We are getting closer and closer with our iTunes U implementation here at PSU. We are a little late with it all, but will have a nice sized pilot for the Fall semester. As we discovered last Spring, faculty are very interested in being able to protect their podcasts so only their students can see/hear them. I wonder how much of this is thinking based on the years of LMS/CMS utilization? At any rate, iTunes U gives us the option of making content open to the world, closed to a specific class, and a few other options in between. It should make for an interesting pilot.
One thing we are doing as we get ready to open the doors is collect existing content from all sorts of sounrces all over campus. We are talking to both Colleges and Administrative Units to make sure our iTunes U space doesn't open as an empty shell. It is actually a very good process as it requires us to go out and touch all corners of the University in an effort to get the best digital media out there. Pulling in content has posed an interesting challenge however ...
What we are discovering is that iTunes U uses the ID3 meta data for naming once you have completed uploading a file. This makes it a pain as very few people actually attach meta data to the file before they hand them to us. So once they hit the iTunes U space they have ugly file names and we can't alter meta data once it is in there. This has created an extra step in the process that is annoying to say the least -- it requires us t obounce out of iTunes U, then import the files into iTunes itself to first add meta data, then locating the edited version, then renaming it, then returning to iTunes U, then going through the iTunes U form based upload process ... it isn't fun.
So, the big question I have is what is the best way to edit these tags without using iTunes? Are there tools people are using to do this?