Chapter 1

Connexions Overview

1.1 Introduction to Connexions¹

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 license² .

There are three general categories of Connexions users:

Before you begin using the Connexions system, you should verify that you have all of the necessary software. Visit the Connexions Quick Start Guide³ 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:

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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These items also appear on the other Connexions web pages.

Figure 1.1: Connexions home page

1.1.2.1 Home, Content, Lenses, About Us, Help, and MyCNX Tabs

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:

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

1.1.2.2 Breadcrumb Navigation Bar

The "You are here" Breadcrumb navigation bar (Figure 1.2) is located just below the "Home", "About", "Content", "Software", and "Help" tabs. This navigation tool is a breadcrumb trail of the Connexions pages you have displayed as you have drilled into Connexions to get to the current page. By clicking on any point within the breadcrumb trail you can return to that page. This feature is very useful for returning to the workgroup level page after working with the items within the workgroup.

Figure 1.2: Breadcrumb navigation bar

1.1.2.3 Search and Quick Links

You can search the Content Commons for a specifc module or a course using the Search button and text box in the upper right of the Connexions home page. 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 on its title.

Above the search box are three quick links for your convenience. These links vary, depending on whether you are logged into the system or not.

Figure 1.3: Personal toolbar before login

If you have a Connexions account and are logged into the system, you can perform the following actions by clicking on the links in this toolbar (Figure 1.4):

⁶ http://cnx.org/lenses/ ⁷ http://cnx.org/help/lens what ⁸ http://cnx.org/aboutus/ ⁹ http://cnx.org/help/

^1O http://cnx.org/author home

Figure 1..: Personal toolbar after login

1.1.2.4 My Account and Login Sidebar

On the right side of the Connexions homepage is the My Account sidebar. Its display depends on whether you are logged in or not.

Figure 1.5: My Accounts sidebar

(a) (b) The image on the left is displayed if you are not logged into Connexions or do not yet have an account. If you have a Connexions account, you can log into the system using this sidebar. In addition, there is a link to reset your password (if you forgot it), and a link to the page for requesting a new Connexions account.

The image on the right is displayed if you are logged into Connexions. It features links to your MyCNX authoring page, a link to change your account settings, and a link to modules that you have marked as your favorites. If you have any pending role requests or suggested edits, these will also be displayed in the My Account box.

1.1.2.5 Featured Content

The Featured Content portal is located on the left side of the Home Page. It is used to showcase Connexions' most popular and outstanding content, ranging from math and science collections to academic lenses.

1.1.2.6 Find Content

You can start browsing Connexions' modules and collections from the Home Page by using the Find Content portal. The Search Content box is used to search for keywords related to the content you would like to fnd.

There are also several links in the Find Content portal that will point you toward interesting Connexions content. First, place your mouse over the way you wish to browse the repository� either by Subject, Language, Popularity, or Title, etc. This will change the list of links on the right. Click on a link to being browsing that particular selection of Connexions content.

1.1.2.7 Create Content

It's easy to get started creating content on Connexions. The Create Content portal contains links to help you being authoring your own modules and collections.

1.1.2.8 Spotlight Sidebar

This sidebar features authors and their content, feedback from Connexions users, and events related to Connexions.

Figure 1.6: The Spotlight sidebar

1.1.2.9 News Sidebar

This sidebar contains links to news items¹¹ about the latest developments with Connexions. This includes updates to the site and outside publications that feature Connexions.

1.1.3 Account Requests

To apply for a Connexions account, use the following steps:

¹¹ http://cnx.org/news/

Figure 1.7: "Request a Connexions Account" page

e-mail to the address you entered in the step above. The e-mail contains directions for activating your new account.

1.1.4 Logging In and Out

To log into Connexions, enter your user name and password in the My Account sidebar and click Log in. To log out, click the Log out link located above the Search Box (Figure 1.4), in the upper right side of the Connexions home page.

1.2 Reporting a Connexions Bug¹²

1.2.1 Submitting a Bug Report

In any software package you may encounter the occasional faw with a feature or the documentation. Please bring these faws, or bugs, to the attention of the Connexions team with the Report a Bug link, which is located on the Connexions Home page¹³ and on other Connexions web pages in the Personal Toolbar.

To report a bug, use the following steps:

1.2.2 Helpful Tips for Submitting Bug Reports

Here are some tips for submitting error reports that will help us fx the bugs quickly.

• First, do not close the error message display until you have captured some information from it to include in your bug report. The error message contains important information. If you have left it to go to the Bug Report Submission Form¹⁵ or to a Help¹⁶ page, use the Back function on your browser to redisplay the error message.

¹² This content is available online at <http://cnx.org/content/mll836/l.7/>. ¹³ http://cnx.org/ ¹⁴ http://cnx.org/bug submit form ¹⁵ http://cnx.org/bug submit form ¹⁶ http://cnx.org/help/

1.3 Viewing Connexions Content¹⁷

See the Introduction to Connexions (Section 1.1) module for an overview of Connexions.

1.3.1 Searching the Content Commons

You can search the Content Commons for a specifc 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 collections that match your entry. To view a module or collection, click its title.

1.3.2 Opening a Collection

Select the "Content" tab (above the You are here Breadcrumb bar) to display the Content Commons (Figure 1.8) screen. This tab allows you to search for modules or collections 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.

a Collection or Course

When you frst 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 frst 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.

¹⁷ This content is available online at <http://cnx.org/content/mll837/l.l4/>.

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 «Previous or Next» links that appear in the upper right corner.

NOTE: The «Previous and Next» links only display when you access a module from within a course. If you access a module directly from a browser, these links to do not appear.

1.3.4 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:

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

1.3.5 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.

1.3.6 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.

1.3.7 Printing a Module

To generate a PDF fle of a module, which you can print, click the Download PDF link that appears in the upper right 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 fle for any module. These PDF fles are formatted for printing with page numbers, headers, footers, and numbered headings. Since the printing process uses a PDF fle, you must have a software package that can print PDF fles installed on your PC.

Content actions

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This work is licensed by sagar markal under a Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY 3.0), and is an Open Educational Resource.

Last edited by sagar markal on Mar 2, 2010 3:07 am -0600.