Trinity College Dublin the oldest university in Ireland is using podcasts to make lectures available online.
Students at Trinity College Dublin (TCD) will be able to access lectures in podcast form on iTunes, a first for an Irish university.
Founded in 1592, the oldest university in Ireland is no technophobe.
Trinity College Dublin has been piloting lecture podcasts for the last two years. From today, lectures will be available free to download on iTunes U.
Tom Hayes of TCD Information Systems Services says that the new initiative offers the opportunity to showcase different areas of the institution. Potential students will have the opportunity to see what they might experience in a lecture environment. The service could open up the university to those beyond its own walls.
Lecturers across eleven location on campus can record their lectures and make them available on iTunes U.
Dr Mike Brady, a Computer Science lecturer and podcaster, is confident that making lectures available online will encourage more students to attend lectures in person.
Students believe that having the lectures online will offer them the opportunity to review something they may have missed in class.
The rollout of lectures online will begin when the new term starts in September.
An RTÉ News report broadcast on 3 June 2008. The reporter is Laura Fletcher.
