Stanford Swift programming language course shows up on iTunes University

You can now learn Apple’s new Swift programming language by taking a Stanford-developed course at iTunes University. The course, which was developed by Stanford’s School of Engineering, is called Developing iOS 8 Apps with Swift.

Course Description:

Updated for iOS 8 and Swift. Tools and APIs required to build applications for the iPhone and iPad platforms using the iOS SDK. User interface design for mobile devices and unique user interactions using multi-touch technologies. Object-oriented design using model-view-controller paradigm, memory management, Swift programming language. Other topics include: animation, mobile device power management, multi-threading, networking and performance considerations.

So far the course consists of two lectures of more than an hour each: “Logistics: iOS 8 Overview,” and “More Xcode and Swift, MVC.” Both lectures are free and come with accompanying slides.

Jon Friskics of Code school says Swift is great, but you should make sure you know C before attempting it. Apple advises that students also know an object-oriented programming experience beyond the Programming Abstractions level, and that they’ve completed the Programming Paradigms training (also at iTunes University).