In an increasingly interconnected world, college graduates must be equipped to navigate global challenges and opportunities.

Providing students with opportunities to collaborate globally, broaden their perspectives and develop cross-cultural skills is essential for their future professional success.

One way that colleges are working towards this goal is through Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL).

What is COIL, and How Does It Benefit Students?

Also known as Virtual Exchange (VE), COIL was pioneered at the State University of New York (SUNY) in the early 2000s.

According to the SUNY website, “COIL enhances intercultural student team-focused interaction through proven approaches to meaningful online and virtual engagement, while providing universities with a cost-effective way to ensure that their students are globally engaged.”

Under the COIL model, faculty and students from one institution partner with an institution in a different country to complete projects that typically last between 4 and 12 weeks. Sometimes the courses are in the same discipline, but sometimes they are not. When the partnerships are interdisciplinary, the two co-teachers design the projects to meet the learning standards of both courses.

To give you a glimpse of what it takes to implement COIL on campus, here I’ll share key insights from Kristina Robbins, instructor and COIL Coordinator at Front Range Community College (FRCC) in Westminster, Colorado.

Bringing COIL to Life

Assembling the Team

Every COIL team will be unique, based on the institution’s size, needs and talent. The team at Front Range consists of four people, plus an admin who provides program support as needed.

“Our COIL team at Front Range Community College was intentionally formed around shared values of transparency, innovation, dedication to the mission and desire to collaborate,” said Robbins. “We took time to define roles, assess our needs and commit to regular reflection. Our structure has grown to include training, assessment, budgeting, strategic planning and international partnership and project management.”

Taking COIL Training

Several members of the group (including Robbins) took a coordinator training program with Sarah Doscher, a COIL champion, and John Rubin. Rubin founded the COIL program at SUNY and subsequently launched COIL Connect for Virtual Exchange, which supports higher education institutions that are developing COIL initiatives. “Together, we learned how to design and implement a sustainable COIL program,” says Robbins. “We developed the first foundational steps of a strategic plan to launch COIL, clearly outlining what needed to be done and identifying the key people to involve to move the work forward. This roadmap became the guiding framework for the development of our program over the following year.”

During the training, Robbins and team also developed a video highlighting how COIL provides “meaningful global collaboration and access to study abroad experiences directly from the classroom.”

Building the Infrastructure

With the training now behind them, Robbins and the team used what they had learned to develop a handbook and assessment framework, messaging, learning tools and marketing materials to recruit FRCC faculty participants. According to Robbins, this was all “part of (a) broader effort to build a strong and sustainable program.”

The group also put together in-house training materials and resources, built a student orientation and created a start-up process.

Robbins and a team member worked on the Institutional Review Board (IRB) process, which “ensures that students collaborating in online spaces are doing so with informed consent.”

A Snapshot of Current Outcomes

“Within our first year, we launched COIL at FRCC and developed 22 international partnerships across nine countries,” says Robbins. “As our efforts evolved, we came together to build a solid infrastructure by designing tools, systems and supports essential for long-term success. Our work continues to align with the language and goals of 21st-century global competencies and federally recognized workforce development skills-preparing both students and faculty for success in a globally connected world.” FRCC has partnered with institutions in 13 countries, including Argentina, Mexico, Honduras, the Philippines, Ecuador, Brazil, Ukraine, France and more.

FRCC currently offers COIL courses in a wide range of general education and career and technical education subjects, including phlebotomy, multimedia graphic design, humanities, science and art.

Choosing Partnerships

When choosing COIL course partnerships, Robbins advises that connections are critical.

“The project has to work for both sides,” she said. “While many COIL experiences are discipline-specific, some are intentionally interdisciplinary such as pairing a Graphic Design course with a graduate-level Architecture course to simulate a real-world collaboration between designers. This connection fosters broader thinking and creative problem-solving. Design students researched the local community landscape and developed wayfinding systems and signage concepts tailored to an architectural plan, effectively bridging visual communication with structural design.”

Other examples of COIL partnerships at FRCC include:

• Robbins’ Honors motion graphics class partnered with an illustration class at a Mexican institution. “The students simulated roles between the artist and the animator, (the Artist Meets the Animator) producing animated children’s stories for an international exhibition.”
• A different motion graphics class (also taught by Robbins) partnered with a creative writing in film and new media course in Hong Kong. “The Hong Kong students presented a detailed overview of seven popular stories across film, gaming, podcasts, and other media,” she said. “Our Front Range Community College students reviewed these stories and proposed new media projects as extensions of the existing content.”

COIL Connect is the platform COIL institutions use to find partnerships. COIL coordinators also attend regular meetings, which offers additional opportunities to connect.

When asked how difficult it is to incorporate COIL into existing classes, Robbins said, “it takes time.” She suggested that all coordinators “experience COIL firsthand.” To help with implementation, FRCC now offers a COIL training program that is “designed to guide instructors through the process” of incorporating COIL into their curriculum.

Why Other Institutions Should Consider COIL

“COIL creates meaningful opportunities for faculty, instructors and students to build global awareness and intercultural competence through virtual exchange,” said Robbins. “We are actively working toward expanding our efforts through the COIL and GO initiative — partnering with institutions around the world to explore future international exchange opportunities that combine virtual collaboration with real-world, on-the-ground experiences. These cross-cultural engagements are affordable, accessible alternatives to traditional study abroad, while also enhancing academic, professional and interpersonal skills.”

Interested in learning more about COIL or seeking support? Robbins and her team are happy to offer support or share more about COIL. Contact them at FRCCCOIL [at] frontrange [dot] edu.