1.1 Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Connexions Overview

1.1 Introduction to Connexions ¹

1.1.1 Overview

Connexions is a web-based document creation and management system for education and research materials. There are two parts to Connexions: a Content Commons that contains these materials and the software tools necessary to create, manage, and access these materials.

From its inception, Connexions was designed to allow the collaborative development and free availability of material. Instructors and authors can modify this material for any educational purpose. Connexions ofers FreejOpen Source software tools to help students, instructors, and authors manage these information assets forsharingandadvancingknowledgetobenefttheglobaleducationalcommunity. Allofthisisaccomplished through the use of the Creative Commons Attribution license ² .

There are three general categories of Connexions users:

• Students -who use Connexions to access information on-line, to prepare for their classes.
• Authors -who enter content into Connexions in document fles called modules.
• Instructors -who build courses, which are documents created by linking related modules together in a specifc order.

Before you begin using the Connexions system, you should verify that you have all of the necessary software. Visit the Connexions Quick Start Guide ³ for a listing of the software that you will need and the links to help you download it.

1.1.2 The Connexions Home Page

The Connexions home page (Figure 1.1) is the starting point for your use of Connexions. It contains the following items:

• Home, Content, Lenses, About Us, Help, and MyCNX tabs (Section 1.1.2.1: Home, Content, Lenses, About Us, Help, and MyCNX Tabs)
• Breadcrumb Navigation Bar (Section 1.1.2.2: Breadcrumb Navigation Bar)
• Search Box and Quick Links (Section 1.1.2.3: Search and Quick Links)
• My Account and Login Sidebar (Section 1.1.2.4: My Account and Login Sidebar)
• Featured Content (Section 1.1.2.5: Featured Content)
• Find Content (Section 1.1.2.6: Find Content)

¹ This content is available online at<http://cnx.org/content/ml0884/2.26/>. ² http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ ³ http://cnx.org/help

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• Create Content (Section 1.1.2.7: Create Content)
• Spotlight Sidebar (Section 1.1.2.8: Spotlight Sidebar)
• Connexions News Sidebar
• Create a Connexions Account (Section 1.1.3: Account Requests)

These items also appear on the other Connexions web pages.

Figure 1.1: Connexions home page

On the upper left of the Connexions home page are tabs labeled "Home", "Content", "About Us", "Help", and "MyCNX". Clicking on these tabs display the following Connexions pages:

• Home ⁴ returns to the Connexions home page.
• Content ⁵ takes you to the Content landing page, where you can search for modules and collections of interest or browse the repository by subject, author, popularity and more.

⁴ http://cnx.org/ ⁵ http://cnx.org/content/

• Lenses ⁶ is a portal to all user and organization-created lenses ⁷ .
• About ⁸ displays the "About" page that contains a general description of Connexions and links to more detailed information about Connexions, how it works, the people behind it, and a list of contacts.
• Help ⁹ displays the "Help" page that contains links to installation, reference, and other information to answer your questions about Connexions.
• MyCNX ^{1 0} displays your author homepage if you are signed in. This page includes links to your personal workspace, your workgroups, your lenses, and content you've recently visited.