2022 Champion: Velez, Meghan

Presenter Information

Meghan Velez

Biography

Dr. Velez is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Humanities and Communication and a course designer at the Worldwide campus. She serves as Co-Director of VECTOR, ERAU's Virtual Communication Center, as well as teaching courses in English Composition, Rhetoric, and Humanities. She holds a PhD in Rhetoric and Composition from Florida State University and a Master's degree in English with an emphasis in Writing Studies from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Dr. Velez's research interests include communication and writing across the curriculum, communication assessment, and technology and communication.

Campus

Worldwide

Position

Assistant Professor of Communication

Courses Impacted

• HUMN 240: History of Communication Technologies
• ENGL 143: Studies in Rhetorical Theory

When did you start using OER?

HUMN 240: Fall 2020; ENGL 143: Spring 2022

Why did you adopt OER?

As a course developer at Worldwide, I have the opportunity to influence the affordability of a course beyond just my own sections. I wanted to adopt affordable textbook options to reduce the financial burden on students who enroll in HUMN 240 or ENGL 143. In HUMN 240, foregoing a textbook in favor of a variety of open resources and Hunt Library materials also offered me a greater range of material to share with students, instead of being limited to the concepts covered in a single textbook.

Why are affordable textbooks and/or OER important?

I think it is important to make education, especially online education, as accessible as possible to students. Removing barriers to success such as expensive textbooks will ensure that more students have an opportunity to excel.

Open and affordable textbooks at ERAU?

Working with the library has been an invaluable part of my progress in making my courses more affordable. In at least one case, library staff were able to procure a license to a book I wanted to use in my course so that it would be free for students to access. In other cases, they were able to locate resources within the library's subscriptions or in open-access sources that fulfilled all of my course needs and saved me a lot of time in compiling materials. I recommend this as a first step when planning a switch to OER!

Estimated Savings

$4,875