At the University of Colorado's Anschutz Medical Campus, Dr. Kim Paxton encountered a common challenge in higher education: finding appropriate and affordable textbooks for her students. When she discovered a required textbook would cost her nursing students nearly $200 for just one semester, she decided to find a better solution.
"I couldn't ethically do that to a student," Paxton says.
What happened next exemplifies a quiet revolution spreading through American universities, as educators like Paxton take dramatic steps to combat the crushing financial burden of academic materials that can cost students thousands over their college careers.
When $425 Worth of Books Becomes Zero
For her graduate-level nursing course on health promotion and prevention, Paxton discovered she needed not one, but three separate textbooks—with a combined price tag reaching $425—plus numerous research articles to deliver comprehensive content.
|
What is the Open Educational Resources (OER) Champion Award? The OER Champion Award celebrates four educators or educator teams – one from each campus within the CU System – and one student champion whose open course materials, open pedagogy, and professional, research, and/or advocacy practices have had an impact on the student experience and influenced peers to share more openly. Each award winner (or team) receives $1,200. |
Rather than forcing her students to shoulder this expense, the assistant professor of clinical teaching at the University of Colorado College of Nursing made a radical decision: she would write her own textbook titled Health Promotion and Prevention Through an Integrated Health and Wellness Approach in Primary Care and make it available to students at no cost.
This decision recently earned Paxton the Open Education Resource (OER) Champion Award from the CU System's Office of Academic Affairs, recognizing her commitment to educational accessibility.
“I was in disbelief when I found out I won this because there are so many talented faculty throughout the CU System and on the Anschutz Medical Campus,” Paxton says.
Creating Knowledge That Belongs to Everyone
Open educational resources (OERs) are digital course materials and resources in the public domain, meaning they’re free for anyone to use.
“What’s great about this book is that through the publishing format MERLOT, someone can download the entire book as a PDF,” Paxton says. “This allows a student to keep the book as a resource and they can refer back to it as needed.”
“Being a recipient of this award is such an honor not only for me but for the college,” Paxton says. “This award demonstrates that CU Nursing is an integral part of educating students on this campus and that we’re respected for what we do.”
Ellie Svoboda, a librarian at the Strauss Health Sciences Library who nominated Paxton for the award, emphasized the significance of her contribution. She gave guidance using MERLOT as an online publishing platform for Paxton’s book.
“Dr. Paxton was an early adopter of OER, and authoring her textbook took several years of hard work,” Svodoba wrote in her nomination. “She stuck through and created an incredible resource for her students.”
Filling Critical Gaps in Medical Education
Paxton’s textbook addresses significant gaps she identified in existing materials, particularly regarding nutrition and exercise – two foundational elements in preventive healthcare.
“I noticed that poor nutrition was something that wasn’t talked about in textbooks, so I wanted to include that. For example, some books talk about the Mediterranean diet…that’s good guidance, but does the book tell the provider what really needs to be done and how to do it? No, it doesn’t, so that’s what this book talks about,” she says.
The text delves deeper than typical resources, incorporating detailed physiological explanations that help future nurse practitioners understand not just what to recommend to patients, but why those recommendations matter.
Dr. Paxton's book cover. |
“Physiology guides you into which diets are appropriate for someone’s health,” she says. “It also helps a provider understand how to emphasize to a patient that they need to exercise to stay healthy and treat certain conditions.”
Getting a Student’s Perspective
Published in December 2024, Paxton’s textbook currently contains three chapters written by herself and colleagues. But unlike traditional textbooks that remain static until the next edition, this digital resource evolves continuously.
Paxton is getting feedback from students this semester about the book and what aspects could be improved. The hope is to have the book republished annually with updates and new information. The book will be available to anyone on the Anschutz Campus – or at universities nationally and internationally.
“We want to know what students liked about it, what they thought was confusing, and what should be added,” Paxton says. “I was the editor of the book, so it was based on my brain and the other authors’ brains. We needed a student perspective to learn from.”
The results so far have been remarkable.
“I’ve seen a 98% improvement in understanding the knowledge of what a diet’s physiology is and how it can be applied to a patient compared to last semester’s students,” Paxton says. “I can see how students are using this information from the book’s chapters and applying it to a real patient situation. It’s exciting to see.”
