Skip to content
Open Learning App
  • There are no suggestions because the search field is empty.

Where do I discuss my challenge, and how does it work?

Get to know Challenge Discussions - your space to work through a challenge with your cohort and challenge owner

What is a Challenge Discussion?

A Challenge Discussion (live from 31st August 2026) is a dedicated forum, built into the learning platform, for talking through a specific challenge with your challenge owner and the rest of your cohort covering: questions, feedback, and working through your deliverable together. Every challenge cohort has one. This replaces the Slack channel that used to exist for each challenge.

What Challenge Discussions are for, and not for

For:

  • Challenge-specific questions, and working through your deliverable with your challenge owner and cohort
  • Feedback tied to what you're currently working on
  • Pinned guidance and announcements from your challenge owner
  • Sharing files and resources relevant to the challenge

Not for:

  • General cohort chat and getting to know each other - that still happens in your cohort's Slack channel and in Mission Groups.
  • Reporting a bug or content error - use the ⛳️ flag icon so it reaches the right team directly or use dedicated support avenues.

Where do I find it?

You can open your Challenge Discussion from four places: the challenge page, the milestone page, the lesson page, or an individual lesson card. Look for the discussion icon - a purple dot means there are unread messages waiting for you. You can expand the discussion to fullscreen, or close it and keep working; it's also available from your mobile browser. See the video below for how to use it!

How do I use it?

📌 Check the pinned announcements

Your challenge owner pins the most important messages to a carousel at the top of the discussion. Click or swipe through them before posting a question of your own - it may already be answered there.

💬 Post, reply, and react

Tag another learner or your challenge owner with @name to make sure they see your message. Replies open in a thread one level deep - similar to Slack. You can react to any message with an emoji, and attach files of any size.

📎 Forward a lesson

If a lesson card or block is relevant to the conversation, forward it into the discussion along with your own note. Anyone can click the forwarded card to jump straight back to that part of the lesson.

🔔 Manage your notifications

You'll get a notification whenever you're tagged directly, or when your challenge owner tags everyone with @all. Each notification shows who tagged you, whether it was a direct tag, which challenge it's from, and the time. In your settings, choose whether you want an email for every tag, one daily digest, or no emails at all.

⛳️ Flag a content issue - don't post about it

If you spot an error in a lesson card, use the flag icon rather than posting in the discussion. This sends a ticket straight to the learning design team so it gets fixed, without cluttering the conversation for your cohort.

Heads up: existing challenge Slack channels are archived from 28 August 2026. From 31 August, every new challenge has its discussion in the platform only. If you're joining in the August intake, keep using your Slack onboarding channel for now - this will move over in a later phase.
Looking for an older challenge conversation? If your challenge started before 31 August, it stays in its existing Slack channel until it wraps up - only challenges starting from 31 August onward use Challenge Discussions.

Need to find something in an archived Slack channel? You can! Just use the search bar in slack, all information will still be available to view.search archive

Still have a question?

If you can't find what you need in the discussion, reach out via the support chat on the platform, and the right team will pick it up.