ALT Annual Conference 2026 – ALTC26: Learning without Edges

In a world characterised by rapid technological innovation, shifting labour markets,  social transformation, and ongoing uncertainty, learning can no longer be confined to a particular stage of life, institutional setting, or mode of delivery. Increasingly, learners will be required to move across educational, professional, and community contexts,  engaging with opportunities that are flexible, personalised, and responsive to their evolving needs. Digital pedagogies and technologies are key to enabling this flexibility.  

Learning Without Edges invites a collective exploration of how our community can help shape a future where learning is continuous, connected, and accessible to all. The conference theme recognises the role that digital can play in reimagining learning as a dynamic ecosystem that transcends traditional boundaries between formal and informal learning, education and employment, physical and digital environments, and local and global communities. 

At the heart of this theme is a commitment to human-centred design, equity, and empowerment. We encourage debate about how digital tools and technologies can support learners throughout their lives while fostering agency, belonging, wellbeing, and resilience. We challenge you to consider how learning can be designed for uncertainty,  ensuring that individuals, organisations, and societies can adapt and thrive in an ever changing world. 

Streams 

1. Designing for Flexibility Amid Uncertainty 
Exploring how digitally facilitated learning, curricula and assessment can be designed from the outset to respond to change, support multiple modes of engagement, diverse learner needs, and lifelong learning pathways. 

2. Learner Agency and Empowerment 
Investigating how learners can play meaningful roles in shaping their own digital learning journeys, influencing provision, and developing the confidence,  capabilities, and autonomy needed for lifelong engagement with learning. 

3. Collaborative Partnerships for Digital Learning 
Exploring how institutions, employers, policymakers, regional development agencies, and community organisations can work together to create coherent,  accessible, and responsive learning opportunities enabled by digital pedagogies and technologies.

4. Digital Ecosystems for Lifelong Learning 
Examining the policies, technologies, processes, cultures, and leadership  approaches that support flexible lifelong participation through digitally enabled  learning within organisations and institutions 

5. Wildcard: Innovation without Edges 
This is a space for submissions that do not neatly fit into the other four categories. If your work represents a new domain of inquiry, an unconventional methodology or an unorthodox approach to digital learning and learning technology, we encourage you to submit under this strand. We particularly welcome contributions from colleagues working in under-represented areas of digital learning, including grassroots initiatives, informal learning spaces, or roles that are often overlooked in traditional contexts. 

Please note: there is no dedicated AI strand, as AI‑related submissions should align with one of the strands above.