Click here to receive your FREE subscription to Campus Technology
Sharing Technology
Open Source Connects Courseware at Rice University
6/26/2007
As the Internet rapidly reshapes how scholarly information is disseminated at colleges and universities, an open-source, open-community initiative at Rice University in Houston may portend the future.Called Connexions, it's an online environment that encourages the creation and sharing of content on virtually any topic in higher education, organized into modules that can easily be incorporated into a course or used for research or study on a particular topic. The eclectic mix of participating instructors from universities around the world includes universities within the United States, as well as China, Norway, Italy, and Vietnam.
A non-profit project, Connexions' goals include making high-quality educational content available online to all at no cost through the Internet. The project invites authors and educators worldwide to help create textbooks, courses, and learning materials from its global open-access repository.
Connexions was created in 1999 by Rice University Electrical and Computer Engineering Professor Richard Baraniuk, who said he always imagined the program eventually reaching across universities, cultures, and languages around the world. By avoiding any barriers to entry and using open-source software and the universal markup language XML, an open standard, Connexions also reaches across common technical and licensing barriers.
The thousands of modules of content on Connexions can be accessed by anyone, within or outside academia. Content contributors to Connexions must step over a somewhat higher hurdle than users by registering and, unlike a non-academic site such as Wikipedia, agreeing to attach their names to their material. Baraniuk said Connexions is also in the process of introducing a method to allow peer reviews of some material, thus introducing a quality filter familiar to academia.
Instructors at Rice--or anywhere--can use Connexions as they choose; some have eliminated course textbook requirements completely and are using Connexions instead. Two required introductory courses in the electrical engineering department at Rice, Baraniuk said, now use Connexions for all course material; students no longer have to purchase a textbook. Others are using material at the site to augment course content.
Reflecting Baraniuk's engineering background, most of the content is still in technical disciplines. Under the science and technology heading, for example, there are more than 2,500 modules currently available and 117 courses. There are just 17 modules so far on business topics, and six courses.
One of his goals is to continue to get more contributors involved, Baraniuk said, both within academia and from outside.
He cited three key differences between Connexions content and that found on public contribution sites such as Wikipedia: no anonymous authors, multiple entries per topic, and a system that will allow content to be "filtered" by professional societies, editorial boards, and publishers. "If users trust those sources," Baraniuk said, "they can jump to content that has been peer-reviewed."
Recommended Reading
- Sun, Stanford Working To Archive History
In May in San Francisco, experts from leading universities, libraries, and research institutions around the world met as part of an ongoing effort to address a pressing issue: archiving the world's history, right up to today.
- The Quilt Coalition Rolls Out XO Communications for High-Capacity Network Services
The Quilt, a coalition of 28 regional network organizations, has added XO Communications Services to its authorized vendor list. The Quilt represents 200 universities and thousands of other educational institutions across the United States. With this new relationship, Quilt members can purchase XO's high-speed IP transit and network transport services at competitive rates.
- Wimba Classroom 5.2 Expands Classroom Capture Support, Adds MP3 Downloads
At the NECC 2008 conference in Texas this week, Wimba launched a new version of Wimba Classroom, the virtual classroom component of the company's Collaboration Suite. The new 5.2 release expands options for classroom capture and adds a variety of other functional and ease of use features.
- Automation Chimera: Education Is Not Management
The lure of automating workflow online so human intervention is minimized is continually reinforced in the minds of higher education administrators by examples of automated campus systems such as financials, student information systems, and other enterprise systems. But what's good for management is not always good for learning.
- Cognos Releases BI Software for Linux-based IBM System z Mainframe
Cognos, which IBM acquired in January, has released an update to its business intelligence software that will run on the Linux operating system on IBM System z mainframes. IBM Cognos 8 BI was being developed by the two companies prior to the acquisition, but assimilation of Cognos into IBM accelerated development.
- Facebook and Collegiality: A Serendipitous Social Niche
Facebook is a way to greet a colleague as if she or he is on your own campus: a wave at a distance, a hello at the corner burrito place, a honk as you both leave the campus parking lot. Informal collegiality has been extended over the miles.
