It is an educational alternative to social media networking

• In social media we network only with individuals who are like us. We exist in online bubbles where we rarely encounter anyone different from us.
• In COILs students collaborate with those who often think differently from themselves.

It is a complementary approach to physical mobility

• Physical mobility is limited to a relatively small percentage of students and staff and COIL has the potential to engage many more students and instructors in meaningful international and intercultural experiences (Rubin, 2023, pp. 11-12).
• Academics and teachers can connect with students and scholars in parts of the world where it would be very difficult for them to travel due to cost, security, geopolitics, or other reasons (Mudiaum, 2023, p. 207).
• When designed as a pre-departure or pre-arrival activity it prepares students for physical mobility.
• It can also serve as the virtual component of Erasmus+ Blended Intensive program (Erasmus+ BIP)

It is inclusive

• COIL enables international learning opportunities for all, in contrast to the physical ‘mobility for some’.
• COIL meets the criteria of internationalization at home (I@H) by creating opportunities for purposeful international and intercultural interaction for all students.

It is a great source of information and learning from actual people

• Students are exposed to different perspectives and points of view from actual interaction with people (Guth and Helm, 2017, pp. 22-23). The online interactions provide them with opportunities to gain contextualized, personalized insights into the social and political issues which are prevalent in their partner countries (O’Dowd, 2021, n.p.).
• Students see first-hand examples of what they may encounter in course books and the mass media (ibid)

It enables a reflective engagement with difference

• students realize they are not so different from their distant peers as they thought
• students have greater understanding of difference and respect for difference
• students develop broader understanding and/or an awareness that there are multiple realities and ways of looking at or interpreting issues and topics

(Guth and Helm, 2017, p. 6)

It develops the 21^st century skills – the skills and attitudes of the global worlplace and global citizenship:

• the ability to communicate effectively online with people from other cultures and speakers of other language
• awareness of the existence of other perspectives
• the ability to collaborate across disciplines
• the ability to collaborate in international online teams
• use technologies in innovative ways