, click Admin | ||||||||||
info | Overall course information, including the course overview, instructor info and bio, course outline, and additional custom pages. | ||||||||||
in-session course | A live course taught in real time, actively modified by an instructor, and with calendar-based posts and assignments. You must provide specific start and end dates for the course. | ||||||||||
iOS software | The mobile operating system software used by iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch. | ||||||||||
iTunes Store | An online store where you can purchase or rent music, movies, and TV shows. The content you, your students, and others see in the iTunes Store can vary by the country or region specified by each individual user as their default country. | ||||||||||
library | Refers to the collection of courses you added to your iTunes U app. | ||||||||||
Managed Apple ID | Like a personal Apple ID, you can use a Managed Apple ID to sign in to a personal device, sign in to a shared device, or to access Apple services including iCloud, iTunes U, and Apple School Manager. Unlike personal Apple IDs, Managed Apple IDs are owned and controlled by a school or district. The institution can reset passwords, limit purchasing and communications, and set up role-based administration. See What are Managed Apple IDs? in Apple School Manager Help. | ||||||||||
managed course | An iTunes U course created using a Managed Apple ID. See also Managed Apple ID. | ||||||||||
managed instructor | An instructor at a K12 school district, college, or university whose institution is associated with an Apple School Manager organization, and who creates courses using a Managed Apple ID owned and controlled by the organization. Managed instructors can access iTunes U to create, design, and distribute public or private courses. iTunes U provides unlimited storage space for managed instructors. See also Managed Apple ID. | ||||||||||
managed roster | An iTunes U roster created by importing Apple School Manager class information. | ||||||||||
materials | A downloadable piece of content (for example, a lecture) you add to your courses as media files (audio, video, web, app, book, document, and so on). You can add materials using files on your computer, web links, or existing iTunes Store, Apple Books, and App Store links. Use URLs to reference your materials when possible. Apple recommends providing original materials used in lectures (for example, slides, videos, photographs, and so on) as separate downloadable materials and organizing materials on your Mac or PC in a file folder so you can easily add the files to iTunes U. | ||||||||||
metadata | Supplemental information about a media file type. For example, an audio file contains audio information. The name of the person that created the file, the length of the file, the title of the file, description, and so on, are all examples of metadata a file might contain. | ||||||||||
owner | A managed, affiliated, or unaffiliated instructor who has full access to create, develop, edit, and manage a course. A course owner can add up to five additional instructors, known as contributors, to a course to help develop, edit, and manage the course. The private course and upload storage restrictions associated with an unaffiliated instructor apply only when the unaffiliated instructor is the owner of a course, not the contributor. Compare managed instructor, affiliated instructor, unaffiliated instructor, and contributor. | ||||||||||
podcast | A radio- or TV-style show you can download from the Internet for free from the iTunes Store, as well as various websites. Some podcasts are individual episodes; some are series. | ||||||||||
posts | Your communication around a particular topic in your course outline. Posts can add context and your voice to a course. A post can be instructions, explanations, announcements, a summary, or add context around an assignment or lesson. | ||||||||||
private course | An iTunes U course available only to students invited by the instructor (for unaffiliated instructors, no more than 50 students per course). By default, all courses created in iTunes U are private. To make a course public, affiliated instructors must submit a request to their institution’s iTunes U Public Site Manager administrator, then the administrator must add the course to the institution’s iTunes U site. Compare public course. Note: Public courses do not support student rosters or discussions. Once a course is added to the institution's iTunes U site, iTunes U permanently deletes the student roster if one exists and any discussions within the course, and opens the course to all users. Any students previously enrolled in the course remain enrolled in the course. Once you submit the request to make a course public, it cannot be undone and you cannot make the course private again or restore the roster or discussions. | ||||||||||
private discussions | Private discussions occur within a student’s assignment journal in a private course. Private discussions allow you to answer individual students questions, give a student extra help, or provide feedback on an assignment. See also assignment journal. | ||||||||||
public course | An iTunes U course available to all users. By default, all courses created in iTunes U are private. To make a course public, affiliated instructors must submit a request to their institution’s iTunes U Public Site Manager administrator, then the administrator must add the course to the institution’s iTunes U site. Compare private course. Note: Public courses do not support student rosters or discussions. Once a course is added to the institution's iTunes U site, iTunes U permanently deletes the student roster if one exists and any discussions within the course, and opens the course to all users. Any students previously enrolled in the course remain enrolled in the course. | ||||||||||
roster | The list of students enrolled in your course. To display the roster, click the Students cell in the dashboard (or click Admin > Admin, then click Enrolled Students) for a private course. To view the list of students blocked or requesting enrollment in an unmanaged course, click Admin > Admin, then click Blocked Students or New Requests. | ||||||||||
RSS feed | A standardized web feed format used to publish frequently updated content, such as podcasts. Compare Atom feed. | ||||||||||
Schoolwork | Schoolwork is an iPad app that helps teachers both save time and maximize each student’s potential. With Schoolwork, it’s easy to share class materials, get students to a specific activity in an app, collaborate with students, and view student progress. Note: Schoolwork is targeted to all iPad users with Managed Apple IDs. Schoolwork is available free of charge from the App Store. | ||||||||||
Schoolwork assignment | A posting from a teacher to a student. A Schoolwork assignment can include announcements, reminders, instructions, assigned activities, or requests for work. Schoolwork assignments consist of a list of recipients (an entire class or one or more students in a class), an assignment name, one or more activities, and instructions. Teachers can also specify a Schoolwork assignment due date. | ||||||||||
self-paced course | A complete course that allows students to begin and end the course at any time. Your course outline provides the structure, allowing students to follow along at their own pace. You must provide a suggested duration for the course. | ||||||||||
Share button | The Share button | ||||||||||
unaffiliated instructor | An instructor not officially affiliated with an iTunes U verified K12 school district, college, or university with an iTunes U Public Site Manager site. Unaffiliated instructors can access iTunes U to create, design, and distribute up to 12 private courses, with no more than 50 students per course. iTunes U restricts available storage space for unaffiliated instructors to 20 GB. Compare affiliated instructor, owner, and contributor. Note: To affiliate your account, send your ID to your institution’s iTunes U Public Site Manager administrator and request them to add you as a contributor to the site. If your institution does not have a public iTunes U site, visit https://www.apple.com/education/ipad/itunes-u/ to learn how to join. | ||||||||||
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is available in many apps, giving you an easy way to share all kinds of documents and other files. Sharing options depend on the type of item you’re sharing, how you customize the Share menu, and the sharing destination.