In this article, John Cowan (Open University in Scotland), Carlos Alonzo‐Blanqueto (University of Merida, Yucatan) and Derek Fordyce (Heriot‐Watt University) describe their efforts to offer learners genuine openness as regards course content. They draw on three examples from diverse situations to illustrate their use of the ‘sideline tutor’, an arrangement by which learners can directly influence the choice of what they are about to learn and what the teacher teaches’.