Apple's Virtual University Patent Finally Comes to Light

On April 18, 2013, the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple that reveals the nuts and bolts behind Apple's Virtual University known as iTunes U. Apple's invention is about systems, methods, and computer program products for accessing e-learning courses from an online resource. Particular implementations of the e-learning application disclosed, provide one or more of the following advantages: The e-learning application provides simple and intuitive GUIs that allow students to browse, select, enroll and interact with online courses, including facilitating data input by the student, giving the student better manual control to navigate the course and providing the student with better visual feedback for interacting with the course.
Apple's Patent Background
Web-based instruction (WBI) is a network-enabled transfer of skills and knowledge using computer applications and processes. Online education courses delivered through a network (e.g., the Internet, intranet/extranet) can be self-paced or led by an instructor, and include various types of media, such as text, images, animation, streaming video and audio. Content for WBI can be developed by instructors using content authoring applications and delivered to students over the network. Apple's patent application is all about iTunes U. Interestingly this patent is dated October 2011 even though the program has been out longer. Read more...