Sometimes an ad hoc response to a crisis can open our eyes to immense possibilities that remained inadequately explored in ‘normal’ times. In the education space, the Covid pandemic brought with it the challenge of finding ways to make classes possible without classrooms. ‘Online learning’ became a buzzword, with institutions, families and communities exposed to it like never before. Now that we know aspects of the classroom experience can be replicated online on a massive scale, it’s time to throw open the doors of imagination to all that the online mode can do in enabling greater ‘democracy’ in production and dissemination of knowledge. For instance, can the metaphorical moat around the university—the archetypal fortress of knowledge production—be crossed both ways, so that its knowledge resources are accessible even to those who are outside?