UNAM’s COIL Strategy. Education and Artistic and Design Practices

In the search for internationalizing academic and research collaborations among public educational institutions in Latin America, there has always been a will for generating encounters, close ties and connections among university communities from different cultural contexts. The aim is to build networks where different viewpoints and academic critical thinking in all areas can be expressed and.

That’s why the Faculty of Arts and Design (FAD) has adopted a plural and inclusive perspective as a fundamental premise to build a basic knowledge network that incorporates and develops collective artistic and design practices from a dignifying and empathic standpoint.

It is important to stress out the impact of 2020 pandemic in practically all education-related areas and in life in general. All kinds of meetings, relationships and networks joined the crisis; everything had to be reformulated and we had the responsibility to provide tools and means to keep in contact.

The big challenge was to sort out the crisis and carry on with academic life. The lack of physical contact was greatly regretted; however, the situation paved the way for academic exchange opportunities that nurtured the trajectories of the students and teachers and had bigger impact on a large number of students who had could share teaching-learning experiences from different voices in different geographic locations and contexts.
The situation brought us closer than ever enjoying the chance of virtual connection within the new dynamics. The opportunity arrived for taking a turn and developing the COIL courses, a method that help us to exchange multi-level subject program contents. We find common points of view among universities and in methodological terms; we combine thematic content; we match learning, teaching, pedagogics, and didactics objectives to the extent in which teachers work on them in their chair. They exchange points of view and experiences in academic events.

After more than a year of working remotely, students have tried to keep connected from different geographical points through Internet by digital pedagogical means made available. There are countless new experiences coming from sharing knowledge while a screen lies in between.

Thanks to the help of M.A. Dolores González-Casanova, the DGECI established a link between FAD and the University of Costa Rica (UCR), with the intention of promoting COIL courses creation between the two institutions.

As a result of this initiative, three academic proposals were made to develop an “inclusive shared syllabus” between two universities distant 2,579.2 km of each other but connecting students from the two countries. The students are located in different areas of the country, and we have been able to establish a connection with them through satellite communications. We held synchronous and asynchronous online meetings to set up a common ground for sharing different views. So, we could test the creation of hybrid visual, theoretical, and methodological discourses that could particularly integrate different digital resources to show, record and perceive geographically separated realities.
In the FAD-UCR academic project there were seven scholars from both institutions working on putting together three syllabi on Education and Artistic/Design practices. In this way, three undergraduate groups from UCR, plus two undergraduate and one postgraduate group from FAD-UNAM, interacted in class through videocalls and collaborative boards. They put into practice an experimental methodology that visually condenses the reflective work made by 60 students.

The developed projects are described below.

Matching theoretical subjects


In March 2021, an academic program was planned that combined two subjects’ methodologies with different thematic approaches, but it met the premise of finding common grounds and strengthening perspectives based on comparative critical analysis in arts and designs historical references. The aim was to consolidate a conceptual and methodological link with contemporary enunciation contexts. Thus, a common referential corpus was built that served as a hermeneutical liaison between perspectives, disciplines, contexts, and enunciations.

Communications continued on a regular basis throughout the courses in order to regularly review and monitor the interactions among the groups. The groups developed an “academic inclusive space for coming together”. Via email, WhatsApp and videocall, we refined the dynamics, improved the bibliographical and audiovisual consultation materials, and reconsidered some questionings and inadequate aspects for the sessions.

This was essential to set up a dynamic favoring criticism in designing methodologies that are coherent and relevant to every student participating and arguing in these academic sessions.

Matching practical subjects


In March 2021 we had constant online contact with M.A. Iria Salas Paniagua, head of the projects area for the Ceramic Design, course I. M.A. Rubén Cerrillo explained the collaboration basis and gave the starting signal for collective participation in the two subjects. So, we shared our respective subjects’ programs and reviewed the aspects that match between them. Later, M.A. Beatriz Parra Thompson, responsible of the theoretical area, joined the meeting. In this manner, we established the agreements to move forward with the Interdisciplinary Expressive Project.

Synchronous sessions were scheduled on Wednesdays with three hours duration. The two groups met with the three teachers who guided the sessions. Students could develop their individual projects in seven sessions.

Both groups agreed on addressing a general theme for the expressive project. The theme was the protection of local natural resources. Animals that live in the garden. Every session included a demonstrative class on ceramic-sculptural techniques, authors presentations and introductions to ceramic types. There was also time devoted to check the students’ projects.

A WhatsApp group was created that listed all project participants. By means of the exchange platform available, it was easy to follow up the projects progress and the corresponding research was recorded in a graphic-theoretical logbook.

As a result of collaboration, it was decided to create a virtual exhibition at FAD galleries.

This collaborative effort has been possible thanks to the involvement of FAD career teachers. They are dedicated to research on the assembling of diverse and integrated academic communities, giving special attention to gender-related studies and putting emphasis on strategies design to come up with collective problem-solving ideas. The goal has been to build a better world for everyone where all voices are heard. To achieve this objective, the internationalization of our university plays a crucial role.

Institutional collaboration had a significant impact on the development of the three courses held from April to June 2020. Important data is listed in the tables included in this article.

MEDIATION TOOLS

Zoom / videocall

Classroom / Mediation of referential material

WhatsApp / Logistics and planning

Google Drive / Bibliographic and multimedia material repository

Miro / In the classroom direct work

NUMBER OF STUDENTS	NUMBER OF TEACHERS	OBSERVATIONS
40 (FAD)	4 (FAD)	Previous time for agreements between nbsp;teachers of both institutions, and for identifiying nbsp;contents to develop.
20 (UCR)	4 (UCR)	WhatsApp groups for very close feedback.
60 (total)	8 (total)	Multi-level groups (undergraduates of nbsp;different levels and graduates)

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