What is COIL?

COIL or Collaborative Online International Learning connects accredited courses, linking the classrooms of two or more higher education institutions, each located in a different country or cultural setting. The COIL model does not merely promote students from different countries sharing an online classroom. Rather, COIL creates equitable team-taught learning environments where faculty from two cultures work together to develop a shared syllabus, emphasizing experiential and collaborative student learning.

The courses give new contextual meaning to the ideas and texts they explore, while providing students new venues in which to develop their cross-cultural awareness. Classes may be fully online or, more often, are offered in blended formats with traditional face-to-face sessions taking place at both schools, while collaborative student work takes place online.

Cooperating instructors work closely with all students, but in most cases these students are enrolled, charged tuition (if there is tuition), and are awarded grades only at their home institution. This revenue-neutral model reduces the administrative complexity of bilateral institutional agreements, while enhancing international classrooms through collaborative coursework. These courses do not require high-end technology, and they work effectively as portals to increase student interest in study abroad.