Connexions: Education for a Networked World

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ConnexionsEducation for aNetworked World

• Richard Baraniuk, Janice Bordeaux, Sidney Burrus
  Jennifer Drummond, Brent Hendricks, Geneva
  HenryDon Johnson, Elvena Mayo, Ross Reedstrom,
  Bill Wilson

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Networked World

• Computers and networks are everywhere
• Universities lead society at large in adoption of
  information technologies
• books
• libraries
• photocopying
• digital email, WWW
• 6000 years of experience with paper
• What translates to bits?
• What can be done better with bits?

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Drawbacks of Paper Texts

• Inflexible for students and teachers
• off-the-rack learning
• sequential coverage
• disconnected books
• discourages exploration bystudents and teachers
• Static and inefficient for authors
• glacial time-scale to develop and improve
• minimal collaboration among authors
• many texts rehash the same material
• discourages potential authors

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Connexions

• New approach to authoring, course
  design, learning
• free / open-content materials
• rapid, collaborative authoring
• flexible, dynamic course design
• simple visualization and navigation of connexions
  between concepts, courses and curricula

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Connexions Global Communities

• Community
• Openness

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Enabling Technologies

• Internet - World wide web - Web browsers
• Email
• Data bases
• Version control software
• XML
• separation of presentation from meaning
• seamless presentation of modules from different
  sources
• integrated mathematical equations, chemistry
  formulae, musical notation,
• supports many output formats (web, e-book,
  print, speech)

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How It Works
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Content Modules

• Nuggets of information / knowledge
• hyperlinks highlight connexions between related
  modules
• self-contained for easy reuse in many courses
• diverse ideas, methodologies, and examples
• customized to match personal learning styles
• Continuously updateable
• Encoded in a coherent format XML

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Module on the Web
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Module in Print
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Course Composition

• Instructor
• selects from large pool of existing modules
• organizes modules into a touring itinerary
• customizes look and feel of course
• adds annotations
• Multiple modalities Course path can become a
  print or e-book on
  demand (Ex
  Kinkos) can even be read to the blind
  using speech synthesis technology

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Course Composer
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Annotation
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Navigation
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Collaborative Development

• World-wide communities of authors
• to continuously create, expand, revise, and
  maintain modules and courses
• Open-content development
• all content freely available to read, copy,
  modify, redistribute
• models from software world Linux, Apache web
  server,

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Advantages of Collaboration

• Dynamic, up-to-date content
• makes latest knowledge globally available
• links global community of experts
• High-quality content
• peer review
• pride of authorship
• Cost-effective development
• extremely time efficient
• leverages efforts of a global community
• each module reusable in numerous different
  courses
• Drastically reduces author time commitment
• more teachers will become authors
• share excitement of participating

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Benefits of Connexions

• Instructors
• Rapid course development
• Integrated curriculum development
• Simple to provide prerequisite knowledge
• Better- motivated students

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Our Vision

• Connexions has great potential to revolutionize
• teaching, learning, authoring
• Goal take Connexions to critical mass on a
  global scale
• massive base of high-quality content
• numerous diverse subject areas in engineering,
  science, humanities
• large, global communities of authors,
  instructors, students
• scalable software and organizational
  infrastructures to foster collaboration among
  authors, instructors, students

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Connexions Scope Unlimited

• From electrical engineering
  to biology
  to philosophy ...

cnx_at_rice.edu
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Team Connexions

• Faculty Richard Baraniuk, Sidney Burrus, Don
  Johnson Bill Wilson
• numerous national and Rice-wide teaching awards
• leaders in the ECE proof-of-concept domain
• Technology Jenn Drummond, Brent Hendricks,
  Geneva Henry Ross Reedstrom, 20 Rice
  students
• experts in XML, digital libraries, data bases,
  web applications,open-source development,
• Assessment Janice Bordeaux
• cognitive psychologist and program assessment
  expert
• in contact with cost-effectiveness experts in
  Rice Business School
• Coordinator Elvena Mayo