# Open Education Handbook/Glossary

| 1:1 | Refers to a programme in which each learner is provided with a device, such as a laptop or tablet. Can also mean one 'tutor' for each learner. |
| Adaptive learning | An educational process that adapts teaching materials and methods to each student’s individual needs. Several software solutions use learning analytics to provide an adapted learning path to users. |
| Blended learning | A teaching approach that combines online and in-person learning, allowing a higher degree of personalisation and learner autonomy |
| BOOC | Big Open Online Course. Similar to a MOOC but with a limited number of places. |
| Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) | An approach that encourages students to use their personal devices in a school context for educational purposes. |
| CMOOC | Connectivism MOOC where learners are expected to make an active contribution via different digital platforms. Tend to be organised by collections of people rather than one institution. |
| Creative Commons | A non-profit organisation that has designed a series of licenses for the use, reuse and distribution of materials. Authors can select a license to apply to their work based on which permissions they wish to attach to their material. |
| Data dashboards | Snapshots of data given in a visual and easy to read way. |
| Digital literacy | The essential skills required for using digital technology competently and participating in our current knowledge society. |
| Distance learning | A broad term used to cover methods of study in which classes are conducted by correspondence or over the Internet without the student's needing to attend a school or university. Online learning is a form of distance learning. |
| DOOC | Distributed Open Online Course. A course format first piloted in September 2013 at 15 colleges in the USA, where professors at each institution teach their own version of the course based on the same core materials. Each professor can develop additional materials for their students, and students can collaborate across the network. |
| EdTech | An abbreviation for Education Technology, a broad concept that encompasses the creation and use of technological resources or processes for the purpose of teaching and learning. |
| E-learning | Electronic learning, using a computer or electronic media to deliver elements of learning either as part of an online course or in a classroom. |
| Flipped classroom | A teaching model in which students access directed teaching at home, for example by watching video lectures, and then using class time to apply new knowledge in a collaborative and interactive space. |
| Gamification | The use of game mechanics and design principles in a (learning) activity to increase motivation and engagement. Some examples of game mechanics are competition, badges, leveling up, and immediate feedback. |
| Informal learning | Learning that takes place outside a dedicated learning environment and delivered in flexible and informal ways, often focused on the activities and interests of students. |
| Learning | Acquiring knowledge through various means. |
| Learning Management System (LMS) | A piece of software that manages, analyses, and runs educational courses or programs. Moodle and Blackboard are two popular examples. |
| Learning object | Any-sized unit of information or material (whether digital or not) that can be used to support learning. |
| Localisation | Adaptation of OER from any other place to suit the culture, language, and other requirements of a new other specific local context, where the resulting OER appears to have been created in the end-user local culture |
| Machine learning | The science of making computers act without commands, based on the identification of patterns in large datasets. In education, this technology is being already being used in MOOC management. |
| Mentor | An experienced person who trains and counsels others. |
| MOOC | Massive Open Online Course. An online course that is freely accessible to anyone and often includes open course materials and opportunities for interaction and collaboration between students. |
| Open Educational Resources (OER) | Any online material that is freely accessible and openly licensed for anyone to reuse and repurpose for teaching, learning, and researching. |
| Online learning | Online learning refers to courses delivered over the Internet. |
| Open | A piece of data or content is open if anyone is free to use, reuse, and redistribute it — subject only, at most, to the requirement to attribute and/or share-alike. |
| Open access | A publishing model whereby authors make their content freely available, albeit often with partial copyright restrictions or low copyright barriers. |
| Open accreditation | Awarding participation in new open types of education in new types of ways. |
| Open assessment | The process of making assessment of students work open and driven by community rather than closed and proprietary. |
| Open business models | Using ideas from the open source movement to make money out of open approaches. |
| Open content | Content that is made available under an open licence. |
| Open courseware | Courses or course components that are available under an open licence. |
| Open data | Open data is data that can be freely used, reused and redistributed by anyone - subject only, at most, to the requirement to attribute and sharealike. |
| Open data in an educational context | The use of open data for educational purposes, such as enabling improvement of student -led choices. |
| Open education data | Data, such as administative data created by educational institutions and educational practices, that is made available under an open licence. It can be used to improve efficiency, allow students to make informed decisions etc. |
| Open educational data | Similar to open education data but a broader term that includes open research data. |
| Open educational resources | a digital self-contained unit of self-assessable teaching with an explicit measurable learning objective, having an open licence clearly attached to allow adapting, and generally |
| Open learner | An individual who embraces open technologies and approaches in their learning. |
| Open learning | Learning that incorperates open technologies and approaches. |
| Open movement | Broad-reaching movement who embrace and support aspects of openness, such as open licensing. |
| Open pedagogy | Teaching that incorporates open technologies and approaches such as use of OERs. |
| Open practice | Using open technologies, approaches and open pedagogy as part of teaching. |
| Open practitioner | An individual who embraces open technologies and approaches in their teaching. |
| Open publishers | Creating news or other content that is transparent to the readers. |
| Open repository | A repository that is fully open to users by containing open access materials and openly licensed metadata. |
| Open research | Research that is conducted using open practices and approaches. Data will be openly published and research papers will be be open access. |
| Open resources for education | Resources that are openly licensed. |
| Open science | Approaches that enable scientific knowledge to be free to use, re-use and distribute without legal, technological or social restrictions. Open science means many things, but primarily scientific knowledge that people are free to use, re-use and distribute without legal, technological or social restrictions. |
| Open source software (OSS) | Software with a free source code that is often developed through peer-production. Anyone can use or modify the code for their own purposes. |
| Public Domain | The collection of works which are not eligible for copyright, whose copyright term has expired, or whose author has donated the work to the public domain. |
| Remix | the modification or re-interpretation of a resource, possibly combining fragments of material from various sources. |
| Repurpose | to make use of a resource either after modification or for a purpose different than that for which it was originally intended. |
| Reuse | to make use of a resource as it is, for its intended purpose. |
| SPOC | Self-Paced Open Course. Similar to a flipped classroom, it is a university course that heavily uses online resources and technology. This course format is currently being piloted on the edX platform. |
| Teaching | The act of sharing and imparting knowledge and supporting learners. |
| XMOOC | Originally a MOOC as an eXtension of another course. XMOOCs require less interaction and tend to be delivered by individual institutions. |

### Other resources

* Open Education Europa: Key concepts in EdTech and Open Education
* Open Educational Resources Toolkit - Glossary
* SI521 "Open Educational Resources at the University of Michigan" Open Textbook/Glossary
* MOOCS.com - MOOC, SPOC, What? Untangling the Online Course Vocabulary
* Edshelf - The Education Technology Dictionary
* Common Sense Media - EdTech Glossary
* COL: OER TIPS Framework with CC Glossary