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Free iPods for students: The verdict
Was the $500,000 worth it?

By Jo Best

Published: Monday 20 June 2005

The university that gave all its first-year students an iPod has evaluated the success of the pilot scheme - and come up with mixed results.

US institution Duke University gave all its 1,650 freshmen the Apple music player, as well as a voice recorder, in autumn 2004 to "encourage creative uses of technology". One year on, the university has found that over 600 students in both the autumn and spring terms made use of the device.

Humanities students, particularly those studying music and foreign languages, were the most forthcoming in their use of the iPods, although the whole first class of engineering students had to use the device in a project for their Computational Methods class.

Among the faculties that took part in the experiment were Spanish, where students recorded themselves speaking the language for evaluation on their music players, and electrical and computing engineering, where students used the iPods to record pulse rates.

Mostly, however, the students used the devices to record or play back lectures and tutorials.

Duke's report into the project said: "Initial planning for academic iPod use focused on audio playback; however, digital recording capabilities ultimately generated the highest level of student and faculty interest."

The evaluation found that 60 per cent of the undergraduates involved in the scheme used their iPod to record academic material, while 28 per cent used the device for storage.

"Audio intensive courses reported the iPod increased the frequency and depth of student interaction with audio course content through portable and flexible access offered by the iPod," the report said.

However, some of the iPod-toting students experienced difficulties with their gadgets. Problems with formats and licensing were considered "barriers to adoption", as was education - Duke found a lack of awareness among students as to what to do with the device and a lack of training resources.

The free iPod scheme - which cost the university $500,000 for the academic year - will continue for the next intake of freshmen students. However, they will only be distributed to those taking particular classes.