By default, a glossary applies only to the course in which it resides. However, you can choose to make a glossary global. In this case, the words from this glossary will be highlighted and clickable wherever they are in your site. The work done in one course then becomes available to all the courses on your site. If your site's subject matter is highly focused, consider using a global glossary. If your site's subject matter is very broad, as in a university-wide learning site, you should use local glossaries to avoid confusion. For example, imagine that you have a course in chemistry and another in statistics. Both use the word granular, but chemistry uses it to indicate a powdered substance, while statistics uses it to indicate a fine level of detail.