Our students' dialogue on community as well as personal and professional identity was facilitated through the use of two face-to-face workshops, and predominantly through an open source e-learning platform where students interacted with each other online in small workgroups. Through participation in a "learning community", the course aimed to foster learning about the other, and thereby democratising an educational discourse. It has been argued that online learning supports a more participatory mode of learning and education, where students become actively involved in learning through the sharing of multiple perspectives (Barab et al. 2001). The use of online learning has been shown to provide students with opportunities for critical reflection and the construction of knowledge, which may equip them with the necessary skills to work in situations of diversity (Cooner 2005).