OpenStax CNX

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This article is about the global repository of educational content. For other uses, see Connexion.
OpenStax CNX
(Connexions 1999-April 2014)[1]
caption=Logo of OpenStax CNX
Web address cnx.org
Commercial? no
Type of site
 Open Educational Resources
Registration free
Available in English
Content license
 Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (as of January 2015)
Owner Rice University
Launched 1999 (1999)
Revenue Foundation-funded non-profit
Alexa rank
 66,359 (January 2015)[2]
Current status Active

OpenStax CNX, formerly called Connexions,[1] is a global repository of educational content provided by volunteers. The open source platform is provided and maintained by Rice University. The collection is available free of charge, is available for remixing and editing, and is available for download in various digital formats.[3]

Founded as Connexions in 1999 by Richard Baraniuk, OpenStax CNX is based on the philosophy that scholarly and educational content can and should be shared, re-used and recombined, interconnected and continually enriched. As such, it was one of the first Open Educational Resources (OER) initiatives along with projects such as MIT OpenCourseWare and the Public Library of Science. The materials in Connexions are available under a CC-BY Creative Commons license.[4]

Subject matter

OpenStax CNX contains educational materials at all levels—from children to college students to professionals—organized in small modules (pages) that can be connected into larger collections (books). Material is authored by people from all walks of life. Much content is created by university professors[citation needed], but the collection also contains very popular music content[5] created by a part-time music teacher.[6]

OpenStax CNX material is translated into many languages, aided by the open-content licensing.

Copyright

To ensure the legal reusability of content, OpenStax CNX requires authors to license materials they publish under the Creative Commons Attribution License[7] (presently, version 4.0). Under this license, the author retains the right to be credited (attributed) wherever the content is reused. The author grants others the right to copy, distribute, and display the work, and to derive works based on it, as long as the author is credited.

Features of OpenStax CNX

  • OpenStax CNX has content from all over the world in a growing variety of languages, not just materials from one specific school or university. It also collects materials to support education in K-12, community college, university, continuing education, and industrial training settings.[6]
  • OpenStax CNX is globally accessible to anyone to not only read and use the materials, but also take them, customize them, and contribute them back to the repository or not.
  • OpenStax CNX is a grassroots organized from the bottom up rather than from the top down like many other open education projects. Everyone is free to join and take on a leadership role.[3]

Technical details

Three key factors enable the collaborative environment in OpenStax CNX:

  • Copyright licenses that preserve attribution but permit sharing: Creative Commons "attribution" licenses[7]
  • Semantic markup of documents using XML (extensible markup language) so they can be searched for and combined. The markup language used is called “CNXML”.[8]
  • Workspaces that facilitate collaboration by providing shared space, the ability to version materials and derive content from existing modules.[9]

Funding

The Connexions project was started in 1999[10] and initially supported by individuals and Rice University. That support has been substantially supplemented by grants from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.[11]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ Kelty, C. M. (2008). Two bits. Duke University Press.
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

  • OpenStax CNX homepage, cnx.org
  • TED Talk Founder Richard Baraniuk discussing Connexions in February 2006
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