At a media event earlier today in New York City, Apple announced a new iTunes U app for the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad (App Store link), featuring the ability for students and teachers to manage their courses. The app allows "teachers [to] create and manage courses including essential components such as lectures, assignments, books, quizzes and syllabuses and offer them to millions of iOS users around the world."

The app also gives users free educational content from universities, including: Cambridge, Duke, Harvard, Oxford and Stanford. Beginning today, any K-12 school district will have the choice to offer full courses through the iTunes U app.

Educators can quickly and easily create, manage and share their courses, quizzes and handouts through a web-based tool and utilize content and links from the iTunes U app, the Internet, iBookstore℠ or the App Store as part of their curriculum. They can also upload and distribute their own documents such as Keynote®, Pages®, Numbers® or books made with iBooks Author.

The new iTunes U app is designed to go hand in hand with the new iBooks app, which was also released earlier today.