I’ve been attending the 10th Anniversary COIL Conference and reflecting on and processing what I’m learning on my blog. I’m comparing and contrasting COIL to the work that I did supporting collaborative videoconference projects at the K12 level from 1998-2011, as documented on this blog.

In this post, I want to share some of the ideas that I gained at the conference, as well as how those ideas connect to some of the ideas we use in K12 collaborative projects.

Full Courses

Depending on who you talk to here, the full COIL experience is a course that is team-taught and shared as a whole course. SUNY COIL Center provides an overview of course models that can be used.

The Virtual Team Teaching Network in Quebec is also supporting this concept of collaborating on courses.

This is different than what has been called a “shared class” where one institution/school “sends” a class to another institution. Instead, the faculty at both institutions are seen as equals in sharing and developing the full course learning experience.

Enhancements

More commonly, many of the examples shared in sessions here are what some call COIL enhancements to courses. These are shorter interactions – like 2 to 6 weeks.

• Students work in groups to create a product:
  • Students could work in groups locally and be competitive with the partner class
  • OR, they could work in groups that cross the sites, like we did with the Jazz workshop
  • Working in multi-site groups reduces the “us vs them” mentality (for example the collaborative work of San Jose State University and Allama Iqbal Open University in Pakistan)
  • Students could also introduce themselves individually via video, and pick their partners for groups of two
• Could have a one hour seminar format where it’s too short and not enough time to fully engage, or switch to a week long asynchronous discussion (as Michael Bromby presented)
• Can even do a very small collaboration of two weeks to meet & greet and get to know each other

Managed Collaborations

Yesterday I thought I wasn’t hearing any examples of collaborations that are “managed” on the higher ed side – managed as in someone is organizing and facilitating and the teacher’s role is to cooperate, follow the outline, and facilitate in their classroom. But, there are some groups providing this level of support for faculty at the higher ed side:

• Soliya, a sister organization to Global Nomads Group via the Virtual Exchange Coalition and iEARN is part of that now too. I met Melanie Wilson from Soliya, who actually used to work at the SUNY COIL Center and helped to write the Faculty Guide they provide.they are in a with iEARN, GNG, Soliya. The Stevens Institute at Aspen Institute is supporting this type of work, and they just gave an award to SUNY COIL.

Topic Ideas

One comment I heard at the conference is that the people doing COIL projects tend to be in the humanities. These are some examples of topics discussed:

• In the collaborations that San Jose State University had with Pakistan, the COIL courses worked on topics such as gender and emotional intelligence; English; Culture and Pedagogy; education; water (the prompt to the students was – tell the story of water), comparative education, women in academia.
  • On the K12 side, here are reports of the high school and elementary connections we did with Pakistan almost 10 years ago.
• Connecting language learners to each other; don’t always have to connect to native speakers
• Global social & environmental issues as shared by the University of Washington COIL Fellows
• Disability rights and cross-national human education as shared by presenters from University at Buffalo and Universidad LaSalle, Mexico

Interdisciplinary Connections

I sensed much work and interest among the attendees of the conference in the area of figuring out how to COIL with disparate course topics. For example:

• students of engineering connecting to language learners
• the archeology class and new media art class – “interdisciplinary teaching is all about being conscious of a dialectic process” – presented by Alfonso Guevara, Universidad de Monterrey (Mexico) and Lynda Carroll, SUNY Broome Community College (United States)
• in K12 in Read Around the Planet, we often connected high school Spanish language learners with bilingual classrooms with native speakers (usually in Texas)

Tools

A wide variety of tools were shared at the conference, including:

• Skype, Zoom, BlueJeans, Google Hangouts
• online collaboration using the LMS of one or both institutions
• Facebook private groups
• WhatsApp

K12 Connections

Someone asked me about the resources we created to support collaborative projects in K12. Here are a few of them:

• Collaborative Videoconference Projects wiki
• Projects Booklet for teachers (none of the authors are still at the institution where they worked when we created it)
• Collaborations Around the Planet: a site for matching and finding partners
• 20 Day Challenges for Videoconferencing Skills
• Resources for Supporting Skype in Education (an old list; links may be broken)

What about you? What resources, ideas, links do you use to support COIL and COIL-like activities? Please share!

I’m at the 10th Anniversary COIL Conference and I’m processing what I’m learning on my blog. I’m comparing and contrasting COIL to the work that I did supporting collaborative videoconference projects at the K12 level from 1998-2011, as documented on this blog.

In this post, I’m exploring the concept and definitions. Others are discussing and wrestling with this too.

Words

In the plenary session, several terms were shared in a reflection by Jon Rubin on the 10 year history of COIL. Jon expressed his amazement how the term COIL is being widely used, almost a brand.

• COIL: collaborative online international learning
• COIL courses: full COILed courses
• COIL enhancements: courses with COIL activities in them, but not the whole course
• GNL: globally networked learning
• GNLE: globally networked learning environment
• tele-collaboration (even a European conference on this: UNICollaboration)

Mulling this over word choice & sequence: is there a difference between online international learning (focus on international?) and international online learning (focus on online?). Was there any deliberate thought on this when COIL was created? Just curious!

SUNY COIL Center Definition

From the SUNY COIL website –

In the COIL model, students from different cultures enroll in shared courses with faculty members from each country co-teaching and managing coursework. The COIL model does not merely promote courses where students from different nations co-habit an online classroom. Rather, we advocate creation of co-equal learning environments where instructors work together to generate a shared syllabus based on solid academic coursework emphasizing experiential and collaborative student learning. The classes may be fully online, or offered in blended formats with traditional face-to-face sessions taking place at both schools, while collaborative student work takes place online. – COIL About Page

Adaptation: I went to a session called A Good Kind of Global Warming: Melting Pakistan-U.S. Stereotypes, where they changed the term “international” to “intercultural” as the intercultural sensitivity was critical to their collaboration.

Globally Networked Learning Environments

A book by two key people at the COIL conference – Doreen Starke-Meyerring and Melanie Wilson included this definition:

Globally Networked Learning Environments (GNLEs) are partnerships that encourage students to collaborate with (and learn about) students in classrooms elsewhere on the planet. – Book Review

Telecollaboration

This term is used more in the language learner community – see this wiki on telecollaboration.

“internationally-dispersed learners in parallel language classes use Internet communication tools such as e-mail, synchronous chat, threaded discussion, and MOOs (as well as other forms of electronically mediated communication), in order to support social interaction, dialogue, debate, and intercultural exchange.” – Belz, J. A. (2003). Special issue of Language Learning & Technology on Telecollaboration, 7(2), 1-172.

Virtual Exchange

Virtual Exchange is the term used by the Stevens Initiative at the Aspen Institute, which is, among other activities, funding an award competition aimed at using virtual exchange to improve understanding, respect, and dialogue across cultures and equip young people with the skills they need to succeed in a global economy.

Virtual exchanges are technology-enabled, sustained, people-to-people education programs. – Virtual Exchange Coalition website

Thoughts?

What do you think? Are these all the same concept? Are there nuances in the definitions that are important to keep? Does the length or depth of the exchange matter? Are there components that are critical to reach “COIL” level? Considering…. what about you?

I’m attending the 10th Anniversary COIL Conference and listening to how higher education is doing collaborative online projects – specifically connecting internationally. In the kick-off plenary, there was discussion of how to find partners, and a general concern about how difficult it is to get started.

It seemed like an aha moment to me! COIL needs a higher ed version of CAPspace!

What is CAPspace?

I spent much of my early career (1998-2011) supporting videoconferencing for 22 school districts in southwest Michigan. Much of what we did was collaborations, which you can see by the volume of blog posts I have that are tagged Collaborations.

In 2002, the newly minted TWICE, Michigan’s K12 videoconferencing organization, started an event called Read Around the Planet, In it’s hey-day, almost 2000 classes read to each other to celebrate Dr. Seuss’ birthday. CAPspace was born initially out of a need for a tool to match the classes that signed up to participate. A directory feature to meet other people was soon added.

Now, it has several features that are key to supporting collaborations:

• the ability to search for people
• the ability to post a collaborative project idea and find a partner
• the “exploding projects feature” – for when you post a great idea, and you only need one partner, but so many other people want to do it. Exploding projects allow the “extras” to match up with each other to do the same type of project
• the ability for “coordinators” to run managed projects using the tools created for Read Around the Planet

Side note: I was heavily involved in the development of this site.

Managed Projects vs. Individual Projects

One thing I’ve noticed attending COIL, is that it seems mostly higher education collaborative projects are done by individual teachers. There may be institutional support, even COIL coordinators, but not so much projects that are run by an organization and many faculty participate in it. CAPspace has the ability to support managed projects, but I’m not sure that this is a need or interest at the higher ed level.

If you want to read more of my work on supporting projects, including descriptions of managed projects vs. individual projects, see my 2010 Challenge: 20 Days to Better VC Projects.

Higher Education Adaptations of CAPspace

So, I’m very new to COIL, first time attending the conference. So take my views with a grain (or chunk?) of salt! But after a day of listening to faculty describe their experiences and challenges with COILing, here are my first thoughts about how CAPspace could work for higher ed:

• Qualifications. One thing I’ve noticed is that it seems like higher ed is a little more concerned about the quality of their partner institution and faculty member. Maybe it’s because there’s so many fraudulent institutions in higher ed globally, particularly online. Maybe it’s the increased focus on rigor and scholarly work. Maybe you’ll have some ideas of why as well. But, I think one feature that would be essential is some way to vet the potential partner. This could be including links to publication profiles on sites such as academia.edu, researchgate, etc. Maybe a field for research interests. And, what would be some ways to indicate some background information on the potential partner institutions? I’m not quite sure, but I think that would be essential as well.
• Email ads. CAPspace right now sends emails out with the collaborations that have been posted. The user can choose which emails they receive. I’m not sure higher ed would be interested in getting all the emails – but maybe the instructional designers and COIL coordinators would want to see what opportunities were out there.
• Exploding collaborations. I ran this idea by another attendee yesterday, and we talked a lot about the trust needed. Because the higher ed collaborations tend to be so much longer than the K12 collaborative projects we are doing, the faculty really need to trust each other. It seems unlikely that they would want to just match up with other people who were interested in an idea.
• Others: Having heard how CAPspace works, what do you think? Is an online tool needed to help match? Are the supports and resources for creating COIL and COIL-like collaborations more important?

Mulling Over Challenges

• In a session this morning, Sarah Guth talked about the difficulties of the a platform created in Europe for matching language learners. One challenge is that everyone thinks they need to talk to native speakers, when there are other models such as connecting two classes that are learning the language, or connecting language learners to other disciplines such as engineering. Ideas are needed to help imagine the possibilities.
• Higher ed needs to see and support and participate in research – in this case, on COIL activities.
• As I was leaving K12 in 2011, the pressure to focus on standards and test preparation was increasing. This had, and continues to have, a negative impact on collaborative projects and creativity. I see this issue in higher education as well. There is huge instructional pressure and the need for accountability to accreditors & funders. On the higher ed side, there isn’t any time at all to waste! A quality experience is greatly desired. A “fun” little experience doesn’t cut it.
• It’s not that simple to just make a place to find each other. Best practices, research support, models, frameworks… these things are all essential.
• So much institutional support is needed. In the K12 world, support from the media specialist was often sufficient. Principal support was helpful too. But in the higher ed world, chair, dean, IT, instructional design, assessment, provost, president… all these supports are needed.

So, what do you think? In the Tuesday morning session, there was clamor for a “match.com” site. What should that site look like?

I’m attending the 10th Anniversary COIL Conference.and doing some almost-live blogging. Here are my notes from another session.

Presenters: Miriam Russell, SUNY Empire State College (United States)
Lorette Calix, SUNY Empire State College (United States) See her work: The Value of a Virtual Term Abroad
Richard Bonnabeau, SUNY Empire State College (United States)
Francesca Cichello, SUNY Empire State College (United States)

Description: This four-person panel will present an overview of the communicative tools and technology used in SUNY Empire State College international programs. Included will be reflections on experiences using technology with international students, some of whom will join the panel virtually using Zoom. Additionally, specific examples of computer-mediated feedback will illustrate how these tools helped turn telecommunication pitfalls into success for all.

Notes: 

Learn about the Center for International Programs at SUNY Empire State College. Francesca described how they hire local faculty as needed. The instruction is blended – some online and some face to face; and some programs have residency abroad. They do many COIL type activities and very little study abroad.

In this session, they described two collaborations, one that included Anadolu University, Turkey; SUNY Cortland, SUNY Empire State College; and another with UNAPEC, Dominican Republic. A student from Turkey and from the Dominican Republic were on the Skype call, and shared the benefits of their experience succinctly and articulately. For the collaboration with UNAPEC, the classes are delivered online with weekly virtual meetings, and there are residency sessions as well.

Multiple components are needed for success: f2f, videoconferences, blogs, online support – LMS, informal ways to communicate – mixed results with Facebook; most successful was WhatsApp.

One essential piece is a way to communicate other than the platform for the videoconference itself – i.e. WhatsApp. It can be used for resolving technical issues, and for connecting & ccollaborating. It allows students to talk just like they do outside of a f2f class. It provides for social communication. It is critical to use a tool that people can use on their phones.

Students in Turkey & Dominican Republic were discussing the lunar eclipse together and sharing their experiences with it while it happened (shared events).

The faculty member at Empire State College was teaching to Turkey and the Dominican Republic at the the same time.

Another model they shared was an “international field study” where students start with an orientation online, break the ice with each other online, and then 3 weeks later students met f2f in Instanbul.

I’m attending the 10th Anniversary COIL Conference. Here are my live-blogged notes on one of the sessions. I’m looking forward to the recordings being online, as I want to play this one for our faculty!

Presenters: Eileen MacAvery Kane, Rockland Community College (United States)
Hendali Steynberg, Tshwane University of Technology (South Africa)

Description: Hendali Steynberg from Tshwane University of Technology, Pretoria, South Africa and Eileen MacAvery Kane from Rockland Community College, Suffern, NY, will present about a collaborative graphic design advocacy poster project between their classes. The project was a huge success, enjoyed by both classes while in the process creating cultural awareness, raising self-esteem, diminishing cultural bias, and creating understanding and a small, but mighty bridge, between two cultures.

Getting Started

Both faculty have business graphic design experience, and are teaching. Collaboration started because Eileen was invited to Tshwane University of Technology as a visiting faculty member due to a book that she published.

Eileen’s class was at the beginning of the semester; Hendali’s class was at the end of the semester.

This project lasted about six weeks.

Eileen is at a community college and had students with full time jobs; the South Africa students were full time students.

The Learning Experience

Students worked in groups – the class in South Africa was bigger, so making the groups fit together was a challenge to overcome.

They did an ice breaker video for students to introduce themselves and the campus; videos were posted on YouTube. The video ice breaker is highly recommended as it helps students get to know each other. Students are just as excited at the higher ed side of these collaborations as at the K12 level.

The student groups met in Google hangouts to meet to create posters. The students gave topics to each other to create posters about – topics on social issues. Students made their own posters, and then presented them to the students in the other country.

The posters were uploaded to a drive to share the posters and look at them ahead of time.

Culmination with an exhibit in the student union on the NY side, showing the posters created by both classes.

The graphic design class goals included both the discipline, but also learning about life. The two inform each other – students learn the content at the same time as experiencing the cultural interaction.

Cool Moments

Two students were from the same village!: One of the students in the community college in NY and one of the students in South Africa!

Lots of discussion around the posters made, and what was common and different. Many issues came up in the work: government corruption, drug use, college debt, etc.

Students were so eager, it wasn’t an issue for students to connect outside of class time.

Students communicated with each other outside of class – they used gmail and WhatsApp to talk to each other on the side.

Thank you to Eileen and Hendali for a great presentation – and a good example of how COIL works. This presentation will help me explain COIL to our faculty!