If you try to access iTunes U using IE, you will get a warning that the page contains both secure and unsecure items. You will need to click a button asking for them to be displayed. This is an issue we can't fix. Apple will have to do so.
If you try to access iTunes U using Firefox, you will run into a bug in Firefox. It will put up a warning saying you are trying to use an external protocol, and ask you to confirm, but the confirm button is off the screen on the right. I have not been able to find any way to hit the button.
Here is a workaround. Type the following URL into Firefox:
itmss:/This will bring up the confirm window, but this time you'll be able to get to the button to allow it. Do two things:
- Check "Remember my choice for all links of this type"
- Click "Launch application"
Once you have done this, the iTunes U login will work as documented.
Information about iTunes U for Authors
The primary iTunes U documentation is at Apple's iTunes U Support Site. When you access this site, you will be prompted for your Apple ID and password. If you don't have an Apple ID, use the "Create an ID" link right under the login.
The place to start on that site is the section labelled "Instructors." The iTunes U User's Guide is the most useful document.
How you and your users access iTunes U sites
In order to use iTunes U, you must have a copy of iTunes installed on your computer. If you don't, please see the iTunes download page.
The Apple documentation assumes that an administrator has created a site for you. Currently OIRT staff will create sites for courses and other projects. Groups that have several projects may be given a section of the iTunes U site. They will have the ability to create individual sites for themselves.
Once a site has been created for you, you will be given its URL. You can put the URL of your site on your web page or in a course management system such as Sakai. When you or one of your users clicks on the URL, your browser will be instructed to start the iTunes program (if it isn't already started) and iTunes will be directed to your site.
Unless the site is public, the user will be need to be logged into iTunes U. The iTunes program will display a login button. When you click it, a browser window will open on a login page maintained by Rutgers. You will login to that page with your NetID and password. Once you have done that, you will be logged in to iTunes U. You will be returned to the iTunes program. You will be in site you started from, but you will now be logged in.
You only need to login once. The login process tells iTunes what roles you have at Rutgers. From that information, iTunes can determine what sites you have access to.
Problems: The previous statement is the way Apple intends it to work. However Internet Explorer is not able to deal with the full number of roles that many people at Rutgers have. Thus I've had to separate out access to sites by course membership and by Sakai site membership. At the moment the Login button in iTunes only works for sites that are controlled by groups. Sites that are controlled by Sakai membership must be accessed through itunes.jsp on Sakai, and sites that are controlled by roster membership must be accessed by using itunes.jsp on rulink with a special parameter. See below.
In some cases sites will have pointers that let you go to other sites completely within iTunes. However in most cases, to go to a completely different site you will need to use a web page that has the URL for that site. It is possible to put web links in an iTunes site. So if there are sites you think your users will want to use, you can add links to them on your iTunes site.
Determining who can access your site
When a new iTunes U site is created, only the person who requested the site will be able to access it. However you can make your site public, or give access to various groups of people. Here are the types of group we currently support:
- public access
- anyone who has successfully logged in. This would mean anyone associated with Rutgers
- members of a specific group that you maintain. That is, you add and remove members from the group using a web tool that we supply.
- anyone who is registered for a specific course, based on official University roster data. [access on the basis of rosters is currently not working. Please contact hedrick@rutgers.edu if you need it.]
- anyone who is a member of a specific Sakai site with a specific role. That is, you can give different rights to someone who is an instructor, a TA or a student in a Sakai site
When we set up your site, we will normally set it up in one of two ways:
- For sites associated with Sakai, instructors and TAs will be set to be able to change the site; students will be set to be able to access it.
- For sites not associated with Sakai, we will give you two groups, one which will be set to be able to change the site and the other which can just access it.
You can make further changes, e.g. authorizing members of a course roster to be able to access the site, or making the site public.
Requesting a site
To request an iTunes site, please send email to itunes-request@rutgers.edu. In your email, please include the following information:
- a brief description of the purpose of the group
- requested site name
- is it associated with a Sakai course or other site? If so, please tell us the name of the Sakai site and who owns it.
- if it is not associated with Sakai, we will create two groups, one for people who can change it and one for people who can access it. We will put you in the group who can change it. You will be able to add others. Please tell us if anyone other than you should be able to add and remove people from the groups.
Adding and removing people from groups
Except for sites associated with Sakai, you will normally have two groups. One is for people who can change your site. The other is for people who can access it.
In addition to people in the group, you can give access to the public, and to members of any course roster. [The course roster access is currently not working. Please send email to hedrick@rutgers.edu if you need it.]
To add and remove people from the group, go to the Rulink administrative tool. After you login with username and password, you will see a pink rectangle that says "Logged in with the following privileges". It will list at least "Manage lists". If you click on "Manage lists", you will see the groups you can manage. "Manage members" will let you add and remove people from a group. In "Add entries" you will normally use internal members. That's the default. For internal members, you add the person using their netid. The other options are not useful in this case (except for owners, which lets you add other people who can change the groups).
Note that the Rulink administrative tool is not useful for groups associated with a Sakai site.
Controlling what groups can access your site
When we set up your site, we will normally set it up in one of two ways:
- For sites associated with Sakai, instructors and TAs will be set to be able to change the site; students will be set to be able to access it.
- For sites not associated with Sakai, we will give you two groups, one which will be set to be able to change the site and the other which can just access it.
Other setups are possible, e.g. authorizing members of a course roster to be able to access the site, or making the site public. However we will have to do that. Apple does not currently permit site owners to change access permissions to their own site. Here are the kinds of things we can change:
There are 4 types of access:
- No access
- Download: they can access your page and download contents from it
- Drop box: they can access the page and upload content to the page's Drop Box tab.
- Shared: they can access the page and upload, download, annd delete content in the page's Shared tab.
- Edit: they can access the page and upload, download, delete, and use the tabs that let them change setup options.
The following different groups can be given access:
- Administrator: this refers to OIRT staff who maintain the iTunes U site. You can't change this.
- Authenticated: This refers to anyone who has logged into iTunes U with a Rutgers NetID.
- Unauthenticated: This refers to anyone who hadn't logged in with a Rutgers NetID.
- All: this is everyone. Use this to make your page public.
Next, that are specific groups defined for this page. That will include either your Sakai roles or groups. If you want to give access to members of a specific course without going through Sakai, we can also add credential that will match anyone enrolled in a specific course or a specific section of a course. [The course roster access is currently not working. Please send email to hedrick@rutgers.edu if you need it.]
Students who have access to iTunes U by course roster must access it by a special URL.
For example:
Site= is the site ID that is part of your normal URL. E.g. if the URL you are given for your site is
https://deimos.apple.com/WebObjects/Core.woa/BrowsePrivately/rutgers.edu.1204962155then the site ID is rutgers.edu.1204962155
course= is the course number you used in constructing your credential, e.g. 2006:9:01:198:111:01
If you are in charge of a section of iTunes
In a few cases we may delegate a section of iTunes to you. That permits you to create sites for yourself. In this case you may want to look at some of the documents at Apple's iTunes U Support Site for Administrators. The most useful will be chapters 3 and 4.
You will probably want to use Creating sites. However rather than starting from the top level of iTunes, you'll need to start by going to the URL for your section of the site. Hit "login" if you need to. You can then use the instructions to create a new site. You'll have to work with itunes-request@rutgers.edu to get whatever LDAP groups you are going to need.
If you are OIRT staff in charge of creating sites
See creating sites.
