Apple will continue the gradual expansion of iTunes U, its course management system, bringing educators and students great new tools to build and experience educational content on iPad, Inside Higher Ed reported.

Beginning July 8, the tech giant will roll out an update that will enable teachers using the free iTunes U app to create, edit and manage entire courses directly on an iPad for the first time, Apple officials announced. Students will also discover new ways to collaborate including the ability to start class discussions and ask questions right from their iPad.

iTunes U helps educators create courses including lectures, assignments, books, quizzes and more for millions of iOS users around the world.

"Education is at the core of Apple's DNA and iTunes U is an incredibly valuable resource for teachers and students," Eddy Cue, Apple's senior vice president of Internet Software and Services, said in a statement. "iTunes U features an amazing selection of academic materials for everyone around the world. Now, with the ability to better manage and discuss educational content, learning becomes even more personalized on iPad."

The updates will give teachers full course creation capabilities on iPad, with the ability to directly add rich content and learning materials from iWork, iBooks or any of the over 75,000 educational apps available for iPad.

Teachers will also be able to capture photos and videos to incorporate real-world subject matter into any course, making relevant content available to all students in an instant.

"iTunes U is the most powerful destination for bringing the entire educational experience to life on iPad," said Fraser Speirs, head of computing and IT at Cedars School of Excellence in Scotland. "By freeing teachers to create and organize courses right on iPad, educators can be better focused on enabling student participation both with the content and one another."

iTunes U has more than 750,000 individual learning materials available on the iTunes app and is the world's largest online catalog of free educational content from top schools and prominent organizations.