| Connexions (1999-April 2014) OpenStax CNX (April 2014-) | |
| Commercial: | no |
| Type: | Open Educational Resources |
| Registration: | free |
| Language Count: | 34 |
| Owner: | Rice University |
| Content License: | Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 |
| Current Status: | Discontinued |
| Revenue: | Foundation-funded non-profit |
Connexions, later known as OpenStax CNX[1] was a global repository of educational content provided by volunteers. The open source platform was provided and maintained by OpenStax, which is based at Rice University. The collection was available free of charge, can be remixed and edited, and was available for download in various digital formats.[2]
Founded in 1999 by Richard Baraniuk, Connexions was 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, which means that content can be used, adapted, and remixed, as long as attribution is provided.[3] In June 2020, the CNX platform was retired. Its contents remain available on the Wayback Machine.[4]
Connexions contained 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 was authored by people from all walks of life. Much content is created by university professors,[5] but the collection also contained very popular music content[6] created by a part-time music teacher.[7]
Connexions material was translated into many languages, aided by the open-content licensing.
To ensure the legal reusability of content, Connexions required authors to license materials they publish under the Creative Commons Attribution License[8] (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.
Three key factors enable the collaborative environment in Connexions:
The Connexions project was started in 1999[11] and initially supported by individuals and Rice University. That support has been substantially supplemented by grants from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.[12]