Stanford launches latest version of free iPhone/iPad apps course

Stanford's incredibly popular online course, Developing Apps for iPhone and iPad, is now available for iOS 7 on iTunes U. As always, this free course is available to anyone, anywhere.

In this new version, participants will learn about the most dramatic overhaul to Apple's operating system in years, as well as the tools and application programming interfaces (APIs) required to build new applications for the iPhone and iPad platform.

Stanford computer science instructor Paul Hegarty will again teach the course. "We ran the iOS 6 course at the beginning of the year and had over 200,000 people subscribe to it," said Brent Izutsu, director of digital media for the Office of the Vice Provost for Online Learning at Stanford. "In aggregate, over a million people have subscribed to a version of the course. It is one of the most popular courses on iTunes U."

With the number of changes in Apple's operating system – most notably the improved user interface and simplified look and feel – and its superior application functionality, this iteration of Developing Apps for iPhone and iPad may be the most popular course on iTunes U.

"iOS 7 is a great platform for building cool apps while learning a lot about computer science," Hegarty said. In addition to learning the fundamentals of how to develop applications for iOS 7, online participants of the course will also gain experience with object-oriented design, multithreading, graphics, databases, networking and animation. "The course provides a great synthesis of what students are learning in their other computer science courses and enables them to touch it up against the real world."

The most important outcome of all is participants' ability to design their own app. Numerous apps created by Stanford students and online course participants are available at Apple's iPhone App Store.

To take this self-study course click here and subscribe to Developing iOS 7 Apps for iPhone and iPad.