Apple Thursday announced that iTunes U content downloads have topped one billion.
iTunes U is an app that features free educational content from top schools and prominent libraries, museums and organisations.
"It's inspiring to see what educators and students of all types are doing with iTunes U," said Eddy Cue, Apple's senior vice president of Internet Software and Services. "With the incredible content offered on iTunes U, students can learn like never before―there are now iTunes U courses with more than 250,000 students enrolled in them, which is a phenomenal shift in the way we teach and learn."
Apple also confirmed that over 60 percent of iTunes U app downloads originate from outside the US.
More than 1,200 universities and colleges, and 1,200 K-12 schools and districts host over 2,500 public and thousands of private courses on a variety of topics like the arts, sciences, health and medicine, education, business and more.
Apple shared same more stats revealing that leading universities including Duke, Yale, Cambridge, MIT and Oxford extended their reach by enrolling more than 100,000 students in single iTunes U courses, with Stanford University and The Open University each surpassing 60 million content downloads. The Ohio State University's Matthew "Dr. Fus" Stoltzfus' General Chemistry course enrolled over 100,000 iTunes U students in the first year it was offered.
Sharing content is not limited to educational institutes in the US. Educators in 30 countries, including recent additions Brazil, South Korea, Turkey and United Arab Emirates, can create iTunes U courses. These courses, and other education content, can be accessed via the iTunes U app in 155 countries.