Open Access and textbooks: is a completely open education possible?

Exploring Open Access and Open Education in the Social Sciences, this panel marked International Open Access Week at Bocconi University in Milan. Benedetta Calonaci explored whether the systematic adoption of open textbooks in university courses could represent a crucial improvement towards the right to education for millions of students. Her presentation outlined the current Italian situation of open textbooks in the social sciences, as seen from the observation point of an academic library. Ongoing trends and elements of resistance were also highlighted, as well as good practices and key factors that can lead to an "open" and "digital" transition, with profound consequences for both universities and society. Professor Giovanni Puccetti then described a new open access collaborative project at the University of Milan, which includes an open access Mathematics textbook. This project also includes a Moodle platform to build assignments and exams, with materials and sources made freely available on the web. Finally, Andrea Angiolini, a publisher, discussed how open textbooks and open educational resources in the higher education market are in an unstable balance between maximum inclusion and economic / organizational sustainability. He argued that the real challenge is to propose effective and suitable study tools both for curricula and for the needs that societies express. Mira Buist-Zhuk moderated the roundtable.