This year for the first time we would like to use this site to host a number of Online Seminars and hot Seat discussions prior to the Networked Learning conference. We hope that the seminars and discussions will help to stimulate ideas for symposia that could be presented at the conference itself. As well as helping to develop ideas for conference symposia the online discussions may also help with finding co-writes for symposium proposals.

The Online Seminars and Hot Seat discussions will be run through the forums /community area on the site. If you are interested in hosting an Online Seminar or Hot Topic discussion on a specific networked learning topic or seminar please download and read the 'Guidelines for organising an online seminar' . Do not hesitate to contact Maarten De Laat (m.f.delaat(ad)uu.nl) for further information.

How Online Seminars works

First you should read the 'Guidelines for organising an online seminar' and then contact Maarten De Laat (m.f.delaat(ad)uu.nl) to propose a Seminar topic. This topic will then become a separate seminar space within the forum area, which you will host. You can use this space to have an open discussion or you can try to collaborate in order to prepare a symposium or paper submission for the conference.

 Within this space you have several tools to work with.

• you can invite researchers that will take part of this seminar
• you can start discussions on topics or papers that could lead to the submission of a symposium or conference paper
• visitors can leave comments and become actively involved in your seminar

After the review panel decision you can use this space to further prepare and deepen your symposium together. We hope that this might lead to more advanced and informed symposia discussions during the conference itself.

Hot Seat

Similarly to the online seminars you can propose a hot seat. The idea of hot seats is that you can raise attention about an idea, theme or question you are working on and have the opportunity to discuss this with peer researchers in the field of networked learning. You can use this opportunity also to develop the paper your are hoping to submit or interest people to start an online seminar or symposium. A hot seat will be scheduled in the community calendar and you will have a couple of days for an (a)synchronous discussion on this topic.

Any suggestions however for a hot topic are welcome as are requests to host online seminars, just let us know what your suggestions are by contacting Maarten De Laat (m.f.delaat(ad)uu.nl)