# Glossary

- Creative Commons (CC)
  An initiative to make open licences available worldwide. These licences aim to facilitate the sharing, copying and editing of materials and offer creators of a way of handling their copyright with more flexibility. The creator of a work can choose from 6 different Creative Commons licences. With these, the creator determines the conditions under which the material may be used and distributed.
- DOI (Digital Object Identifiers)
  A permanent digital code assigned by the International DOI Foundation (IDF) to identify and locate a scientific article or e-book on the Internet.
- Quality label
  An instrument by and for (subject) communities that shows that the material meets the required standards of a (subject) community.
- Quality model
  A model developed by a community to assure the quality of a material. A quality label can be attached to materials that comply with a particular quality model, so that it is clear that a quality model has been used and which criteria are associated with it.
- Metadata
  ​Data describing the characteristics of the material, such as author, subject area, educational level, file format and so on. This makes the material easy to find and complies with international standards for data exchange.
- MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses)
  Free online courses for an unlimited number of participants, the reuse of which is allowed conditionally through a licence. Certificates linked to MOOCs are often only available for a fee. With MOOCs there is the possibility of tutoring, but it is not possible to receive credits for them.
- Open Access Publications
  Online publications, both journals and books, for which there are no financial, legal or technical barriers with regard to access and whose content anyone can read, download, share and print. There are several variants of Open Access Publications that determine the reusability. The most commonly used are Gold Open Access and Green Open Access. Green Open Access publications cannot be reused outright (CC-BY-NC-ND).
- Open Courseware
  A complete course consisting of a compiled set of Open Educational Resources, the reuse of which is permitted under conditions via a licence. It contains no guidance and it is not possible to earn credits for it.
- Open Creative Content
  Collective term for creative works such as texts, images, sound clips or video images published under a licence that allows their reuse. These are not copyrighted works, such as film clips or (photos of) sculptures and paintings, but creative works such as a drawing or sound clip that are openly shared by the creator.
- Open Data
  Openly offered research data that allow researchers to build on previous research. Open Data is a component of Open Science.
- Open Educational Resources (OER) [in the broad sense]
  Freely accessible digital materials that are available for reuse within education. Permission and conditions for reuse are often set out in licences. Open Educational Resources are an important part of Open Education.
- Open Educational Resources [narrow definition]
  Digital Educational Resources created or edited specifically for education and offered to students and teaching staff for use within teaching and to support the learning process.
- Open Education
  Sharing – as well as building on already existing – knowledge, with the aim of global participation in Open Educational Practices and free access to high-quality Open Educational Resources.
- Open Science
  The practice of science in a way that allows others to collaborate, contribute to and benefit from the scientific process.
- Open Textbook
  Free textbooks available online with an open licence, where the user has the right to adapt the content of their own copy. Open textbooks contain links to other educational resources, videos are often embedded and there are links to interactive elements, such as simulations and animations. This ‘navigability’, the link to external resources, is another major advantage of open textbooks over regular textbooks.
- Repository
  A digital repository for materials accessible via the internet. A repository allows higher education institutions to make their (open) educational resources and research results internally and/or externally accessible. Repositories contain metadata about the materials, making them findable for users and ensuring that a repository complies with international standards for data exchange.
- Subject community
  A group of peers from different (educational) institutions, both national and international, working within the same subject area and organised around the shared content expertise.
- Subject vocabulary
  A cross-institutional, often hierarchical list with a taxonomy structure of terms defined within the subject area and used to describe coherent subject terms within a subject area or course based on competences or subject content.
- Weblectures
  Video recordings of instructions, workshops or lectures. These recordings may be supplemented by presentations, websites or publications.