Ohio State University and Apple have teamed up to create a university-wide digital learning initiative to give students, faculty, staff, and members of the Ohio State community access to new educational and economic development opportunities.

Through the Digital Flagship University initiative, Ohio State will tackle three primary goals.

First, Ohio State will further the integration of digital learning tools, such as iPads, into each student’s university experience.

Second, the university will establish an iOS design laboratory on the Columbus campus for students, faculty, staff, and community members to use and learn from.

Lastly, in an effort to increase student’s marketability for jobs in the app economy, which is poised to reach $6 trillion globally by 2021, the partnership will bring Apple’s new coding curriculum to the iOS design lab.

This initiative was established through the partnership of an “international technology leader and one of the most comprehensive public universities in the world,” Ohio State president Michael V. Drake said in a statement.

Drake believes that this grouping will give students the opportunities to learn and develop the proper skills to excel in the workplace.

Apple CEO Tim Cook concurs.

“At Apple, we believe technology has the power to transform the classroom and empower students to learn in new and exciting ways,” Cook said in a statement.

“This unique program will give students access to the incredible learning tools on iPad, as well as Apple’s new coding curriculum that teaches critical skills for jobs in some of the country’s fastest-growing sectors,” he continued. “I’m thrilled the broader central Ohio community will also have access to coding opportunities through Ohio State’s new iOS Design Lab.”

Starting fall semester of 2018, all incoming first-year Ohio State students will receive an iPad Pro with Apple Pencil, Smart Keyboard, and additional educational apps already downloaded.

The iOS design lab will launch in a temporary space in 2018, but will move to a permanent location in 2019. In this lab, students, faculty, staff, and community members will learn how to code using Swift, the Apple programing tool used to develop many successful apps in the App Store, starting spring 2018.

The partnership between Ohio State and Apple is not new. This recent initiative is an extension of a growing educational collaboration. Some Ohio State students have been using iPads in their classes since 2012.

“This collaboration arose out of Ohio State’s long, ongoing relationship with Apple,” said Benjamin Johnson, director of media relations at Ohio State. “The university has collaborated with Apple for years on a variety of initiatives.”

Johnson informed The University Network (TUN) of Ohio State’s continuous integration of the iPad into its schools.

Ohio State issued iPads to the faculty and staff of The College of Social Work in 2012 to publish the first three iTunes U courses in the nation. iTunes U courses, which are found on Apple’s iTunes Music Store, are educational video and audio files from universities, museums and public media organizations.

In 2013, Ohio State supplied iPads to medical students to be used for clinical instruction at the university’s Wexner Medical Center.