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What is Connexions?

The Connexions philosophy involves the creation of a collaborative, educational environment by developing, sharing, and rapidly publishing scholarly content on the Internet. Furthermore, Connexions is a place to view, collect, and disseminate educational material in the format of small, knowledge chunks called “modules,” making learning a dynamic process (Creighton, 2008). These educational materials (modules and courses) are housed on the servers at Rice University and funded by the Hewlett Foundation, Rice University, and private donors. The Connexions project is open source and available at: http://cnx.org.

The idea for the Connexions Project was born when Richard Baraniuk approached fellow professor Sidney Burrus to vent frustration over the distinct separation of mathematical ideas, design methods, applications, legal and ethical implications, and business possibilities related to mechanical engineering (Burrus, 2007). Baraniuk expressed frustration about the disconnect resulting from these different courses taught by different professors, and originally proposed writing a new book that would connect all of these engineering ideas. In his response, Burrus challenged Baraniuk to “design a completely new teaching tool using modern computer and informational technology” (p. 20). The result of this discussion yielded the basic ideas needed to create what is now called “Connexions.”

The authors of this article are Virginia Tech doctoral students and Assistant Editors for the National Council of Professors of Educational Administration (NCPEA) lens of Connexions. The “lens” called NCPEA is a web-based filter that endorses articles through a peer-review process for the International Journal of Educational Leadership Preparation (IJELP). This online, electronic journal came to exist because of the comprehensive knowledge base accessible through the Connexions Project.

How Connexions Works For You

The Connexions project makes learning systemic, rather than linear, by breaking information or content into modules based on a particular concept. The user can then combine different modules that make sense to them, their subject, course, or book, into collections (Kelty, Burrus, & Baraniuk, 2008). The popularity of Connexions is at least in part due to the easy-to-use format for authors and users, as well as the open access (Monge, Ovelar, & Azpeitia, 2008). We are in the midst of a major change from print to digital in our society. Textbooks not only cost too much money, but they are also linear, become outdated very quickly, and fail to account for different learning and teaching styles. Instructors can use Connexions modules to create a plan of study for their class, have the option of writing those modules themselves, or can search for relevant modules to link together. This structure allows people to teach and learn systemically, rather than linearly (Burrus, 2007).

Connexions is answering a great need in education related to the cost of textbooks, as is demonstrated in several news releases. A New York Times article entitled “Don’t Buy That Textbook, Download It For Free” compares publishing textbooks to manufacturing drugs and also compares doctors who prescribe medicine to professors who require textbooks. Both doctors and professors are “prescribing” something they think is necessary, but do not have to pay the cost themselves; therefore, cost is a nonissue for them. For the patient or student, the cost is enormous (Cohen, 2008). The Chronicle of Higher Education and Inside Higher Ed both speak to the impact Rice University is having on costs for students by making books available online and free. Specifically, they argue, community college students struggle with affording the high price of textbooks, creating a barrier for students aside from tuition costs (Young, 2008; Guess, 2008). Consequently, open education resources not only reduce the cost of education, but also improve the quality of education (Hagemann, 2008).

Along with progress in making educational materials free and open to use across disciplines, major concerns – such as quality assurance, modification, reuse, and peer review – have resulted. Kelty, Burrus, & Baraniuk (2008) propose a set of principles to address peer review in open educational resources, such as the Connexions project, which focus on content as well as the context of use. The principles are as follows: 1) maximum bootstrapping, the process of building on existing material and expertise; 2) objectified evaluations, or treating reviews as an individual object with its own content; and 3) multiple magnifications, or compiling more reviews and more data on reviewers.

Using Lenses to Focus Content

Rather than having a peer review process of evaluating material with an acceptance or a rejection, Connexions accepts all contributions and then becomes open to third party reviewers and editorial bodies. Based on these third party reviews, Connexions then sorts content into lenses with each lens having a different focus. Through use of lenses, Connexions users are able to preferentially locate and view modules and courses rated high-quality by the third-party creator. The National Council of Professors of Educational Administration (NCPEA) is an example of a lens created by a professional organization. The NCPEA lens focuses solely on articles related to educational administration. For a visual representation of how lenses work, see Figure 1.

The NCPEA lens implements a peer review process that utilizes faculty from educational leadership programs, as well as principals and superintendents in the schools; this process makes NCPEA both a scholarly and a practical resource. Once modules are reviewed and accepted for publication in the IJELP, the material is endorsed and sanctioned by NCPEA as a “scholarly contribution to the knowledge base in educational administration” (Creighton, 2008, p. 3). The benefit of open access through Connexions allows for material to be present in more than one lens, enhancing the quality assurance as well as accessibility (Kelty, Burrus, & Baraniuk, 2008). Students, faculty, and others from around the world can create lenses or access others’ lenses, such as that of the NCPEA, to view an array of articles focused on the content area of their choice.

Relevance to Public Knowledge

The Connexions project is an ideal model of the successful distribution of knowledge to the public through the efficient, accessible means of the Internet. Although content is freely accessible, printable, and distributable, authors should rest assured that copyright is included with all content published in Connexions. Therefore, published content cannot be stolen, revised, or edited by other users. However, authors must agree to allow information to be freely distributed while rights of authorship are obtained. All persons wishing to access and use Connexions are bound by a user agreement. The full licensing agreement may be accessed here: http://cnx.org/sitelicense.

Another advantage of publishing scholarly content through the web-based Connexions project is the ease with which educators can create their own space for course content. The Connexions website uses the term Collection for what professors would call a Course. Through Connexions, professors may easily search the database, choose instructional modules, and organize them into a course format (Creighton, 2008).

International Journal of Educational Leadership Preparation

The International Journal of Educational Leadership Preparation (IJELP) was conceived in July 2008 as the formal, online journal of the NCPEA Connexions Project. Already, this publication boasts over 200 peer-reviewed articles, instructional modules, and e-books.  With Theodore Creighton at Virginia Tech as the project manager, IJELP has nine editors, twelve assistant editors, and over 100 reviewers from over 250 universities (National Council of Professor of Educational Administration, 2008a).  Another unique characteristic of this project is that contributions are taken and encouraged from those in the field, making the journal pragmatic and academic (National Council of Professor of Educational Administration, 2008b). The journal may be accessed at: http://ijelp.expressacademic.org.

What is an Impact Factor?

Many universities are requesting that faculty report impact factors with their applications for promotion and tenure. Traditionally, impact factor has referred to the number of times a journal article has been cited in a particular year or time frame. In response to these promotion and tenure standards, the Connexions Project and the IJELP have developed a process of their own for reporting an impact factor (Creighton, 2008).

Although a journal article’s impact factor is significant, the NCPEA Connexions Editorial Board suggests that more important is the impact of an individual author’s work on their field and the world. The NCPEA Connexions Editorial Board introduces a new concept and definition of impact factor: a quantitative measure of how often an individual author’s contribution is read or viewed over an extended period of time. This measurement is related to several factors, including: 1) exposure to libraries, 2) number of readers or views, and 3) width and breadth of a contribution’s exposure (i.e., state, national, or international) (Creighton, 2008).

The Connexions Project, including the NCPEA lens, surpasses a particular journal’s impact factor due to Connexions’ worldwide open access and multiple language exposure (Creighton, 2008). Furthermore, Connexions provides easy tracking of the previously defined impact factor. Through the Connexions website, all users may access statistics related to the number of views a particular author or module receives both from the time of publication as well as a weekly record. Follow these steps to access an individual author’s impact factor:

1. Log on to the Connexions site at: http://www.cnx.org/.

2. From the opening screen, note “Find Content” and then “Browse Content by Author.”

3. This opens a screen with an alphabetical list of all Connexions authors.

4. Click on the first letter of the author’s last name (e.g., “S” for “Smith”).

5. Click on the author’s name.

6. From the resulting screen, select “Author Profile.”

7. On the Author Profile screen, click “Statistics,” located next to the author’s number of modules.

Total views of the author’s module since the date of publication along with a daily average are displayed. Statistics are updated on a weekly basis. NCPEA Connexions authors are encouraged to track their impact and submit to their department, college, and university for professional development and promotion and tenure purposes (Creighton, 2008).

Looking to the Future

The Connexions Project is an innovative learning tool that has been established to expand the dissemination of knowledge to learners, administrators, and educators across the globe. Connexions provides an open, accessible environment for finding and utilizing information on the World Wide Web. Teachers, school principals, superintendents, university faculty, and students can all benefit from as well as enhance the knowledge base that is found in Connexions (Creighton, 2008).

For future direction, it is important to remember that when a dynamic learning environment such as Connexions is created, the process of continual development is equally dynamic (Creighton, 2008). Although NCPEA has endorsed modules to establish the first professionally endorsed lens, the goal is for other professional organizations and affiliations to create more lenses for continued organization of knowledge in the form of content modules. With more and more users accessing and utilizing Connexions, this web-based environment will continue to grow and impact the process of global learning.

References

Burrus, C.S. (2007). Connexions: An open educational resource for the 21st century. Educational Technology, 47(6), 19-22.

Cohen, N. (2008, September 14). Don’t buy that textbook, download it free. The New York Times. Retrieved October 21, 2008, from http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/15/technology/15link.html?_r=1&ei=5070&emc=eta1&oref=slogin

Creighton, T. (2008, August). The NCPEA Connexions project: Beta 1.2. Paper presented at The National Council of Professors of Educational Administration Annual Conference. San Diego, CA. August.

Guess, A. (2008, August). Open textbook meets community colleges. Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved October 21, 2008, from http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2008/08/12/connexions

Hagemann, M. (2008). Open scholarship. Publius Project (Essays and conversations about constitutional moments on the Net collected by the Berkman Center). Retrieved October 21, 2008 from http://publius.cc/2008/06/04/melissa-hagemann-open-scholarship/

Monge, S., Ovelar, R., & Azpeitia, I. (2008). Repository 2.0: Social dynamics to support community building in learning object. Interdisciplinary Journal of E-Learning and Learning Objects, 4, 191-204.

National Council of Professors of Educational Administration. (2008a). About IJELP. International Journal of Educational Leadership Preparation. Retrieved October 21, 2008, from http://ijelp.expressacademic.org

National Council of Professors of Educational Administration. (2008b). Overview. International Journal of Educational Leadership Preparation. Retrieved October 21, 2008, from http://ijelp.expressacademic.org

Young, J.R. (2008, August). The wired campus: Education-technology news from around the web. Rice U. acquires rights to popular

textbook to offer it   free online. The Chronicle of Higher Ed. Retrieved October 21, 2008, from

http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/article/3239/rice-u-buys-rights-to-popular-textbook-to-make-it-free-online