Connexions is a web-based document creation and management system for educational and research materials. There are two parts to Connexions: a content repository that contains these materials, and the software tools necessary to create, manage, and access these materials. The software underlying Connexions is called Rhaptos and was initially developed by the Connexions project specifically for Connexions.
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 offers free and open source software tools to help students, instructors, and authors manage these information assets for sharing and advancing knowledge to benefit the global educational community. All of this is accomplished through the use of the Creative Commons Attribution license.
There are several 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 files called modules.
- Instructors - who build collections, which are documents created by linking related modules together in a specific order.
- Organizations - who endorse quality content, or highlight content affiliated with their organization, in a post-publication vetting system called lenses.
"The canonical how-to guide to using Connexions."