Whether it’s a debate on Obama’s economic policies or daily conversations in Arabic, UC Davis is providing news and a stimulating education free to the public on iTunes U, thanks to a partnership with Apple Inc.

Since its debut on iTunes U in May 2008, the university site (accessed through http://itunes.ucdavis.edu) has gathered 835 videos and audio files. In any single month, up to 40,000 files are downloaded to computers or portable media players.

The site hosts 13 courses by professors, instructional videos to supplement class discussions, 125 lectures by autism researchers, more than a dozen preperformance talks from the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts, and featured news videos that spotlight various aspects of campus and city life.

The most popular downloads are UC Davis academic courses that range from plant biology to developmental psychology and computer security.

UC Davis English professor Tim Morton decided to make two of his classes, "Literature and the Environment" and "Romanticism," available to the public.

“We have a responsibility to educate people — it's as simple as that,” he said. “Our world is changing, and we all need to think carefully and reflect on what that means.”

People interested in learning Arabic can watch “Arabic Without Walls,” an introductory distance-learning Arabic course. It was developed by the UC Consortium for Language Learning and Teaching, the National Middle East Language Resource Center at Brigham Young University and the Near Eastern studies department at UC Berkeley.

Beyond the academic courses are a number of lecture series, such as “Energy, Sustainability and Design,” organized by Ann Savageau, a professor of design, which features design industry leaders; or talks from conferences, such as “Computers and Writing 2009,” hosted at UC Davis in June to explore the impact of technology on literacy.

The most-downloaded lecture series from the UC Davis site is titled “Perspectives on the Obama Administration,” sponsored by the UC Davis Institute of Governmental Affairs. It focuses on the historic election of President Obama and the challenges and opportunities for his administration. The series includes two economists in a lively debate called “Stimulus Smackdown: Can Deficit Spending Save the Economy?”

Videos range from 90-second to 90 minutes or more. Shorter videos include many on student life and the community, such as student-produced interviews on Picnic Day — UC Davis’ annual open house that draws more than 100,000 people — and the weekly Davis Farmers Market.

For more information about UC Davis on iTunes U, contact Susanne Rockwell at sgrockwell@ucdavis.edu.

About UC Davis

For 100 years, UC Davis has engaged in teaching, research and public service that matter to California and transform the world. Located close to the state capital, UC Davis has 31,000 students, an annual research budget that exceeds $500 million, a comprehensive health system and 13 specialized research centers. The university offers interdisciplinary graduate study and more than 100 undergraduate majors in four colleges -- Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Biological Sciences, Engineering, and Letters and Science -- and advanced degrees from six professional schools -- Education, Law, Management, Medicine, Veterinary Medicine and the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing.