Footprints are an attempt to describe the dynamics of what happens in the 'new open' learning ...
...to form the basis of conversations about the interaction between learning design and learning experience. 

• Footprints try to capture several snapshots along the way: starting with the design footprint, as it is on day one, followed by footprints of the learning at various stages during the learning event.

• The footprints can be drawn individually, or collectively, and by a range of stakeholders – designers, curators, facilitators, administrators, managers, learners, and researchers. The footprints should differ, as they are snapshots taken from different perspectives and positions.

• Emergent learning is learning in which self-organization is encouraged, and in which how learning takes place (the process), as well as what is learnt (the curriculum) is open and to some extent unpredictable.

• So the conversations that follow should help us make sense of what has happened - or is happening - in a learning event, not to predict what will happen in the future (although lessons can obviously be learnt).