iTunes U has long been one of the hidden gems of the iTunes Store, and even with some new features announced yesterday to the online learning platform, it appears that it's again set to be overshadowed. That's hardly surprising -- the news about digital textbooks and their "reinvention" was the focus of the press event.

On stage at the Guggenheim Museum, Apple's Eddy Cue boasted that iTunes U had over 1,000 schools participating in it. With over 500,000 pieces of audio/visual content, it is the largest catalog of online educational content. Some 7 million files have been downloaded since iTunes U was launched in 2007.

iTunes U has, up 'til now, been just that: files to download. Although most of the content is lecture podcasts (in video or audio form), there have also been course documents and slideshows as well.

Yesterday, Apple gave iTunes U a substantial refresh, with a new iTunes U app (iTunes link) that, Apple's words, contains "full online courses."

Read the rest of the story on Inside Higher Ed