'What am I missing?' Finding connection in an online community development course during COVID-19

This article focuses on a process of reflection, discovery and review of teaching and learning community development over one university semester in 2021. The question, ‘What am I missing?' is the starting point and impetus for our reflective analysis. The voices of our students drive us to explore contemporary circumstances more deeply and discover what is lost and what can still be found. As one social work student in the Community Development Course expressed it: 'Even thought I have kept up to date with course readings and online classes, I feel like I am lacking a connection somewhere. I feel that I am missing 'something' key that I should understand.' Our intention (and challenge) to discover what's missing and find a way forward focuses on a practice task undertaken by social work students in this online community development course. The task was to form online groups, design a powerful ('wicked') question and host a World Cafe Conversation. The World Café is a methodology for creating collaborative learning conversations around 'questions that matter' (Brown & Issacs, 2005).