Today, Apple has been making a bunch of education-related announcements, and one of them is a new app for iTunes U. iTunes U was where recorded university classes were shared on Apple's media portal. The iPad and iPhone app will include lots of helpful stuff, like professor's office hours,  class syllabus, access to class materials (including books, apps, documents, web links), teachers can post messages to students, including video and images. During class, students can use the app to take notes, as well as access textbooks. The app can also be used to deliver assignments.

Some big universities are already in on the program, including Harvard, Yale, Oxford, Cornell, Berkeley, and lots of others. iTunes U for iPhone and iPad is available for free starting today.

• Free - App Store Link

Full press release below.

Apple Unveils All-New iTunes U App for iPad, iPhone & iPod touch

NEW YORK—January 19, 2012—Apple® today announced an all-new iTunes® U app, giving educators and students everything they need on their iPad®, iPhone® and iPod touch® to teach and take entire courses. The all-new iTunes U app lets teachers create and manage courses including essential components such as lectures, assignments, books, quizzes and syllabuses and offer them to millions of iOS users around the world. The iTunes U app gives iOS users access to the world’s largest catalog of free educational content from top universities including Cambridge, Duke, Harvard, Oxford and Stanford, and starting today any K-12 school district can offer full courses through the iTunes U app. iTunes U has already become an incredibly popular learning tool for students with over 700 million downloads.

“The all-new iTunes U app enables students anywhere to tap into entire courses from the world's most prestigious universities,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services. “Never before have educators been able to offer their full courses in such an innovative way, allowing anyone who’s interested in a particular topic to learn from anywhere in the world, not just the classroom.”

Prior to iTunes U, only students in the classroom at that time had access to educational content from top universities. With the iTunes U app for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch, those barriers no longer exist. Students anywhere can take an entire course with complete access to all course materials right at their fingertips. With the iTunes U app, students are able to access new books right from within the app, and any notes taken in iBooks® are consolidated for easy reviewing. In addition to reading books, viewing presentations, lectures and assignment lists, students can receive push notifications so they always have the latest class information.* The iTunes U app is available today as a free download from the App Store™.

Educators can quickly and easily create, manage and share their courses, quizzes and handouts through a web-based tool and utilize content and links from the iTunes U app, the Internet, iBookstore℠ or the App Store as part of their curriculum. They can also upload and distribute their own documents such as Keynote®, Pages®, Numbers® or books made with iBooks Author.

*Some content is available only for iPad.

Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices with iPad.

The University of Iowa has launched a campus app for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch dedicated to helping students navigate the campus, follow news and events and even check to see if their laundry is done!

A new smartphone application allows University of Iowa students and others to see the latest campus headlines, events calendars and even when their laundry in the dorms is finished washing.

UI is one among just a few college campuses who have created their own iOS apps for students, and this is clearly a step in the right direction. Romy Bolton, Manager of Emerging Technologies says the app has "become an expectation", and they're glad they jumped into the mobile app market early.

Any readers out there in college hope to see this sort of thing at a campus near you?

[press-citizen via Cult of Mac]

Apple is gearing up their 2009 university student-targeted promotion, and it turns out this year is a lot like last year:

A Mac has everything university students need for school. And now it includes something extra special. When university students buy a qualifying Mac, they'll get a free iPod touch after mail-in rebate. And they save even more with Apple education pricing. This offer is for a limited time and is available only at the Apple Online Store, Apple Retail Stores, and Apple Authorized Campus Stores.

Rumor was we'd see an iPhone option this year, but no such luck. Let jokes about mail-in rebate success levels begin!

(Thanks to everyone who sent this in.)

TUAW's reporting that Brian Brooks, Dean of University of Missouri's Journalism School is requiring that students have an iPhone or iPod touch. Why? So they can keep digital recordings of their lectures handy and listen to them more than once. Seems -- shock and disbelief -- repetition enhances learning.

Required is a key word, since it allows students to include the iPhone cost for their financial aid. They won't insist students have one, however, or -- apparently -- give detention to anyone who shows up with a Zune instead...

Hey, maybe they should just record every lecture as a podcast and put it up on iTunes U? : )