Trevor Rivers named 2026 Textbook Hero for creating open resource to reshape introduction to biology, reduce student costs
Trevor Rivers, associate teaching professor of biology, has been named KU Libraries 2026 Textbook Hero for extending his student-centered, curiosity-driven teaching style into the creation of open educational resources (OER). Rivers’ efforts have reshaped how nearly 2,000 students each year will encounter introductory biology at the University of Kansas, and replaced an $80 commercial text with a free, easily accessible, multimedia resource, creating significant financial savings for students.
In a lecture hall full of BIOL 100 students, Rivers is encouraging and engaging, presenting slides punctuated with exclamation points and real-world examples that point to unexpected philosophical questions. He describes “how bacteria talk to each other,” or the way an “adorable” squid can illuminate aspects of the human immune system and asks the students, “why do we care about this?”
The creation of his open textbook, “Biology for an Informed World,” has allowed Rivers to organize the introductory biology class for non-majors with an eye for increased engagement and enhanced learning. After a year of preparatory work, Rivers launched use of the textbook at the beginning of the spring semester.
“I've been asking questions in class and what I've been noticing is that the students are able to pick up on what they've learned in previous classes and previous readings to inform them for what I'm asking,” Rivers said. “They've got a better handle on how everything works together instead of being siloed or disparate when I taught it in the traditional order.”
Taking a scaffolded approach that helps students master unfamiliar, complex concepts by building on what they already know, the text connects foundational biological concepts to real‑world issues and everyday decision‑making, building scientific literacy by linking fundamental concepts to real-world decisions and societal issues. The digital format incorporates various educational aspects such as YouTube videos and other links incorporated directly into the written material, all available on the learning management system students can easily access.
One of the advantages of OER is that they are highly adaptable and versatile, and Rivers already has changes and improvements in mind as he continues to identify the most effective content and formats. The textbook itself is a multifaceted example of the expansive possibilities of open education, as Rivers created it using existing open‑source materials for BIOL 100, synthesizing and organizing the information for his purposes, and adding question pools to facilitate learning.
“I actually mapped out five different online textbooks and looked at what was overlapping and then pulled in things from different sources, which was a bit of a haul,” Rivers said. “I am already finding things that I would like to change, but I can, which is the best part. I can keep tailoring it to both compliment and supplement my classes and what I'm teaching lecture-wise.”
Rivers’ interest in OER was fueled by KU Libraries Open Education Week programming last year, including the honoring of 2025 Textbook Hero, Lisa Sharpe Ellis from KU Chemistry, who encouraged him in his exploration of libraries connections. Rivers applied for and received a grant from the libraries and worked with librarians to find the best paths to achieving his goals.
“What kickstarted this whole thing was the libraries, for sure,” Rivers said.
He hopes his own recognition can inspire similar efforts, or prompt colleagues to learn more.
“I'm honored to receive the award, but I think it's more important that people are aware that these opportunities exist,” he said. “You can move the needle in terms of the pedagogical, taking the reins of your class to the level of creating your own textbook, and that is doable, as well as being more cost effective for the students.”
Rivers’ approach to OER is grounded in his approach to teaching, which stems from his own educational experiences.
“My professional direction was the result of educators in community college, undergraduate, and graduate school, and the people that had the biggest influence on me were the ones that were focused on student learning and harnessing failure as a process and not a punishment,” he said. “And so that's kind of my guiding idea. We're supposed to teach people something they don't know, and they shouldn't be punished for not knowing it when you start. My whole structure is trying to figure out how I can do that, both with assignments and with the readings and other things, where they are able to fail successfully into learning the material by the end of the semester. And I think having a better hand in the material I'm presenting to the students gives me a better ability to succeed with that.”
Rivers’ work exemplifies the goals of Open Education Week, which celebrates the impact of open educational resources (OER) and practices on teaching and learning. KU Libraries advocate for and support the use of open textbooks and other OER yearround, through a variety of initiatives, including grants, consultations, presentations, events, the new Deans' OER Incentive, and other outreach. Since its launch, the OER Grant Initiative has awarded 46 awards to KU instructors with an estimated annual savings of more than $1.3 million for KU students. The libraries support OER publishing via the Pressbooks platform, collaborating with co-authors to publish their work openly, with 25 titles in the KU Pressbooks catalog and more than 20 in development.