This case study describes an attempt to adapt the facilitation technique known in the business world as ‘Open Space’ to higher education in particular to a second year English Language module ‘Language and Gender’. The case study starts by arguing for the necessity of oral communication skills in the changing conditions of the 21st century and the potential of Open Space facilitation to help students gain those skills. After describing some of the ways that the technique needs to be adapted for the higher education context the case study describes a first attempt to use the technique in the ‘Language and Gender’ course at the University of Gloucestershire and analyses student feedback. My tentative conclusion is that the technique has great potential for use in higher education but only for certain topics and only if the Open Space event is carefully designed.
