What if I told you that you and your students could have an international experience without jetlag, leaving families behind, or the ever-increasing cost of travel? This is the opportunity provided by Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL).

Compared to its more flash cousins – international education and transnational education – COIL is often overlooked by higher education institutions. However, its potential to provide transformative educational experiences to our students – and ourselves as educators – should not be underestimated.

As a researcher in transnational education, I stumbled upon COIL after hearing several stories of collaboration from educators in South America, Africa, and South Asia. It involves two or more educators in different countries collaborating to design and deliver a course for their respective students using online tools. The educators guide their students in working together to complete cross-border group tasks and assessments, with an emphasis on both successful intercultural teamwork and outcomes.

COIL is inherently different from traditional transnational education: rather than an institution-level focus on joint degrees or programmes, COIL functions largely off the work of individual educators. Compared to the managerial and economic focus of many transnational partnerships, COIL struck me as a breath of student-centred fresh air.

The case for COIL

In their book The Wiley Handbook of Collaborative Online Learning and Global Engagement, Deirdre Johnston and Irene López (2022) make a compelling argument for incorporating guided intercultural interactions in our pedagogy. While the approaches to COIL are as diverse as the terms used to describe it (globally-connected courses? online global collaborative learning?) and the logistics too variable for a single blog, I wanted to highlight some main benefits of these partnerships, and argue that more institutional support is essential for their continued success.

Intercultural competencies for students: Our students, regardless of the major or degree they pursue, will work with people from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds throughout their lives. COIL courses provide guidance and a safe space for students to learn and practice these essential intercultural competencies, while working with fellow students in another country. The symmetrical nature of the partnerships also maintains a focus on the local while incorporating the global – students share their own lived experiences while simultaneously learning about others’.

Overcoming barriers to traditional international education: International education through study abroad programmes or attending overseas institutions simply isn’t feasible for many of our students, due to barriers such as funding and commitments at home. COIL provides a more equitable means of providing intercultural experiences within the standard classroom setting.

Building relationships as educators: Academics are accustomed to international research collaborations. Why not aim for the same with collaborations in teaching? One person I spoke with described how her more senior collaborator shared his resources and insights after years of teaching a course in his country, which she then incorporated into her own domestic courses beyond the COIL collaboration. They then produced research focused on their cross-border teaching experiences.

New perspectives on our subject areas and pedagogy: Students aren’t the only ones who benefit greatly from intercultural exchanges. COIL is built on two similar courses taught at different institutions, which results in a high overlap of interests for the course coordinators. It provides an opportunity for a rich exchange pedagogy and perspectives across borders even within a familiar subject area.

The challenges

Such transformative opportunities are not without their difficulties. Perhaps the biggest obstacle to engaging in COIL is that much of the logistical and administration burden falls on the course coordinators themselves. Johnston and López (2022, p. 4) acknowledge that “there is only limited traction in the curricula of most colleges and universities” for COIL, perhaps due to its relatively modest economic returns compared to more lucrative international endeavours. This means educators often face tasks like searching for compatible courses, coordinating academic schedules across time zones and hemispheres, and navigating learning management platforms and other online tools across borders, without institutional support.

Extra-university networks such as the Global Liberal Arts Alliance and the Universidade de Aveiro’s COLLab may help educators wanting to engage in COIL. However, there needs to be more institutional buy-in for these global courses to be more feasible for all educators. More awareness and practical support mean that more educators will be able to find fellow collaborators and connect their courses, and ideally reduce the administrative burden on the educators themselves.

Interested in learning more about collaborative online international learning? These resources will help you get started. And if you happen to be interested in collaborating on a global communication course – let me know!

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