Connexions (cnx.org) aims to move education from the static environment of the textbook to the vast classroom of the World Wide Web. A not-for-profit publishing project established in 1999 on the premise that knowledge should be accessible to all, Connexions makes high-quality educational content available via the Internet to anyone anywhere, at any time, for free (or at very low cost in print). Connexions is based on a set of intuitions shared among a remarkably wide range of academics: that knowledge should be free and open to use (and re-use); that collaboration should be easier; that individuals should be credited for contributions to research and education; and that ideas are often linked in unusual and surprising ways.
Connexions welcomes authors, teachers, and learners to create, rip, mix, and burn textbooks, courses, and learning materials from a globally accessible, open-access repository. Smallish, Lego block modules communicate a concept, a procedure, a set of questions, and so on. Connecting several modules together into a collection creates a Web course, a textbook, or a curriculum that can be easily updated by adding, subtracting, or modifying modules. All content is encoded in XML and open-licensed under the Creative Commons attribution license; all tools are free and open-source.
Breaking course materials into discrete modules drastically reduces the time commitment required of authors and instructors, who can now write a high-quality module or weave a customized course in an evening or weekend. A vastly expanded and diverse community of authors has resulted. Furthermore, once contributed to the repository, XML markup and open licensing enable a module to be reused in myriad different settings and rapidly adapted to new settings. For example, translation projects are currently active into Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese, and Thai; many of these OERs are Connexions’ most popular. Connexions already has a significant base of content in signal processing, thanks to the fact that many of the early users teach and research in this field. Connexions is already collaborating with signal processing companies such as Texas Instruments and National Instruments.
While Connexions welcomes contributions from anyone, anywhere, the infrastructure supports a filtering layer on top of the repository (called a lens) that supports review and certification of a subset of all materials. Connexions enables third parties (IEEE, for example) to control their respective lenses. Certified materials are marked as such when viewed; moreover, the collection of certified materials is made available at a dedicated web space. For examples of Connexions lenses, see cnx.org/lenses.
Today, Connexions is one of the most-used open-education resources on the web, employed in traditional college and K-12 settings, in distance learning, in technical training, and by lifelong learners around the globe. Demand is surging; currently the Connexions servers handle over 20 million hits per month representing over 600,000 visitors from over 200 countries.
Connexions has received approximately $5m in support since 2000 from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the US National Science Foundation, and Rice University and its trustees. The project team of 10 full-time staff is based at Rice University (who provide in-kind support such as free space, Internet connectivity, and additional personnel). The Tech Museum of Innovation, one of the country’s leading science and technology museums, named Connexions a Tech Museum Awards Laureate in its education division in 2006. Some recent press coverage is available here [http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/11/08/connexions.learning/] and here [http://cnx.org/aboutus/inthenews].
About Connexions