Searching the Content Commons

You can search the Content Commons for a specific module or a course using the Search button and text box in the upper right of the Connexions web pages. Type in a name, keyword, course title, module title, text string, or object ID in the Search text box and click Search. Connexions will display a list of all modules and courses that match your entry. To view a module or course, click its title.

Opening a Collection or Course

Select the "Content" tab (above the You are here Breadcrumb bar) to display the Content Commons screen. This tab allows you to search for modules or courses by title, author name, or subject area. You can also display a listing of all content by subject, title, author name, keyword, popularity, and more by selecting the appropriate item under the "Browse All Content" heading on the tab.

Figure 1: Connexions Courses

Navigating Within a Collection or Course

When you first open a course, the course title page displays. This page contains two panels. One panel displays the Start Course link and course information, such as the institution, instructor, contributing authors, and a brief description of the course. Click Start Course to display the entire course, beginning with the first module. The other panel is labeled "Course Contents" and it contains a table of contents for the course that lists the names of the sections and modules within that course. You can click a module name to display that module.

Once you display a module from within a course, you can move to the previous module or to the next module in the course by clicking the ≪PREV or NEXT≫ links that appear in the upper right corner.

Figure 2: Links to the previous and next modules in a course

Viewing Related Material

You can view content related to the module you are displaying using the links in the "Related Material" panel that appears to the left of the module content. This panel includes:

Figure 3: Links to related material

In the panel that appears to the right of the module content you can view links to examples, supplemental material, or prerequisite material provided by the module author. The importance of the links are shown by the number of bars in the box to the left of the link name. These links can be to material within Connexions or to a website outside of Connexions.

Figure 4: Links to pre-requisite materials, supplemental materials, and examples (not shown in this example)

Displaying Information about the Module

To display the metadata for the module, click the Metadata link at the end of the module. Metadata are non-content information about a module, such as the module ID, license type, version number, creation date, revision date, authors, maintainers, copyright holders, module name, keywords, and abstract.

Viewing Module Revision History

To view the revision history of a module, click the Version History link at the end of the module. When a new module is published Connexions assigns a revision number to that version of the module. If if becomes necessary to update the module, the author checks it out, edits it, and publishes it again. An incremented revision number is assigned to the updated version. Connexions stores all this revision information and you can view it on the History page for the module.

Printing a Module

To generate a PDF file of a module, which you can print, click the Print(PDF) link that appears in the upper left corner of the module in the "Content Actions" panel. Sometimes you may want or need a printed copy of the material for studying purposes. You can generate a PDF file for any module. These PDF files are formatted for printing with page numbers, headers, footers, and numbered headings. Since the printing process uses a PDF file, you must have a software package that can print PDF files installed on your PC.