“Raw knowledge” from the continuum, a flow of intricately interrelated concepts, is broken down into small, self-contained Modules.

For authors, Modules require much less of a time commitment to write than textbooks and they are also more versatile. For students, they are more digestible.

An easy-to-use authoring suite enables authors to communicate with each other, collaborate on shared Modules in Workgroups, and submit work to the Content Commons.

XML editors for writing Modules ensure that Modules are written based on the semantic meaning of their content (instead of being based on presentation) so that they can be output to various formats (web, print, etc.).

Modules are small, self-contained nuggets of information, the equivalent of a page or two in a textbook. They can be imagined as individual web pages with hyperlinks pointing to related material.

Their short length reduces the author's time commitment while their XML encoding allows multiple outputs and combinations.

Instructors use this tool to search the Content Commons for Modules, group them into “chapters,” sequence them into a course, and add customized segues and Annotations (“margin notes”).

Courses can be placed on the web, presented in class, or posted as a paper text or e-book.

The Content Commons stores Modules and manages their access. Its centralized storage system simplifies maintainability, availability, and reliability.

Version-control software tracks changes to each Module while metadata enables easy search and retrieval.

Students access the Content Commons directly using special visualization and navigational tools designed to highlight the non-linear “connexions” both within the same course and across courses and disciplines.