1. What is COIL
COIL (Collaborative Online International Learning)
- the term was coined by Jon Rubin in 2006 (Rubin, 2023, p. 6)
- it is one of the methods of virtual exchange in which groups of students are engaged in online intercultural collaboration with partners from other cultural contexts or geographical locations
- a new approach to teaching and learning that utilizes the Internet to empower students and instructors to share knowledge, learn about their discipline from a new perspective, and question locally situated and deeply held assumptions (The EVALUATE Group, 2019, pp. 1-2; O’Dowd, 2021, n.p.)
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Virtual exchange
- “Virtual exchanges are technology-enabled, sustained, people-to-people education programs. While new media technologies are often used for either superficial social interaction or intensely polarizing political display, virtual exchanges use the same technologies to build mutually affirming relationships and foster constructive and meaningful dialogue among youth.” (What is virtual exchange?, 2015, para. 1)
- video [link]: https://evolve-erasmus.eu/about-evolve/what-is-virtual-exchange/
- Virtual exchange vs. virtual mobility: virtual mobility means registering for one more online courses from a host university in another country and receiving academic recognition for the credits acquired (Rubin, 2023, p. 14)
- For a concise description and examples of virtual exchanges see O’Dowd (2018).
Adopted from O’Dowd, 2018, p. 3
COIL main attributes:
- it is a cross-border collaboration and interaction of teachers and students
- it is embedded in the course curriculum and should not be an extracurricular activity
- it is co-developed by two teachers based in different cultures and/or locations
- it is almost always co-taught by the same instructors who designed the COIL
- together, their students engage and develop joint projects, usually over a continuous 5- to 8-week period [see ch 8]
- students engage in a two-way flow of information to enable collaborative online interaction, asynchronous and synchronous
(Rubin, 2023, pp. 9-10)
Additional COIL attributes:
- creates a shared syllabus which is worked on by both partnering institutions
- it is usually embedded into preexisting courses, only rarely are completely new courses created at either of the partnering institutions
- often links courses across different disciplines and brings interdisciplinary perspectives
- participating students are enrolled and awarded grades only at their home institution
- activities are driven by a set of learning outcomes, aimed at developing global perspectives and/or fostering students’ intercultural competences [ch 4]
- it has a reflective component that helps students think critically about their learning and interaction [ch 8]
- it meets the criteria for Internationalization at home (I@H) (Beelen et al. 2021, p. 35) and it is a tool for internationalization of curriculum.
(Rubin, 2023, pp. 9-10)