Materials keep "disappearing" from my iTunes U courses

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Level 1

0 points

Materials keep "disappearing" from my iTunes U courses

I have been working with iTunes U Support for months and they can't figure it out. Maybe someone else has this issue and can help me get it fixed...

Here's the deal: I have seven courses that are private. We're using them for onboarding new employees. From the Course manager, I upload all materials, including links, documents, images, etc into separate posts, organized by the Outline. Each time I save, the course shows up on the iPad just fine. However, within an hour or so, all of the materials uploaded to the courses are "missing" from the iPad. The posts are there but the documents or links are not showing up. So, I go back into Course Manager, change a word or two in the post, (I don't touch the materials) and save. Then, the iPad users close the app completely, reopen, click on the Overview and then the posts, and the materials are back. But once they log out, the materials are gone again. It's becoming more than a nuisance at this point! I have to get this fixed or iTunes U will no longer be an option for us. Anyone having the same issue? Any ideas on what is going on?

MacBook Pro with Retina display, iOS 8.3, We use iPad Minis to view courses

Posted on May 27, 2015 3:04 PM

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Answer 1

patixa

Level 3

627 points

May 28, 2015 8:27 AM in response to TAVKristeen

You say "once they log out, the materials are gone". Logging out of iTunes U disassociates the device, so it's reasonable that courses and materials are removed. Why are your users logging out?

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Answer 2

TAVKristeen Author

Level 1

0 points

May 28, 2015 8:39 AM in response to patixa

Our courses don't end after an hour or day. They continue up to 6 weeks. There's a huge number of documents they have to review. We have set it up so that the week prior to their first day at the office, they receive the iPad with the courses downloaded for them. They can review and feel more prepared for their first day on the job. Here's an example of the course names:

And here's an example of one of the many posts within a course:

There's no way the enrollee would be able to complete every post in a short period of time. There are up to 15 posts in a single course, with over 20 documents in some cases. They refer back to the courses over a 6 week onboarding series.

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Answer 3

patixa

Level 3

627 points

May 28, 2015 9:44 AM in response to TAVKristeen

I believe we have different definitions for "log out". When I say "log out", I mean that the user clicked the person icon in the top-right and disassociated their credentials with a given iPad. This is typical in a shared-use, that is NOT one-to-one, scenario.

Since you said users "log out", I took it to mean that your users are regularly disassociating their accounts from a given device. Is this what you meant?

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Answer 4

TAVKristeen Author

Level 1

0 points

May 28, 2015 10:11 AM in response to patixa

Ok, I apologize. I did not mean to disassociate by "un-enrolling" from the course. I just meant they closed the app. Sometimes just to minimize the window and sometimes it's closing the app entirely.

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Answer 5

01eg

Level 1

0 points

May 29, 2015 7:09 AM in response to TAVKristeen

TAVKristeen,

I wonder, if you create a brand new Apple ID account. Then recreate/re-upload course materials again.

_

Oleg

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Answer 6

patixa

Level 3

627 points

Jul 10, 2015 1:51 PM in response to TAVKristeen

Does upgrading the student's iPads to iOS to 8.3 or 8.4 and upgrading iTunes U to 3.0 change the behavior at all?

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Answer 7

TAVKristeen Author

Level 1

0 points

Jul 21, 2015 6:07 PM in response to TAVKristeen

iTunes U did a major release of updates recently and, whatever they did, it seems to have worked. Nothing in the details about the update stated anything about documents specifically but I have new hires this week and they have had no issues with missing documents or links. They must have figured it out! Thanks to all who tried to help.

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