The Role of Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) as a Tool to Meet Engineering Accreditation Student Outcomes

Abstract

Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) connects students and professors from different countries, universities, cultures, and educational models to engage in projects and coursework, working together for a common goal. By implementing this collaboration in courses that are part of the engineering program study plan, both students and faculty develop different disciplinary and transversal competencies while learning the knowledge and skills required for their specific engineering programs. In the context of engineering education, program accreditations are quite relevant to ensure the standards and quality to develop graduates that are well prepared to enter the global workforce and contribute to build a better world. This study analyzes the student outcomes of different engineering accreditation organizations to identify common student outcomes and explore the impact of COIL experiences to contribute to the development of these student outcomes. Some COIL experiences in literature report that students build communication skills, work in multicultural environments creating consciousness about different social, economic and political contexts, develop critical thinking and problem-solving competencies while proposing solutions to complex problems, among others. This study aims to investigate how COIL courses align to the development of engineering student outcomes and document COIL as a tool for this purpose, emphasizing best practices and recommendations for universities that intend to engage in this pedagogical approach.