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Students at UC Berkley might be surprised to find out that the very same courses for which they pay full tuition are available as a free download from an iTunes site specifically set up by the university.

Whether it's to quench your erudite thirst for knowledge or to get a leg up on a course for next semester, UC Berkley's list of course offerings in podcast format can help casual learners and college students find what they are looking for... unless what they're looking for involves the location of this Friday night's kegger, of course.

Last November, IBM announced a partnership initiative with the University of Arizona to offer courses centered on podcasting and other new media techniques as part of its business school curriculum.

It first appeared that educating up and coming students to the intricacies of podcasting practices would have a significant impact on the realm of higher education as a whole. Now, it could be argued that Berkley's move to offer college courses themselves in a podcast format could be equally, if not more significant.

Students who are actually footing the bill for tuition at UC Berkley need not panic just yet. It doesn't appear that one can actually receive any college credit from these freely available versions of the curriculum.

Speaking of the course offerings, here is a sample of what Berkley has to offer podcast enthusiasts:

Arts & Humanities
•   Existentialism in Literature & Film
•   Foundations of American Cyberculture

Biology
•   Animal Behavior
•   General Biology 1
•   General Biology 2
•   General Human Anatomy

Chemistry
•   Introduction to Chemistry

Computer Science
•   Introduction to Computers
•   Operating Systems and System Programming

Information Sciences
•   History of Information
•   Open Source and Distribution of Digital Information

Natural Resources
•   American Environmental and Cultural History
•   Introduction to Human Nutrition
•   Wildlife Ecology

Social Sciences
•   European Civilization from Renaissance to Present
•   US History: Civil War to Present
•   General Psychology
•   Social Psychology
•   Introduction to Nonviolence
•   Human Emotion
•   Microeconomic Analysis
•   Macroeconomic Analysis
•   Natural Resources and Population
•   Undergrad Colloquium on Political Science
•   World Regions, People and States

These courses and more can be accessed via iTunes at UC Berkley's educational podcast website.

Joe is a staff writer for WebProNews. Visit WebProNews for the latest ebusiness news.