In today’s increasingly interconnected world, developing our students’ intercultural competence is essential for their professional and personal success. Yet for many, traditional opportunities to engage in global experiences like study abroad remain out of reach. Enter Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL): a transformative tool for bringing international experiences to the local classroom first pioneered by the State University of New York and promoted through the SUNY COIL Center. At 鶹ý, the Office of International Collaborations, facilitates COIL projects and invites faculty and students from different countries and cultures to connect through shared academic experiences using online platforms. This virtual model makes internationalization more accessible and equitable, offering deep intercultural learning without the need for travel. As Director for International Collaborations Dr. Pati Schiaffini-Vedani shares, “With Collaborative Online International Learning, it's not just about sharing ideas across countries—it’s about opening minds. Students build real connections and get to grow by learning with and from each other. That kind of global connection really takes education to another level.”
As a teaching methodology, COIL empowers students and faculty to work together on shared projects by completing assignments and discussions that explore both curricular content and intercultural dimensions. Examples include: developing treatment plans for patients with dental concerns (Vahed & Rodriquez, 2021), exploring entrepreneurial landscapes in the emerging Peruvian marketplace (Garcia et al., 2023), and educating the public about online security (Liu et al., 2025). Within each of these projects was the core content (dental hygiene, international business, and cybersecurity), layered with investigations of how differences in culture impact their development and success.
COIL opens doors to new academic partnerships, revitalizes teaching practices, and offers a meaningful way to integrate international perspectives into any course. Associate Professor and Chair of Philosophy and Religious Studies Nicole Willock integrated a COIL project into an Honors Section of PHIL 235E: Love, Sex, and Desire course this past fall. Dr. Willock partnered with an international faculty in Hong Kong to create a shared virtual learning experience for students on both sides of the globe. As she shared, “COIL is such a great opportunity to really practice intercultural competencies in real life.”
A unique feature of Dr. Willock’s COIL project was the incorporation of UNESCO Story Circles—an intercultural methodology designed to foster listening, empathy, and shared understanding. Story Circles involve small groups where participants share personal experiences related to a given theme. They operate on powerful principles: the recognition of each individual’s inherent dignity, the transformative potential of listening for understanding, and the belief that we all have something to learn from one another. As students listened to each other's stories, they engaged in what UNESCO defines as “intercultural dialogue”—communication rooted in mutual respect, empathy, and openness (Deardorff & UNESCO, 2020).
Faculty Impact
Dr. Schiaffini-Vedani shares, “One of the unexpected but really powerful parts of COIL is how it opens doors for faculty too—not just students. It gives us a chance to connect with international colleagues, spark research collaborations, and share innovative teaching practices that we might never have encountered otherwise." Dr. Willock agrees. Despite decades of expertise, Dr. Willock found the COIL experience both enriching and humbling. “I’ve been doing Chinese studies for 30 years now,” she shared, “and I still learned new things…I enriched my own knowledge even though I’m a professor in this.” And these dialogues didn’t just enhance academic discussions; they created a more engaging classroom experience. Dr. Willock shared that there seemed to be a “buzz” in the classroom. “It adds a whole new dimension,” she noted.
“I would definitely recommend COIL.”
As Dr. Willock’s experience shows, COIL is more than a teaching strategy—it’s an invitation to reimagine what learning looks like in a truly global classroom. And with support from the Office of International Collaborations, incorporating a COIL collaboration is a feasible step for introducing an element of internationalization to your classroom. The office supports most aspects of the COIL process: developing a project, finding international partners, providing on-going guidance and resources, and formally acknowledging student and faculty efforts.
As Dr. Willock notes, “It really doesn’t require that much more time to prep and it adds a whole other new dimension and really brings international learning into the classroom, not from a theoretical perspective, but from a practical perspective.”
- To learn more about COIL and Dr. Willock’s experience, click here.
- If you're curious about trying COIL in your own teaching, consider reaching out to Dr. Pati Schiaffini-Vedani, Director of International Collaborations, at pschiaff@odu.edu.
References
Deardorff, D. K., & UNESCO, issuing body. (2020). The UNESCO manual for developing intercultural competencies story circles. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation UNESCO.
Garcia, F., Smith, S. R., Burger, A., & Helms, M. (2023). Increasing global mindset through collaborative online international learning (COIL): internationalizing the undergraduate international business class. Journal of International Education in Business, 16(2), 184–203.
Lui, A., Womack, C., & Orton, P. (2025). Collaborative online international learning as a third space to improve students’ awareness of cybersecurity. Education and Information Technologies.
鶹ý. (n.d.) Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL). /international-collaborations/coil
Vahed, A., & Rodriguez, K. (2021). Enriching students’ engaged learning experiences through the collaborative online international learning project. Innovations in Education and Teaching International, 58(5), 596–605.