coil introduction

An Introduction to COIL,Collaborative Online

International Learning

Sarah GuthProgram Coordinator for International Collaborations

SUNY COIL Center

What is COIL?

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Collaborative Online International Learning is not a technology, but a new teaching and learning paradigm that aims to develop intercultural awareness and competence across shared multi-cultural online learning environments.

COIL bring students and teachers in geographically distant locations, from different lingua-cultural backgrounds together.

The COIL model does not merely promote courses where students from different countries share an online classroom. Rather, it aims to create co-equal team-taught learning environments where teachers from two cultures work together to develop a shared syllabus, emphasizing experiential and collaborative student learning. The courses give new contextual meaning to the ideas and texts they explore.

COIL-like terms

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2003

• Telecollaboration (Belz)

2006

• collaborative online international learning (Rubin & Wilson)• virtual mobility (VM-BASE)

2007

• online intercultural exchange (O’Dowd)

2008

• globally networked learning (Starke-Meyerring & Wilson)

2013

• exchange 2.0 (Soliya, iEarn, Global Nomads)

Goals of the SUNY COIL Center

The SUNY COIL Center’s Mission Statements:• To Encourage and support the development and implementation of collaborative

online international courses around SUNY and the world• To build bridges between the instructional design, international programs and

teaching faculty communities • To promote, integrate and enhance international education experiences across the

curriculum

Focus on Student-to-Student Interactions promote:• experiential & collaborative student learning• learning course content through one’s own

and others’ unique cultural lenses• development of intercultural awareness and

online communicative competence• opportunities to build diverse personal relationships• experience working in multicultural virtual teams

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COIL Courses

• Use technology to bridge the distance between students around the world

• Involve faculty working in partnership to bring their students together online from two or more countries

• Can be built from new or existing courses

• Require teachers from each country to develop a shared syllabus and design tasks and activities that promote intercultural awareness and collaboration

• Do not require course with an internationalspecific focus

• Are usually hybrid with a F2F component in each school and the COIL component online

• Last from 4-12 weeks

• Can be from almost any discipline

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Any Discipline

• Use technology to bridge the distance between students around the world

• Involve faculty working in partnership to bring their students together online from two or more countries

• Can be built from new or existing courses

• Require teachers from each country to develop a shared syllabus and design tasks and activities that promote intercultural awareness and collaboration

• Do not require course with an internationalspecific focus

• Are usually hybrid with a F2F component in each school and the COIL component online

• Last from 4-12 weeks

• Can be from almost any discipline

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Agriculture Dairy Production and Management Belarus

Business & Finance Global Citizenship & Corporate Social Responsibility GhanaEngineering International Collaborative Construction Management Turkey, Israel, BrazilForeign Languages Japanese and American Culture Japan

Gender Studies Feminisms in Comparative Perspective Mexico

History Religion and Conflict in Europe Turkey

Literature Science Fiction and Modern Society Germany

Media Arts & Film Cross-Cultural Video Production Belarus

Music Jazz! Born in America, Created Internationally S. Africa - Denmark

Performing Arts Voice and Movement for Actors Australia

Political Science European Politics Belgium

Psychology Early Childhood & Adolescence Education England

Social Work Advanced Social Work Practice with Communities South Africa

Teacher Ed Introduction to Exceptional Children Education Taiwan

Writing Global English Composition Belize

Positive Feedback from Students

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• Enthusiasm– I was honored to be a part of this pilot course and I firmly believe the collaboration

between the two universities should be continued. I think that there should be more conferences under this course and they should be more extended.

• Perspectives: see their own culture in a different light; a high level of awareness of ‘self’ and ‘other’ and reflection on the experience.– It was fascinating to see the different perspectives concerning the topics we

discussed in the course. It was interesting to see how we generalize our opinions while in reality they might be just exclusive to us.

– It challenged me to think in new ways.

• Skills– language skills (I practiced my English in speech and writing)

– communicative competence (how to interact with strangers that live overseas and be close friends with them)

– overcoming technophobia (I still hate technology but I have come away with a much bigger realization of the world.)

• Team teaching – As a team the teachers were great. It was fun to watch them exchange ideas and

theories about a given piece of literature because their knowledge is so encyclopedic. Individually, they are still excellent professors.

Recommendations from Students

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There was one keyword that appeared in the recommendations more than any other: “more”. Students wanted more:

– time for collaborative work; – months (2 semesters rather than one) – time for class discussion– time to talk with [the international] studentsmas

interacciones entre los alumnus– video chats– class time– oral sessions– comparisons between both cultures

Impacts for Faculty

Professional development opportunity for faculty/staff

I gained new perspectives from my international partner from the outset, as well as confidence in my own approach toward my students at our institution.

I am more convinced than ever that, with proper institutional and technical support, these collaborations are invaluable for students and instructors around the world.

Particularly for students with limited opportunities to travel abroad, the opportunity to share an educational experience with students from other cultures and countries is very important.

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Impacts for Institutions

• Creates goodwill and interest in campus among prospective exchange or international students

• Bring international experiences to wider range of students

• New internationalization vector to meet strategic goals

• Cost-effective pathway to internationalize curricula

• Reduced administrative complexity

• Students are usually enrolled, charged tuition, and awarded grades only at their home institution.

• Avenue to develop new partnerships

• Option to invigorate new or moribund MOUs

• Opportunity for Dual Degree student interactions

• Can support existing education abroad programs

• Increase student interest and comfort in studying abroad

• Help better prepare students for going abroad

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What do COIL courses look like?

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You can COIL any course

Discipline A Film Studies ESL Civilization Sequence

Civil Engineering

Discipline B Interdisciplinary Teacher Ed Honors English US

Country (LOI*) A

US (English) Italy (EFL) Lebanon (ESL) Turkey (Turkish)

Country (LOI) B

Belarus (Russian)

Germany (ESL) US (English) Israel (Hebrew)

LEVEL A Undergraduate Undergraduate Undergraduate Brazil (Portughese)

LEVEL B Mixed Graduate Undergraduate Mixed

Asynch Video wiki LMS Discussion Forum/ File sharing

Synch N/A Skype N/A Video conferencing

LOI = Language of Instruction

InterdisciplinaryAsynchronous &

SynchronousCourse created from

scratch

Synchronous & AsynchronousLanguage Tutor – Language Learner

6-week module

InterdisciplinaryAsynchronous

Video ExchangeCourse created from scratch



Civil Engineering


Country (LOI*) A


Country (LOI) B

Belarus (Russian)









scratch

Synchronous & AsynchronousLanguage Tutor – Language Learner

6-week module



Civil Engineering


Country (LOI*) A


Country (LOI) B

Belarus (Russian)









scratch



Civil Engineering


Country (LOI*) A


Country (LOI) B

Belarus (Russian)







What Have We Learned

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Keys to Success

• Create close partnership between faculty and technology and international support on campus.

Partnerships

• Set clear educational goals and objectives before planning the technology to be used.

LearningFirst

• Build strong working relationships with teams locally and abroad.

Relationships

• Assess effectiveness and have the flexibility to adjust as needed.

Flexibility17

email

[email protected]

Questions?