Collaborative Online International Learning
Teacher Introduction
Anisa Vahed
Anisa Vahed joined the Education Development Unit at XJTLU as an Educational Developer in May 2023. ?She was previously employed as a Dental Technology academic, researcher, and practitioner in the Dental Sciences department at the Durban University of Technology, Durban, South Africa. ?A Fulbright Fellow, Teaching Advancements at Universities fellow, and Y2 NRF-rated researcher, her research interests include undergraduate research, scholarship, and creative inquiry, ?specifications grading, internationalizing the curriculum through collaborative online international learning (COIL), which uses digital technologies to infuse intercultural and global dimensions into curriculum content, and understanding articulation pathways through unfurling the post-school education and training, Dr Vahed has delivered numerous papers, workshops, and seminars nationally (in South Africa) and internationally. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0164-9114
Key Points
The Peer Assessment activity provides an opportunity of:
In view of universities’ mandates to become globally relevant and internationalise course curricula, the COIL teaching and learning methodology:
1. Creates team-taught coursework that links university classes in different countries.
2. Encourages students to become self-regulated (self-manage their tasks across time zones) and agents of their own learning.
3. Develop:
- Intercultural awareness (learning with partners whose cultural and professional perspectives are different from their own);
- Knowledge of discipline or complementary topics.
- Digital and Research literacies; and
- Communication, team-based, problem-solving and collaboration skills.
In achieving the above objectives, various technologies such as Google Docs, WhatsApp, Voice thread (https://voicethread.com/), and Skype, amongst others, are used to support student-content, student-instructor, and student-student online interactions. ?Essentially, the aforementioned objectives aim to move students towards becoming global citizens.
Case Details
Adopting the COIL model, which is an initiative of the State University of New York, provides a nuanced way to internationalise the curriculum. ?Apart from ensuring that I kept astride with the global trends in higher education, COIL affords faculty opportunities to cultivate a teaching and learning environment where students can experience active and meaningful learning while being globally relevant. ?From a quality education perspective (SDG 4), translational learning infused with multimodal ways of teaching ensures that I am continuously reflecting on my scholarship of teaching, learning, and assessment through research, which ultimately informs my practice.
By connecting faculty and students who are located geographically different, COIL encourages innovative ways to teach through the increased use of problem-, design-, and case-based projects infused with digital technologies. COIL enables students to become agents of their own learning by nurturing them to think critically in solving problems through team-based collaboration, co-construct knowledge with other culturally diverse students who maybe from other discipline/professional backgrounds, and communicate verbally and in writing, amongst other reported benefits. ?This critically responds to wider university imperatives aligned with sustainable development goals.
Generally, student responses were positive ranging from COIL increasing their intercultural awareness, knowledge on digital and research literacies, strengthening their confidence in communication and presentation skills, and being resilient in project managing tasks and collectively working as a team despite time-zone differences. Students made notable recommendations such as to have a longer COIL module of more than 4 weeks, reconsider partnering students from different study levels, and have mandatory pre-COIL training sessions – See various publications of the reported benefits.
Despite the era of disrupted technologies and uncertainties, the flexibility of the COIL model embraces the transforming nature of higher education, however, the success of COIL depends on the open-mindedness, creativity, and passion of faculty to drive the changes needed. ?In particular, reforming the curriculum to pave an improved pathway on how we teach such that students are actively engaged and learn meaningfully.
Keep an open mind, embrace criticism, and be resilient as COIL will challenge your ways of teaching, which in many ways are conditioned on how you were taught. ?Initially COIL requires an investment of your time to rethink your curriculum innovatively however, the benefits of creating a community of COILERS @ XJTLU long-term are invaluably gratifying.
Boschma’s (2005) distance/proximity dynamics theory offers a useful conceptual and structural tool to understand the social, cultural, cognitive, geographic, institutional, and organisational distance/proximity challenges that can exist in virtual exchanges. For example, selecting and using the appropriate technology, social media and virtual communication tools can help to reduce geographic distances. ?Faculty collaboration, project facilitation and team teaching are critical in addressing the institutional and organisational distance challenges.
Hofstede’s (2011) Cultural Dimensions framework suggests that cultural behaviours exhibited within different societies influence how individuals within that culture build connections, value gender roles, handle uncertainty, distribute power, perceive time, and balance their lives. ?This framework, therefore, helps to focus on the cultural dimensions of COIL VEP and in the process enables you to carefully select the technology that will facilitate cultural exchanges.
- Strengthening the Teaching, Learning, Professional, and Research Development Nexus through COIL Virtual Exchanges.
- COIL: A Nuanced High Impact Practice to Promote Undergraduate Research, Scholarship, And Creative Inquiry (UGRSCI).
- Internationalisation of the Curriculum/Internationalisation at Home through COIL virtual exchanges.
Here are the publications of evidence-based research done on COIL:
Book Chapter
- Vahed, A., De Souza, F., And Rodriguez, K. 2023. Enhancing Cultural Competence and Enriching Virtual Learning Experiences via A Collaborative Online International Learning Project In Shangase, Zifikile Phindile, Gachago, Daniela, & Ivala, Eunice Ndeto (Eds), Co-Teaching/Researching In An Unequal World: Using Virtual Classrooms To Connect Africa, And Africa And The World. Vernon Press. Wilmington, USA. https://vernonpress.com/open-access-book/1767
- Vahed, A. and Rodriguez, K. 2019. Internationalising the Dental Curriculum Through Collaborative Online International Learning (Coil): A Nuanced Elearning and Blended Learning Environment. ?The 5th E-Learning Excellence Awards: ?An Anthology of Case Histories 2019. ?Edited By Prof. Dan Remenyi. Academic Conferences and Publishing International Limited, Reading, ISBN 978-1-912764-48-8, pages 145-156.
Papers in Accredited Journals
- Vahed, A. 2021. ?Factors Enabling and Constraining Students’ Collaborative Online International Learning Experiences. Learning Environments Research. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10984-021-09390-x http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10984-021-09390-x
- Vahed, A. and Rodriguez, K. 2020. Enriching Students’ Engaged Learning Experiences through the Collaborative Online International Learning Project. Innovations in Education and Teaching International. Vol. 58 (5) 596-605. doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/14703297.2020.1792331 https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/GA9XSTIFKUGSIGBSNHR5/full?target=10.1080/14703297.2020.1792331
Published Conference Proceedings
- Vahed, A. and de Souza, F. 2022. Creating Affinity Spaces through Instagram? to Enhance Students’ Virtual Learning Exchanges in a Green Dentistry Project, presented at the 2022 International Conference on Multidisciplinary Research on 8 November 2022. ?Edited by Prof. ?Rajendra Parsad Gunputh. https://doi.org/10.26803/MyRes.2022.01
- Vahed, A., Rodriguez, K. and de Souza, F. 2019. ?The Green Dentistry Collaborative Online International Learning Project: An auto-ethnographic account of the lessons learned from developing a learner-centred pedagogical practice, presented at the 12th Annual International Conference of Education Research and Innovation (iCERI 2019) on 12 November 2019. Edited by L. Gomez Chova, A. Lopez Martinez, and Candel Torres. ?International Academy of Technology, Education and Development (IATED). ISBN: 978-84-09-14755-7. ISSN 2340-1095. Pages 7733-7739.
- Vahed, A. and Levine, S. 2019. Collaborative Online International Learning: A pedagogical intervention to enrich students’ learning, presented at the 18th European Conference on eLearning on 8 November. ?Edited by Rikke Orngreen, and Bente Meyer. ?Academic Conferences and Publishing International Limited, Reading, UK. ?ISBN: 978-912764-41-9. DOI: 10.34190/EEL.19.053. ?Pages 579-587.https://search.proquest.com/openview/7130fc064b720a81e223a007e6660095/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=1796419
Overview
An initiative of the State University of New York (SUNY), Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) enables two or more classes of similar course content in different countries to connect such that students are afforded intercultural and transnational learning opportunities. An important condition for its successful implementation to achieve targeted learning outcomes is the active involvement, creativity, and collaboration of disciplinary teams from different countries. ?In particular, to enable geographically dispersed students’ access to, and acquisition of, cognitive (knowledge), functional (skills) and social competencies.
In cultivating a virtual learning community of COIL scholars, varied learning management systems (Moodle and Blackboard), multimedia presentation tools (ePosters, PowerPoint and Voice Thread), instant messaging applications (WhatsApp and Snapchat), and social networking sites (Instagram and Facebook) are used to mitigate challenges related to time zone differences and encourage sustained collaboration between students and faculty partners.