by Jason Snell
Apple will discontinue iTunes U next year
Apple announced today that it’s discontinuing iTunes U at the end of 2021. Apple has been moving away from the iTunes U concept for some time, moving iTunes U content to Apple Podcasts back in 2017, and now deprecating the education-focused app in favor of its Classroom and Schoolwork apps, and more:
Classroom turns your iPad into a powerful teaching assistant, helping teachers guide students through a lesson, see their progress, and keep them on track. Schoolwork helps teachers save time and maximize each student’s potential by making it easy for teachers to share class materials, get students to a specific activity in an app, collaborate with students, and view student progress.
In addition to Classroom and Schoolwork, Apple also introduced Apple School Manager to enable IT Administrators to easily manage iPads, Macs, Apple TV, Apple IDs, books, and apps, while ensuring data is kept secure and private. Apps such as Pages, Numbers, Keynote, GarageBand, iMovie, Clips, and Swift Playgrounds have education-specific features that are used regularly by teachers and students.
In other words, Apple has other education options available, and educational experiences that rely on iTunes U will last through the next academic year. Apple recommends that publishers of public content migrate to podcasts and ebooks—Apple Podcasts and Apple Books, of course—if they want to continue to communicate their educational material to the wider world.