Over the past half century, colleges and universities have prioritized students’ global awareness and intercultural communication skills as institutional outcomes. The goal is that graduates will be prepared to contribute to diverse workplaces and be ...
Employers love collaborators. Communities needs collaborators. Democracy requires collaboration. Students hate collaboration. And faculty feel . . . well . . . meh? We know that collaboration is powerful. We know that it both provides students with skills they need and deepens their learning ...
Flipgrid is a popular video-based discussion tool that has many advantages over an LMS discussion forum. For one, it arranges student postings on a single page rather than in a threaded forum. This makes it ...
I teach at a college for working adults. Most of our students work at least one job and have many family obligations. In short, they are busy people looking to learn in the most efficient ...
Active learning in small groups has, at best, a mixed reputation. Instructors voice concerns about unequal levels of participation, students rushing through activities to leave or log off early, difficulties in assessing effort and learning, ...
Contract cheating is a relatively new phenomenon that is gaining attention in higher education because it is particularly difficult to detect. Instead of purchasing a paper from an outside source, contract cheating involves hiring someone ...
Discussion forums are ubiquitous in online education despite getting mixed reviews from students and teachers. Faculty complain of students giving only perfunctory responses, while students lament discussion questions that allow only cursory answers. The problem is ...
Many of us know by now that didactic lecture is incongruent with student learning: receiving information passively tends to disengage students, which is likely to result in undesirable learning outcomes. Even though lecture remains the ...
This fall, faculty will face an increased range of preparation in their students. If you’ve been teaching awhile, you have a sense of the degree to which your students are differently prepared: some know the ...
Flipgrid is becoming increasingly popular for use in the classroom due to its interactive nature and similarity to widely used social media platforms. Faculty first create groups or classes on the site for students to ...
Over the past half century, colleges and universities have prioritized students’ global awareness and intercultural communication skills as institutional outcomes. The goal is that graduates will be prepared to contribute to diverse workplaces and be able to communicate with people from different cultures. Historically, these institutions promoted study abroad programs to give students an opportunity to learn about other cultures in an impactful way. But these immersion activities are expensive and not readily available to all students.
With the advent of the internet, educators began contacting one another to foster virtual collaboration between classes and called this new pedagogy Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL). COIL is a virtual study abroad program or simulated global exchange experience that uses technology to bridge the gaps between classrooms worldwide. Two or more teachers from various geographic locations connect and plan a course or unit that combines the curriculum from each class. Small student groups from each class work collaboratively on projects, typically with a problem-based learning (PBL) approach. As a result of this experience, students can build rapport with their international classmates, increase their understanding of other cultures, and familiarize themselves with innovative technologies.
Educators who want to create COIL courses have various training options. One organization that facilitates COIL training is the SUNY COIL Center. Created by an informal network of educators in New York, the center serves as a clearinghouse of COIL resources. This center offers workshops on integrating COIL into a course and serves as a means of connecting with educators worldwide looking for virtual collaboration. There are a few steps that you can take to start creating your own COIL class.
There are many benefits of COIL courses. These classes are an excellent option for instructors who want to offer students a high-impact activity to solidify course content using various online tools. Also, collaborative group projects are engaging and memorable class assignments. Furthermore, COIL classes are also an equitable way for students to enhance their intercultural communication skills in an engaging way.
Amy Anderson, EdD, is a communication studies professor at Spokane Community College, Gonzaga University, and Whitworth University.