On 16 January 2026, the Open Networked Learning (ONL) community came together for an Open Space alumni event titled ”From Course to Community.” The event created a space for former and future participants and facilitators to reconnect and explore how ONL continues to live on in teaching practices and emerging collaborations.
Structured around the principles of Open Space Technology, the event invited participants to propose conversations they cared about and to move freely between sessions. What followed was a rich set of discussions that reflected both the diversity of the ONL community and the shared questions that continue to connect it.
A marketplace of questions that matter
The Open Space “marketplace” quickly filled with topics that echoed long-standing ONL themes while also addressing emerging challenges. These included:
- Building digital literacy skills in computer-supported collaborative learning, including the role of AI and mobile technologies
- Exploring the value of a vivid and active ONL alumni community and how such a network might be sustained
- Understanding how universities move from “good pedagogical ideas” to “common practice”
- Reflecting on how participation and facilitation in ONL have shaped teaching practices, facilitation approaches, and professional identity
- Comparing familiar PBL structures, such as the FISh document and the Seven Steps, and when to use each
- Discussing interdisciplinarity, disciplinary boundaries, and collaboration across fields
- Imagining follow-up or sister courses inspired by ONL
These questions framed two rounds of parallel conversations, with informal breaks that were very much part of the community experience.
Key themes from the Open Space conversations
Across the conversations, a number of shared themes emerged. Participants highlighted the importance of critical and reflective engagement with digital tools, including AI, which was often discussed as a collaborator in learning rather than simply a tool to delegate work to. Discussions on community and alumni engagement emphasized the distinction between networking and more sustained forms of collaboration, grounded in shared practices and the need to learn together.
Several sessions focused on how pedagogical ideas move into common practice, pointing to piloting initiatives, documenting outcomes, engaging students in feedback, and practising leadership both within and beyond formal roles. Participants also reflected on how ONL continues to shape teaching practice and professional identity, particularly through collaborative learning, facilitation, dialogue, group dynamics, and more intentional combinations of synchronous and asynchronous learning. The Open Space also revealed interest in future collaborations related to digital literacies, AI in teaching, PBL facilitation, accessibility, interdisciplinarity, and ONL-inspired course design, alongside shared awareness of practical constraints such as time and institutional boundaries.
You find the notes from the discussions in this document.
From course to community — and back again
The ONL Open Space alumni event did not aim to produce a single outcome or roadmap. Instead, it reaffirmed something central to ONL itself: learning happens through conversation, collaboration, and shared inquiry. We look forward to future events that continue bringing the ONL community together. Or why not taking the course another time? Let us know if you are interested in ONL261. Either way, hope to see you soon!
