Apple iTunes University: More Free iOS Programming Courses from Stanford

Written by David W. Martin

If you’re interested in developing your own iPhone, iPod touch or iPad app but don’t know where to start, Stanford University in the heart of Silicon Valley will help. There, they have a program designed to let you learn the art of iOS app development. And you don’t have to take any prerequisites like Programming Methodology, Objective C or Programming abstractions either. All you need to access the course information in iTunes U.

The latest version of the course in iTunes U offers up course work on iOS 5 app development . And that includes slides and videos of six class lectures. The current lectures do include topics on Objective C, but they also show you how to program for gestures, protocols and so on.

From the Stanford University website:

Online learners hear the same lectures as classroom students, but do not get Stanford credit or access to instructors.

Instructor Paul Hegarty attributes the course popularity to the appeal of Apple products and the instant gratification of creating apps for mobile devices. “There’s something about developing for the iOS platform that’s really exciting and fun because it runs on devices that everybody has in their purses or pockets, ” he said.

“There aren’t a lot of courses you can take that when you get to the end, to your final project, you can take it out of your pocket and show your friends.”

You can also take two of the above prerequisites Programming Methodology and Programming Abstractions at iTunes U. The courses are even available in high-def.

It might be the worst kept secret in Silicon Valley. The iOS development courses from Stanford at iTunes U have been downloaded over 10 million times.

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