An Introduction to The Guide to COIL Virtual Exchange. The First Comprehensive Book on the COIL Methodology

Internationalization has long been considered an important element of higher education by university leaders. Nevertheless, providing access to international experiences for most students and professors has remained something of a dream, because travel is unaffordable to the large majority. For example, only about 1% of Mexican undergraduate students are able to study abroad (Maldonado-Maldonado et al., 2017).

About 20 years ago, as the influence of the Internet became pervasive, there was some hope that the “World Wide Web” would provide access to all peoples and cultures. Unfortunately, as the Internet was built out, unspoken agendas developed, and these were embedded in the sites we use every day. In our social networks, whether they be Facebook or Instagram or LinkedIn, or whatever we choose, we usually network only with those who are just like us. Even the software algorithms embedded in these apps are designed to let us find only those with whom we have the closest affinity.

Clearly, a more focused and instrumental approach was needed to take advantage of the Internet’s global reach for the benefit of students and educators. Innovators realized that a way to develop true internationalization would be to embed it in the curriculum, and at the State University of New York, the author of this article and his colleagues developed the Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) virtual exchange model. In 2006, the author was appointed director of the SUNY COIL Center, a position held until 2017. The COIL model links courses, teachers, and students with their peers usually located in other countries, as they develop joint projects that are embedded into existing classes across 5–8- week periods of interaction and exchange. Working across the Internet, intercultural connections are nurtured between students who live very different lives and who often study in very different institutional settings.

While global engagement with this pedagogy developed steadily from 2006 to 2020, the involvement of global universities into COIL practices was dramatically accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic which froze most international travel and expanded the use of online teaching. During the past two years, hundreds and possibly thousands of universities pivoted to consider, and then begin COIL exchanges. However, these new university initiatives often lacked two needed elements: knowledge about and access to other universities already committed to COIL practices with whom they might partner; and a handbook or guide containing the information they needed to implement COIL programs at an institutional level.

These two needs are now being met by the COIL Connect for Virtual Exchange website (https://coilconnect.org) launched early in 2021, and The Guide to COIL Virtual Exchange book, recently published in both print and eBook versions by Stylus Publishing in the United States. The COIL Connect website presents an open directory of higher education institutions (227 institutions from 34 countries—as of September 30^th, 2022) each committed to COIL virtual exchange, with listings of COIL courses presently seeking partners. The site has many other valuable features including a recently launched directory of organizations around the world that directly support COIL virtual exchange. Membership to COIL Connect is free to both individuals and institutions.

The Guide to COIL Virtual Exchange is the first book to present a complete discussion of COIL methodology and its institutional implementation across the globe. It contains contributions by over 40 practitioners from 13 countries and provides guidance and examples that will be helpful to anyone involved in developing a COIL Program at their institution. The book and the COIL Connect website are also cross-linked so that changes that develop across the field over the next years can be noted and updated on the website.

This comprehensive guide covers COIL VE pedagogy, provides examples of what takes place in the COIL classroom, and explores what instructors and staff need to know to facilitate and support a variety of COIL courses across the curriculum. It addresses how institutional stakeholders, especially those in leadership positions, can develop and embed a successful COIL initiative at their institution.

This book offers faculty and administrators across the world—whether formally involved in international education and community engagement or wanting to incorporate a crosscultural perspective in their disciplinary and interdisciplinary courses—with the theoretical foundations, guidance on effective collaboration, and the strategic and pedagogical considerations central to developing robust COIL VE courses and programs.

The Guide to COIL Virtual Exchange is organized into these sections:

Part One: Introduction to Coil Virtual Exchange
Part Two: What Institutional Leaders, Senior International Officers, and Internationalization Champions Need to Know about Coil Virtual Exchange
Part Three: What Instructors and Support Staff Need to Know about Coil Virtual Exchange
Part Four: Perspectives on Coil Virtual Exchange
Part Five: Case Studies—How Students, Teachers, and Other Learners Benefit
Part Six: Conclusion: The Future of Coil and Networked Education

---