Lecturer Jasmine Roberts recently spoke at Innovate, OSU's 2017 Faculty Showcase, attended by over 110 faculty members. Roberts presented with her student Shayla Baker on the impact of using open education resources in the classroom, specifically focusing on the academic impact they have on her students.

"For me it was gratifying to see all of the faculty members who were interested in enhancing their students’ experiences," Roberts said.

Roberts also spoke briefly about the experience and process involved while writing a textbook. Once the textbook was created, Roberts got feedback from her students to see if it had an impact on the students in the classroom.

Roberts also focused on addressing that open education resources go beyond the classroom and also address a larger social justice issue.

"Open education is challenging the notion that public education is not a privilege but more so a human right," Roberts said. "I remember enrolling into one of my intro to communication classes and the professor assigned a textbook, and it was over $100. All students are making these value judgments. There are students who are switching majors because they know their course materials are expensive."

Roberts hopes that the faculty who attended the showcase walked away with three main points from her presentation. First, she explains that open education resources can definitely mean access to high quality materials. While Roberts gives her students a free textbook, they are still able to get  what they need from the textbook material. Second, Roberts hopes that faculty feel motivated to realize that this is more than an economic argument, but rather a social justice issue that will affect faculty members and enrollment numbers down the line. And finally, Roberts hopes that faculty members realize that they can do little things for their courses to make them more affordable for their students.