OpenStaxOpenStax (formerly OpenStax College) is a nonprofit educational technology initiative based at Rice University that produces peer-reviewed, openly licensed textbooks for undergraduate education. Founded in 2012, OpenStax publishes digital textbooks and low-cost print editions under Creative Commons licenses, with the goal of reducing the cost of higher education.Creative CommonsCreative Commons Corporation (CC) is an American nonprofit organization and international network devoted to educational access and expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share.
Open educational resourcesOpen learning resourceUNESCO Global Open Educational Resources logoOpen educational resources (OER) are teaching, learning, and research materials that are intentionally created and licensed to be free for the end user to own, share, and in most cases, modify. The term "OER" describes publicly accessible materials and resources for any user to use, re-mix, improve, and redistribute under some licenses.
Public domainThe public domain (PD) consists of all creative works to which no exclusiveintellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, be forfeit, have been waived, or be inapplicable. Because no one holds the exclusive rights, anyone can legally use or reference those works without permission.
CopyrightA copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive legal right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, educational, or musical form. Copyright is intended to protect the original expression of an idea in the form of a creative work, but not the idea itself.OpenStax CNXConnexions, later known as OpenStax CNX 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.
TextbookA textbook is a book containing a comprehensive compilation of content in a branch of study serving to explain the subject. Textbooks are produced to meet the needs of educators, usually at educational institutions, as well as learners (who could be independent learners outside of formal education). Schoolbooks are textbooks and other books used in schools. Today, many textbooks are published in both print and digital formats.
EbookAn ebook (short for "electronic book"), also spelled as e-book or eBook, is a book publication made available in electronic form, consisting of text, images, or both, readable on the flat-panel display of computers or other electronic devices. Although sometimes defined as "an electronic version of a printed book", some e-books exist without a printed equivalent.Digital copyA digital copy is a commercially distributed computer file containing a media product such as a film or music album. The term contrasts this computer file with the physical copy (typically a DVD, Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D, or Ultra HD Blu-ray disc) with which the digital copy is usually offered as part of a bundle.New Media ConsortiumThe New Media Consortium (NMC) was an international 501(c)(3) not-for-profit consortium of learning-focused organizations dedicated to the exploration and use of new media and new technologies.
Free licenseA free license or open license is a license that allows copyrighted work to be reused, modified, and redistributed. These uses are normally prohibited by copyright, patent or other intellectual property laws. The term broadly covers free content licenses and open-source licenses, also known as free software licenses.
Free contentFree content, libre content, or open content (also called free information, libre information, open information) is any kind of creative work, such as a work of art, a book, a software program, or any other creative content for which copyright and other legal limitations on usage, modification and distribution are minimal. These are works or expressions which can be freely studied, applied, copied and modified by anyone for any purpose.
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