“Lenses enable both organizations and individuals to give their stamps of approval to content in the repository, allowing for user-driven quality control of modules and collections.” As seen above, the quality control aspect is only one of the ways a lens could be used. A lens is made by somebody, a person, even if it is a person within an organization. When you use a lens, you are looking at the content of the repository through that person’s eyes. Thus the lens is a focused part of the repository as they, the lens creator, sees things. You, the user of a lens, are the ultimate judge of the quality and usefulness of a lens and the materials that it shows. The three groups of people that create lenses are associated with what type of user account that they have.
- Connexions Project (people creating items as Connexions staff members)
- Organization Accounts
- Individual Accounts
Anyone can create an individual user account. Follow the directions on the Connexions home page at: http://cnx.org/
Organizations should contact the Connexions Community Developers and request instructions on establishing an organization type of account. Email them at: cnx@cnx.org
Lenses come in 5 varieties and are basically similar in how they are built and used.
- Featured Lenses – Created by the Connexions project as special lenses. These lenses are always public (available for all to see).
- Endorsement Lenses – Created by organizations, such as professional societies, businesses, educational institutions, etc. The lens contents have been carefully reviewed and deem to be of high quality by the organization. These lenses are usually public.
- Affiliation Lenses – Created by organizations, such as professional societies and educational institutions. The lens content has been created by members of that organization (but not necessarily reviewed). Though not as rigorous as an endorsement lens, content in an affiliation lens is assumed to be of a quality on par with other members of that organization. These lenses are usually public.
- Member Lists - Any account holder (Connexions, organizations or individuals) can create member list lenses to organize related content, such as to keep track of referenced source materials or to use as a course reading list for students. There lenses may be public (available for all to see) or private (only available to the creator of the lens when they are logged in to their account).
- My Favorites Lens – Each user account has a private My Favorites lens which can be used to keep track of a user's favorite modules and collections. In addition to bookmarking content of personal interest, the My Favorites lens also allows readers to start reading from where they last left off within a bookmarked collection. You can access your personal My Favorites lens by selecting the MyCNX tab and clicking on the "My Favorites" link (login required).
"3rd Item in a series of Connexions training"