Close Your Passport: A Revision of Latin American Experiences Using Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL)

Internationalization in higher education is essential, and although active learning methodologies are increasing and allow students to develop transversal skills, most still have a very local scope. In this context, the Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) methodology is an interesting approach to benefit the students' development. It consists of an online program that involves creating multicultural teams to develop a specific learning project. Although this methodology is expanding, its use in physiology is still scarce. This paper aims to show an example of applying COIL methodology in physiology topics to enhance higher-education students' innovation and business skills. Our example project developed a sports-assessment service concept focused on physiology and biomechanics assessments. The program involved teams from Brazil, Germany, and Spain, comprising undergraduate and master students. Over 7 weeks, these teams, mentored by professors and researchers, engaged in workshops covering COIL methodology, business model design, executive summary planning, economic analyses, and communication techniques. Key outcomes included learning new concepts, developing soft skills, building confidence in innovative solution proposals, and experiencing diverse cultures. Challenges faced were language barriers, scheduling, task complexity, and logistical issues. This experience confirms the effectiveness of incorporating programs using COIL methodology into educational curriculums. Doing so exposes physiology students to innovation, entrepreneurship, and business creation while strengthening their professional connections and opening up postgraduation opportunities.NEW & NOTEWORTHY Although the Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) methodology is expanding, its use in physiology is still scarce. Our example COIL project of 7 weeks developed a sports-assessment service concept focused on physiology and biomechanics assessments. The program involved teams from Brazil, Germany, and Spain, comprising undergraduate and master's students. Students perceived extracurricular activities in this format as beneficial. Coaches also expressed positive views about such initiatives, noting benefits for students and their development.

Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) has gained popularity due to its effectiveness in bringing cross-cultural awareness to the learning environment and providing college students a rich international experience while at their home university. This new educational approach uses digital technology to link university courses together from around the world to build students’ cross-cultural competence. Forty-four students enrolled in a Global Nutrition Class at a university in California, and 14 students in a Culinary Innovation course at a university in Ecuador, participated in a 15-week COIL project. Over the course of the semester, students worked in groups to complete a food product analysis project. After the course, students completed a questionnaire that assessed their cultural competence, collaborative learning outcomes, outcomes related to nutrition or culinary innovation, and overall course satisfaction. Results revealed that there were significant pre to post changes in cultural competency among study participants. Additionally, 91% of study participants reported that they were highly satisfied with the COIL project. Eighty percent of students said that collaborative learning through COIL helped them achieve good academic performance. Gender, ethnicity, and university location were not significant factors associated with learning outcomes. In conclusion, the COIL project positively contributed to student learning outcomes.

Introduction: Globalization in the Humanities and the Role of Collaborative Online International Teaching and Learning Alexandra Schultheis Moore and Sunka Simon SECTION I: Designing and Developing COIL Courses Introduction 1.Collaborative Online International Learning: An Emerging Format for Internationalizing Curricula Jon Rubin and Sarah Guth 2. How To Get Started with COIL Sarah Guth and Jon Rubin 3. Globally Networked Learning Environments - An Administrator's Perspective James R. Jansen 4. The Complementary Expertise of Faculty and Instructional Designers in the Design of Globally Networked Courses Richard Reo and Matthew Russell 5. Data Security in Digital and Online Collaboration: Considerations Melanie Wilson 6. Global Partnership for Intercultural Learning Janine DeWitt, Loes Damhof, Carolyn Oxenford, Ingrid Schutte, and Marca Wolfensberger SECTION II: Building a Borderless Class: Theories and Practices in the Humanities Introduction 7. Voices from the Periphery: The Victoria University and University of Texas at El Paso Global Learning Community Effy George and Irma Victoria Montelongo 8. Crossing Borders: Transnational Feminism and Transnationally Networked Learning Anne Sisson Runyan, Carolyn Stoll, and Marianne H. Marchand 9. Negotiating Sex and Gender across Continents Barbara LeSavoy, Ann Giralico Pearlman, and Elena Lukovistkaya 10. Re-Envisioning Diasporas in the Globally Connected Classroom Sunka Simon and Carina Yervasi 11. Cross-Cultural Negotiations of Human Rights in Literature and Visual Culture Alexander Hartwiger and Alexandra Schultheis Moore 12. Finding Common Ground: Human Rights and Cultural Difference, A Students' Perspective Margaret Archbold and Dima Chami SECTION III Creative Knowledge Production in COIL Courses Introduction 13. International Teaching and Learning without Leaving the USA: Voice and Movement, Language and Literature Ubaldimir Guerra, Mary Guzzy, Ryan Hersha, Linda Nicholls-Gidley, Jayne Peaslee 14. Bringing Theory to Practice: Developing Facework Competence in Intercultural Collaborations Meredith Marko Harrigan and Mira Bergelson 15. Cinematic Storytelling Across Cultures: A Foundation for International Online Collaboration in Screenwriting Bettina Moss and James Napoli 16. Jazz, Constructionism, and Music Composition: Building Cultural Competencies in a Global Classroom through the Performing Arts Lenora Helm Hammonds, Turid Norlund Christensen, Emmanuel O. Oritsejafor, Baron Tymas, Keld Hosbond, Mageshen Naidoo

Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL), has been an accessible tool for online collaboration and learning for close to 20 years. Previous papers have explored the potential benefits of this teaching approach in regards to improved language acquisition, increased cultural awareness, and the potential to enrich learning environments. The aim of this paper is to acquire feedback from university students in Japan who have completed a COIL program, to see how they perceive the experience; in so doing, it is hoped that this study can inform how Japanese university students perceive their participation in a COIL program, with a focus on its impact on intercultural communication, language development, and collaborative learning. A mixed-methods approach was employed, including a Likert-scale questionnaire and open-ended responses from 21 first-year students at a private university in Nagoya City, Japan, after completing a 7-week COIL program with a North American university.While small in scale, the study found that although some logistical and technical difficulties were raised by the students, their experience with COIL was an enjoyable and rewarding one. The study contributes to the existing literature by offering student-centered insights into COIL experiences in Japan and proposes a practical implementation model (GORMS) for future programs.

This study explores the use of Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) as a pedagogical method to enhance intercultural competence among Early Childhood Teacher Education (ECTE) students, with an emphasis on Indigenous perspectives in Norway and Canada. Using qualitative focus group interviews with Norwegian students engaged in a COIL project with Canadian peers, this research identifies key pedagogical benefits and logistical considerations of this approach. The findings indicate that COIL enhances critical intercultural skills, such as cross-cultural communication and collaboration. This study highlights the necessity of establishing clear guidelines and objectives from the beginning, alongside active teacher participation, to foster a supportive environment that builds student confidence and autonomy. Additionally, COIL has broadened students’ understanding of cultural perspectives, which is valuable for their application in early childhood education settings. Ultimately, this study positions COIL as a valuable method for promoting intercultural collaboration and embedding Indigenous perspectives. This approach serves as a form of internationalization at home, preparing students to integrate diverse cultural insights into their professional roles in Early Childhood Education and Care.

This paper examines digital inclusion and equity in international higher education with particular focus on Global South-North Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL). Practice examples, bringing together students and academics in Brazil, South Africa, and the UK, are used to consider how COIL is being integrated into higher education curricula to interrupt western hegemony and open up spaces in which “otherwise” ways of knowing, being, relating and expressing can thrive. We consider COIL as a Third Space within which academics can help facilitate the different intellectual, emotional, and socio-cultural positionings of Global South-North students and reflect on how meaning-making and engagement can be transformed as a result of this dialogue. We also recognize how the digital environment as a Third Space can be experienced as inaccessible and troublesome and make suggestions on how South-North digitalization practices can be designed to address access and inclusion needs of students and academics.

This study investigates the impact of Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) on enhancing intercultural competence, digital literacy, and global citizenship among higher education students. Using a narrative literature review supported by the frameworks of social constructivism, transformative learning, and technological determinism, this research synthesizes findings from 22 peer-reviewed studies. The results show that COIL promotes inclusive international learning by enabling cross-cultural collaboration without physical mobility. It also highlights COIL’s potential to democratize access to global education, support the development of 21st-century competencies, and foster reflective, interculturally aware learners. However, challenges such as technological inequality, time zone coordination, and institutional readiness remain significant. The study concludes that with strategic implementation and ongoing support, COIL can evolve into a sustainable and transformative model for global learning in higher education. Keywords: COIL; Global Awareness; Learning Materials; Global Learning; Intercultural Competence; Virtual Collaboration

In the current scenario of dispersed knowledge authorities and uncertainty brought by the Covid-19 pandemic, a critical reflection on the nationalist and anti-global climate is necessary to support the promotion of alternative ways of Global Citizenship Education (GCE). This paper addresses some of the criticism raised at the concept of GCE to discuss Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) as an alternative Thirdspace for promoting intercultural encounters in the internationalisation of higher education, in order to cope with local, national and global tensions in this process, with a ‘glonacal’ view that accounts for the role of individuals, local/national governments and higher education in it.

The collaborative online international learning (COIL) model has been used in language education and other disciplines for over a decade and to date, there has been considerable research into the effects of COIL and the factors related to the effects. However, the majority of these studies have generally focused on one or more skills of the student participants, making it difficult for current researchers to see the overall picture of COIL-related research, while a review study of previous research can fill this gap. This review study provides an up-to-date systematic review of research on the positive and negative effects of COIL’s teaching model on students and its influencing factors. On the one hand, this study summaries the effects of COIL on students’ language skills, t non-verbal skills, and affect. On the other hand, the author also provides a brief account of the factors that influence these effects in COIL and the research gaps in COIL. Students have a better language learning environment in the process of COIL. From the perspective of language skills, COIL can improve students’ fundamental language skills, such as listening, speaking, reading, writing, and translation, and the language in real communication. In terms of non-linguistic skills, participants significantly improve their intercultural communication skills and digital literacy through COIL, and improve the 21st century super skills. Students also demonstrate greater emotional gains through COIL, reducing their anxiety about using a second/foreign language to communicate with international peers and increasing their confidence in expressing their views in a language other than their native tongue. Overall, COIL can positively impact students in various aspects and the impacts vary across individual and contextual factors. Research gaps and future research directions are discussed. Also, implications for teachers, students, institutions, and researchers are provided.

This paper examines the experience of implementing Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) projects at Coventry University and explores their potential application in the context of Ukrainian higher medical education. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate the feasibility of applying Coventry University's experience in organizing and implementing COIL exchanges in the academic setting of medical and ecological education in Ukraine, thereby fostering enriching opportunities for students and staff to collaborate at the intersection of healthcare, sustainability, business, and law. Materials and methods. The authors outlined the benefits of COIL initiatives between partners, as well as possible challenges in their implementation relying on the corpus of research papers published within the last 5 years available online in PubMed, Google Scholar and other databases, applying the methods of analysis and synthesis, systematization, generalization, comparative and contrastive methods. Results. Given the current conditions of the Russian invasion and martial law in Ukraine, COIL seems to be particularly relevant, providing a vital avenue for global collaboration in education when physical travel abroad may be difficult or impossible. The emphasis on cultural immersion, global perspectives, and the adaptability of the projects make COIL a promising direction for enriching both students and staff within the Ukrainian higher education framework. Highlighting the transformative potential of COIL, the paper proposes potential topics for interdisciplinary COIL projects between healthcare, ecology, business & law professionals. Conclusions. In the context of Ukrainian higher education, the paper suggests that adopting COIL exchanges could enhance collaboration between institutions, empowering students and providing flexible tools for achieving educational objectives. COIL exchanges offer a pathway to enhance educational outcomes while nurturing vital skills and perspectives essential for students and staff to thrive in an increasingly interconnected world.

Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) is often framed as an example of a broader practice known as Virtual Exchange (VE). The term Virtual Exchange has increasingly been used as an attempt to unify a fragmented field of Higher Education practice and is often used interchangeably with the term COIL. However, the design of COIL, with its strong focus on collaborative and intercultural learning, is often very different to other VE initiatives. Labelling all VE initiatives, including COIL, generally as VE, can lead to both educators and researchers having difficulty identifying and distinguishing COIL. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to provide a critical review of VE and define COIL and its key characteristics. This article also describes how theory can inform practice and explains why continued interchangeable use of the term COIL with the umbrella term Virtual Exchange is unhelpful for future research and practice.

Collaborative online international learning (COIL), also known as ‘telecollaboration’ or ‘virtual exchange’ among other terms, has been employed as a strategy for internationalisation of the curriculum in various disciplines for several years, but the COVID-19 pandemic has provided renewed impetus. This article argues that it can offer an effective means to decolonise approaches to teaching film studies through South–North collaborations. In brief, COIL is a pedagogical approach that holds that ‘learning takes place through a distributed network of connections to other people and their resources, and formal and informal educational assets in the public domain’ (Reo and Russell, 2015: 64). In this article, we argue that a COIL approach with a South–North focus, partnering with a higher education institution in Latin America, would provide unique opportunities to decolonise the film curriculum, given the features of COIL. In 2020, two universities in Mexico, one in Brazil and one in Colombia founded the Latin American Network for COIL. To date, it comprises 135 institutional members, some of which have students from Indigenous backgrounds and are already actively engaged in decolonising the curriculum. Our article proposes ways to take this forward.

Many countries have experienced a generational change in the skills required of potential new employees, with many employers reporting a gap between the skills they demand and the skills graduates possess. By investigating the effectiveness of Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) in improving graduates’ employability, we tackle the key question of whether COIL courses sufficiently improve higher education students’ overall competence and employability. Drawing on the concepts of personal attributes and employability, this paper contributes to the literature by linking the personal attributes of individual self-efficacy and a proactive personality with the development of employability skills. The results are based on a pre- and post-survey of students participating in a COIL course organised by universities in Japan, collaborating with three overseas partners. This paper addresses several issues, such as whether students can improve their employability skills via COIL, which particular skills have been improved, and which areas need further improvement. It also discusses the implications for developing future programmes to reduce the gap between the skills developed and the skills needed.

Intercultural competence is becoming necessary in all structures of life as our diversity grows and globalization continues to grow. Even in the field of business intercultural learning is equally vital domestically and internationally (Bennett, J. M. 2008). Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) is a methodology in teaching and learning that continues to grow in use and can aid in filling this intercultural gap. The methodological COIL approach aids to building cultural competency and partnerships in the higher education community. Throughout this collaborative manuscript between three instructors at two universities, Nottingham Trent University (NTU) in the United Kingdom and University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD) in the United States, discussions will be around the pedagogy of carrying out a COIL module and how COIL was completed in the Fall semester of 2021. Over the course of four weeks, NTU and UMD students worked together to complete key learning objectives of healthcare systems, alternative care, and COVID-19 response in the United Kingdom and the United States. NTU and UMD used technology such as Google My Maps, video recording presentations, and interview questions to further the learning around the key objectives. NTU and UMD each had separate final projects and grading rubrics for final grading and evaluation. Pre-and post-assessment data was collected to better understand student learning outcomes including, cultural learning and cross-cultural ambivalence within the COIL unit. The assessments also provided an overview of future considerations for the collaboration between future instructors in the COIL unit based on student feedback.

In a globalized world, students require broader social and communicative skills. Foreign language teaching must thus incorporate sociocultural sensitivity and multiculturalism—a pedagogical approach fostering understanding, appreciation, and respect for cultural, ethnic, and religious diversity. It aims to enhance an inclusive environment where students can develop a global perspective and embrace diversity. One of the pedagogical strategies that encourages effective interaction between individuals from different cultures is Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL). This study examines the role of Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) in enhancing students’ multicultural awareness, with particular emphasis on mitigating cultural stereotyping and fostering sensitivity toward otherness. The research evaluates the effectiveness of COIL-facilitated multicultural learning through an analysis of a bilateral project between University College Utrecht and Yerevan State University. Employing a Project-Based Learning (PBL) approach, the project engaged students in analyzing cultural contexts marked by discrimination and hate speech. Through collaborative discourse, participants developed practical counterstrategies while demonstrating measurable growth in cultural competence. Quantitative data from post-project evaluations revealed that 97% of respondents rated the collaborative learning experience as highly successful, while 88% affirmed PBL’s efficacy as a pedagogical method. Notably, a significant majority reported heightened awareness of hate speech mitigation strategies. However, the study also identified three key implementation challenges: divergent academic expectations, uneven participant engagement, and technological literacy gaps among learners. Despite these limitations, the findings substantiate COIL’s potential to cultivate critical thinking, problem-solving skills, and intercultural empathy. The study concludes that scalable adoption of such initiatives can advance inclusive educational practices and contribute to societal equity through deliberate pedagogy of tolerance.