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Opening the Book on Access: A Nursing Faculty’s First OER Experience
Tue March 3, 2026 @ 6:00 pm - 6:30 pm GMT
I took a leap and implemented an OER textbook in my Population and Environmental Health Nursing course in Fall 2025. The results were positive in so many ways! My purpose is to encourage other faculty to improve textbook affordability and equity in nursing education. Here is my story:
This case study explores the implementation and impact of an Open Educational Resource (OER) textbook in a prelicensure Population and Environmental Health Nursing course for senior nursing students. During the Fall 2025 semester, a group of 39 students used an OpenStax OER textbook in a sixteen-week, in-person course instead of a traditional, commercially published textbook.
The goal of this project was to evaluate student satisfaction and academic outcomes related to using OER materials. Data were collected through a post-course survey that assessed satisfaction, perceived learning, and accessibility, along with comparing Assessment Technologies Institute (ATI) proctored exam scores to those of a previous semester’s cohort who had to purchase a traditional textbook.
Results showed high student satisfaction, with participants citing ease of access on the first day of class, affordability, and similar or improved learning experiences. Analysis of ATI scores indicated that students in the OER group performed as well as their peers using traditional textbooks, suggesting that cost savings did not negatively impact academic performance. Switching to OER materials saved approximately $150 per student, totaling nearly $6,000 in savings for the entire cohort. This is especially important, as over half of the program’s nursing students are Pell Grant-eligible, highlighting the financial equity benefits of adopting OER resources in nursing education. Overall, this case study endorses OER integration as a sustainable, student-centered strategy to improve access, affordability, and achievement in undergraduate nursing education.
