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The usual roles and responsibilities in a COIL Collaboration include the following.

Professors

Develop and maintain a strong working relationship with your teaching partner

Plan the COIL Collaboration with your COIL teaching partner, including learning goals, team building, project activities, reflection and assessment

Prepare students for international/intercultural collaboration

Deliver course content as appropriate for the course and collaboration design

Facilitate the overall COIL Collaboration

Guide students in developing intercultural communication skills, using reflective practice

Investigate and utilize support systems available to you at your university

Model collaborative intercultural practice

Evaluate students and the collaboration

Eric Mazur notes in this video, COIL is an opportunity for peer instruction. Something to consider in your instructor role and your students' role. Sometimes, students can be the best instructors for their peers. Peer Instruction for Active Learning

Students

Participate with an open mind and engage fully with this opportunity

Collaborate with their peers throughout the COIL Collaboration

Complete activities, projects and discussions

Suspend judgement, engage with reflective practice

Understand and follow any guidelines or policies

Problem solve issues of communication, language, technology and content

Communicate any issues with you, the professor

Provide feedback for improvement of the collaboration

Institutions

Should support COIL and global learning

Provide support services to professors and students as appropriate, such as technology, instructional design, international education

Recognize the commitment and work of professors and students engaging in COIL

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Professor Gilly Salmon has come up with the following “typical” behaviors of students in asynchronous online environments: forum, chat, discussion lists, etc. (scroll down and click on the image/table to make it larger).

Look at the behaviors and choose one or two which best reflect your own online behavior and think about the reasons.

Reflection is a key component of COIL work. We encourage you to build self-reflection into your COIL collaborations, and here we invite you to reflect on your own behaviors and beliefs. This will put you in the position your students. Like you, they have and will display their own way(s) to behave and interact online.

Once you've thought about which behavior(s) best describe you, please share in a post below. Click the + sign to start a new post. Don't forget to add your name if you aren't signed into Padlet. Please give feedback to your colleagues.

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Remember the Padlet tip: hover on this post, click on the three dots and select 'expand post' to make it easier to read on a desktop or tablet.

Social Presence (SP) is defined as:

The means by which online participants inhabit virtual spaces and indicate not only their presence in the online environment but also their availability and willingness to engage in the communicative exchanges which constitute learning activity in these environments (Kehrwald, 2008).

The teachers’ SP during the planning phase of a COIL course and while the exchange itself is going on  usually has a huge impact on its success.

Unfortunately, the importance of SP is often under-estimated. Social presence is about the professors and the learners’ ability to establish a relationship with each other despite barriers of time, distance, technology, etc

In online teaching and learning contexts like COIL the following tend to be lost:

- immediacy (feeling close)
- salience (being noticed and noticing others; highly dependent on non-verbal clues such as gestures and gaze)
- real time.

This can happen even in exchanges involving synchronous (real-time) sessions – depending on the online tool or application that is used for the synchronous meetings.

However, SP is not a quality of the technology used, but a quality of the participants involved and depends on the teachers’ and learners’
- skills with the technology
- personal/cultural disposition towards a particular communication that is going on
- interpretation of the SP cues projected by others into the online environment.

In asynchronous exchanges (such as this!), the teachers can and need to model the sending and receiving of social presence cues for the students. They also need to discuss with the learners, at the beginning of a COIL collaboration, why doing the following during an exchange is important for establishing SP and also for the overall experience:

1. explicitly recognizing partners’ contributions (“I really like what you have said about ….”)

2. mirroring words and expressions, i.e. using words and expressions your COIL partners have used in your reply to their contribution to a forum

3. prompting by ending your contribution to a forum thread with an open question or a comment such as “I am interested in finding out what you think of …”

4. meta-commenting, that is, asking for clarification of unclear remarks or of emotional tone and intent, or commenting on the general interactions in the forum, and, if necessary, suggesting changes to the rules of forum contributions. A separate, general  forum like our Water Cooler column here can serve as a space for meta-commenting.

5. summarizing or “weaving” comments, that is, grasping in one contribution the pattern found in a number of previous comments. To write weaving comments, the teacher or another learner must go carefully over a discussion, identify the theme(s), and make connections between contributions. In this way you acknowledge several participants and their contributions at the same time. If the learners take on responsibility for weaving the responsibility needs to be shared and time needs to be allocated to learning how to do this.

Trying out these “techniques” in the exchanges among the teachers during the design stage of a COIL course is crucial. Only then will it feel natural to model recognizing, mirroring, weaving, etc. for the students and draw their attention to the impact of these techniques on establishing Social Presence online.

TO DO

Based on your animal type (s) which of these NOTED behaviors do you think you will try with your students/partner doing COIL?

Or Tell us your strategy for being online together?

Going forward, please bear these techniques in mind as you're responding to your colleagues.

You can go back to the responses in the previous columns to see how these techniques may have been used by participants in this workshop.

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FACE TO FACE - Synchronous Connection

We will also have weekly synchronous meetings to participate in COIL activities and answer questions.

Each meeting is one hour long.

Each meeting will prepare you for the synchronous part of your COIL project.

All meetings will be recorded and posted on the Padlet platform.

Please join us on Wednesdays on the following dates. Mark your calendar.

We will always meet at this ZOOM link

https://suny-edu.zoom.us/my/coilmeeting

MEETING 1 - 12 October - Thursday

MEETING 2 - 19 October - Thursday

MEETING 3 - 26 October - Thursday

We span across multiple time zones! We will meet at the following times:

7am PDT(UTC-7)      California

9am CDT(UTC-5)     Illinois

9am COT(UTC-5) Colombia

10am EDT(UTC-4) New York, Pennsylvania

4pm  CEST(UTC+2) Germany

5pm  ET(UTC+3) Ukraine

Check this Time / Date Meeting Planner to make sure you have the right time.

I will also send you calendar invitations.

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RECORDING

SLDE DECK

RESOURCES

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RECORDING

SLDE DECK

RESOURCES

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RECORDING

SLDE DECK

RESOURCES

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To receive the COIL ELEMENTS certificate for the course, you need to participate in ALL of the YELLOW BOX activities ... posting your ideas, peer responses, curriculum activities and reflections.

You will receive the certificate once you have posted and we can acknowledge your participation in the online course space in addition to your wonderful presence in our ZOOM meetings...

Please email coilinfo@suny.edu when you are ready for your certificate.

As you know, we are just mirroring what YOU as instructor, would observe and note the work of your students.

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One of the key first steps in a COIL Collaboration is to develop trust among students.  Helping students gain a sense of who they are as people goes a long way towards team building.  If you've done other SUNY COIL workshops, you're likely familiar with the importance of icebreakers and developing a sense of team.

Click the + sign at the TOP of this column and tell us about something that makes you feel calm - a smell, a place, specific people, an activity, special food or drink?  Describe it and the effect it has on you. Add a picture, a video, audio or a link if you like. Read and react to your colleagues' posts. Don’t forget to add your name if you’re not signed in to Padlet.

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If you have not made an account with Padlet, please be sure to post your name!

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Preparing your students for intercultural teamwork

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Preparing your students for intercultural teamwork

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How receptive your students will be and how well they will do with team projects is based on a range of cultural, institutional and personal factors.

Examples:

1. Your students’ cultural orientation to work and trust is generally relationship-based.  When doing group work, students expect to get to know all team members before starting on the assigned activity. In carrying out the work, all team members will be concerned not just about the success of the team’s project, but about the well being of all team members. Your institution does not offer a lot of project based learning options. Classes tend to be lecture format with students mostly listening and not asking a lot of questions, so while students likely will have done group projects, it’s not common.

2. Your students’ cultural orientation to work and trust is task-based and they tend to be very direct in their communications.  Students expect to focus on the work that needs to be done, and expect that team meetings will focus on dividing up tasks among group members and then reporting on progress on the assigned tasks. While group work is fairly common at your institution, students often complain that it’s unfair that they are graded as a group and not on their individual work.

As you think about developing a COIL collaboration, consider how you will address team formation and cultural considerations.

For example, will you have

- a discussion,

- show videos,

- put something in the syllabus

- have each team mitigate expectations by preparing a version of this Student Team Table

- share a set of guidelines or have the students develop a team agreement?

Here is a Team Contract How-to. There are many including Brave Space contracts.

Does it depend on the cultures involved and/or the topic you’re working on?

Think about the factors above when considering how to prepare your students for working on an intercultural team.

Click + to start a new post, and answer the following questions:

1. What cultural aspects are likely to impact teamwork?

2. What are some institutional factors you need to consider?

3. What expectations do you have of your students for their team-based projects (behavior, participation and outcomes)?

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The importance of reflective practice in COIL

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The importance of reflective practice in COIL

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Reflection is a key element in a COIL Collaboration.

When?

Ideally, you will have reflection opportunities throughout the collaboration, for example, after discussions or other activities, or during a weekly check in. Reflection is key in helping students understand how to work in intercultural teams. It is also really important for you, as the professor, to help ensure you reach your learning objectives and that students clearly understand the purpose of doing a COIL Collaboration. You could start by taking 10 minutes during a class to debrief your icebreaker and team building activities, helping students identify differences, develop curiosity or theories about these differences, and prompt them to take some action - perhaps asking questions of the other students or generating ideas for good communications.

How?

Reflection can be done individually, in small groups, or in a large group; it can effectively be a written assignment or a discussion. You can do reflection activities with the combined group, though it also usually a good idea to have some opportunities for reflection that are either individual or with just your local class, particularly if a conflict arises or there is frustration with cultural differences in one or both classes. This gives students the opportunity to process conflicts and frustrations without worry of escalating the issues.

Why?

By guiding students to reflect on their experiences, you can increase their understanding of what’s going on, allow them to problem solve issues that commonly occur during COIL collaborations, help them see the cultural basis of people’s approach to work and communications, and help them develop skills in reflective practice that they can use in future situations.  In short, reflective practice empowers both you, as the professor, to guide student learning without being responsible for mediating cultural misunderstandings, and empowers students to analyze situations and develop options to move forward..

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Support your instructors and students to create EQUITY in communication, language and across your COIL collaboration.

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Support your instructors and students to create EQUITY in communication, language and across your COIL collaboration.

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What can YOU as COORDINATOR do to create equity within your international COIL projects?

1. FOR NATIVE language SPEAKERS:

Read the article (also noted below) to become aware of inequities between professors and students from the Global North ( ie technology, resource & capital rich) and Global South (less resources and money, more likely to suffer from poverty, and political violence). How can you support your instructors and students to create equity?

2. FOR NATIVE language SPEAKERS:

Provide a local orientation specifically for native language speakers to include activities and reminders about language equity and support. See image below for pointers. Remind your students throughout the collaboration. We forget. ;0)

3. FOR NON_NATIVE language SPEAKERS:

Consider inviting an EFL/ESL course that perhaps includes the students in your course to follow your COIL project to provide additional opportunities to discuss concepts and practice speaking/writing about topics.

TIPS

Clarity and Simplicity: Use clear language and avoid jargon or complicated expressions. Simplicity aids better understanding, especially when there are differences in language fluency.

Use of Translation Tools: Take advantage of translation tools like Google Translate to enhance mutual understanding. However, be mindful of their limitations and verify the accuracy of translations.

Respect for Cultural Differences: Be aware of cultural differences in communication. What may be acceptable in one cultural context may be interpreted differently in another. Cultural sensitivity is key.

Practice Active Listening: Foster active listening to fully comprehend messages. Ask students to repeat or paraphrase to ensure they have understood correctly.

CHALLENGES

Language Barriers: Differences in language proficiency can be a challenge. Some students may feel insecure expressing themselves in another language, affecting participation.

Cultural Understanding: Understanding cultural nuances in communication can be complicated. Cultural misinterpretations can lead to misunderstandings and impact collaboration.

Differences in Speaking Speed: Speaking speed can vary significantly between native and non-native speakers. This can affect comprehension, especially in real-time discussions.

Time Coordination: If there is a time zone difference, coordinating real-time meetings and discussions can be a challenge. Careful planning is essential.

SUCCESSES

Cultural Enrichment: Linguistic diversity adds cultural richness to collaboration. Students can learn not only the language but also customs and perspectives of others.

Development of Intercultural Communication Skills: Collaboration in a multilingual environment develops valuable skills for intercultural communication, essential in a globalized world.

Overcoming Challenges: Facing and overcoming linguistic challenges strengthens students' resilience and adaptability, crucial skills in diverse workplace environments.

Building Bridges: Successful collaboration in different languages can build lasting bridges between people of diverse cultures, fostering understanding and mutual respect.

DO THIS ACTIVITY

1. What do you do to create equity on your campus can you request support of these campus approaches for your COIL program, your instructors and in your classrooms?

2. How will you apply those ideas/activities to your instructors' COIL collaborations?

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Let’s use the Describe - Analyze - Evaluate/Apply model (What? So what? Now what?) on a scenario that comes up often in COIL collaborations.

DO THIS ACTIVITY

1. Read through the scenario
2. Click + at the bottom of the column to start a new post

3. Describe: What’s happening?

4. Analyze: Why is this happening? What cultural differences are contributing to this? How do you think the students are feeling about their collaboration?

5. Evaluate/Apply: What would you do if this situation was presented to you?  Are there things you could do to prevent this from happening?

Scenario

One group of students:
"They want to build trust by talking about personal things. We like to build trust through delivering work. We felt they were too relaxed and maybe a little lazy. We didn't know if they were doing anything. When they delivered their part of the work, we were caught off guard, because we never reached an agreement on the approach. Now it looks like we are lacking."

Their COIL partner students:
"In the beginning getting to know each other was tricky. We did not know anyone, and it was large leap of unknowingness which dazed us, and we did not know what to expect. We feel as if it also happened vice-versa."

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COIL Collaborations can be successful between classes in the same or related disciplines as well as classes across disciplines. In fact, interdisciplinary pairings often result in some of the most creative and engaging collaborations. One of the great opportunities of a COIL Collaboration is to infuse the courses with interactive, intercultural activities. This does not come naturally to everyone, so it helps to brainstorm ideas.

Let’s look at a few examples:

COIL Title: Cultural influences on Management Style

Classes: Entrepreneurship (Lebanon) and Business Management (US)

Summary: Students reviewed a few case studies in small groups, discussing the cultural basis for different behaviors and interpretations. These groups then did online interviews with either employees or managers in each country about what makes a good manager.  Groups presented their assessment of cultural contributions to expectations of managers to both classes.

COIL Title: Raising Public Awareness of Domestic Violence

Classes: Television broadcasting (Mexico) and Gender Studies (South Africa)

Summary: Students discussed issues of domestic violence in the cities where each university is located, focusing on prevention efforts. Students were placed in two groups and each group was tasked with writing, developing, and filming a public service announcement to be shown on local TV stations.

COIL Title: Coverage of Controversies in the Press

Classes: Journalism (US) and Sociology (Brazil)

Summary: Students were asked to find coverage of controversial topics in print media.  Discussions centered on why the issues were controversial in that society, and the way in which the press covered them.  Students were then placed in groups to write articles on global issues that could be printed in both countries.

COIL Title: Smart Technologies for Everyone

Classes: Artificial Intelligence (Mexico) and Spanish (US)

Summary: In small groups, students were given a smart technology to focus on. They worked together to understand how the technology worked, and were then asked to write articles about their smart technology in both Spanish and English.  Articles were combined into a newsletter that was distributed on both campuses to explain smart technology for those without a technology background.

COIL Title: Photographic evidence

Classes: Forensic Science (Turkey) and Photography (US)

Summary: Students explored the role of photographic evidence in building a criminal case. Students worked in small groups to develop scenarios that were then filmed by  photography students.  The photos were presented to other groups of students who were asked to reconstruct the scenario based solely on the photographic evidence.

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Hopefully, you’ve gotten some ideas and tips during this workshop and from your colleagues that you want to keep in mind as you develop your COIL collaboration. We encourage you to collect these resources and ideas in one place so you can draw on them when it comes time to build your COIL collaboration plan. An online folder, a google doc or another digital resource bank will allow you to easily share with your COIL teaching partner. Take a few minutes this week to start this resource bank - copy posts and links you like from this Padlet, clip some resources, note the tech tools you want to try. If you’ve found some great resources that your colleagues should know about, click the + sign at the bottom of this column and share!

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Creating teams of students for your COIL Collaboration helps increase interaction and participation. It also gives space for students to take on different roles, make decisions, problem solve and apply what they are learning both about the content of the course and about working interculturally. There is no magic formula when it comes to creating effective student teams, but the following guidelines will help ensure you have a good foundation for the teams:

Teams should be created by the professors.  If students select teams, they will likely pick people they already know and who are like them. This will make group work between students from different countries more challenging, because students think they already know their peers from their class and will make assumptions based on existing relationships.

Teams should be diverse on both sides. You will have diversity between the students from different countries, but also pay attention to diversity of teams from the same class.  Diversity of viewpoints and backgrounds generally means richer discussions and more ideas for project work.

Teams should have a range of skills.  Depending on the focus and length of your project work, it can be particularly important to ensure you have students with different skills and experience on each team. You and your teaching partner could create a short survey for students before your COIL Collaboration begins and form teams based on the responses.

Balance the numbers from each side as best you can.  Ideally you would have 50% participation from each country on each team, but teams can work well even if your classes are very different sizes. Try to organize the teams so you have at least a 25%-75% mix of students between the partnering classes. Avoid creating teams where there is only one student from one of the participating countries.

Teams shouldn’t be too big or too small.  A good team size is 5-8, which helps ensure that all students can and need to participate. Large teams are usually less effective, and you will need to establish very clear guidelines and roles. You may need to be flexible with team size to meet the other guidelines, however, pairs should be avoided for team projects.

Students need to know they are accountable for their work. Be clear with your students about your expectation and how their teams will be assessed. Will students be asked to provide feedback on their teams? A self-assessment? Will participation be graded along with the product? Will it be different for students from different classes?

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There is no particular or recommended COIL technology platform. Successful COIL collaborations happen using many different technology tools, both synchronous and asynchronous. The most important criteria for selecting the online tools for COIL collaborations is their alignment to learning goals. Before considering a particular tool, be explicit about what you need to successfully complete the activity, and look for the least complex option that meets your needs.

Although the alignment to learning outcomes is the most important consideration, there are additional aspects you need to consider when selecting a technology tool.  Some key considerations:

University policies

Before you begin considering tools, check with your instructional designers or educational technology department to find out if there are guidelines or restrictions for your university.  For example, does your university LMS allow guest accounts?  Does your university have licenses for certain tools (such as Padlet or VoiceThread) that you can use?

Privacy and data security

Most countries have laws around privacy and data security, some that apply specifically to education records. FERPA in the US and GDPR in Europe are examples of these strict rules.  Some tools that may be familiar to you may not meet the required security and privacy standards. If you're in doubt, seek advice from tech-savvy staff at your institution.

Ease of use

Unless a complicated new tool is really necessary for student learning, keep it simple.  Use tools that students are already familiar with or that have an easy to learn interface.

Immediacy

Will the tool be used to provide rapid responses, or to provide a space where posts could take place over several days or weeks?  Will you hold synchronous sessions?

Bandwidth

Given the uncertainty of the immediate future for remote teaching and online learning, you need to consider student access to the internet if they are not on campus. In some locations, internet access on campus can be limited and/or students may be paying high cost for mobile data. You and your partner will need to discuss bandwidth and internet access issues when considering technology tools.

Availability

Not all technology tools are accessible from every country. Discuss this with your partner.  Be aware that China blocks access to many technology tools and platforms, so if you partner with a

Chinese institutions, be clear about the technology needs you have for your COIL activities so you can find a platform that will work for both groups of students.

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How would you describe the prevailing approach to teaching at your university or in your country? What is your personal teaching style?

For example, prevailing styles at many universities can be described as lecture style, while at others the prevailing approach is project-based. In some cultures there is a strong respect for authority and questions in the classroom are rare.  In other cultures, debate and open disagreements are the norm in classes. As you move through the development of your COIL collaboration, you and your partner should address these issues so you have an agreed upon approach to  facilitating your COIL collaboration.

Think about your teaching style and your students’ learning styles in relation to the roles and responsibilities outlined above.  Do you see any potential challenges?  Are there additional expectations you would have of yourself or your students?

Click the + sign below to start a new post.

STEP 1
Summarize your personal teaching style and the style of learning that most students at your university expect:

1. Do they listen and take notes?

2. Question the professors?

3. Apply learning through projects?

4. Have in-class discussions?).

STEP 2
How do your teaching approach and the learning expectations of your students strengthen a COIL Collaboration?

STEP 3
What challenges do you foresee?
How might you address these challenges?

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The Community of Inquiry: About The Framework

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The Community of Inquiry: About The Framework

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I have used this in developing a blended learning format for students

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An educational community of inquiry is a group of individuals who collaboratively engage in purposeful critical discourse and reflection to construct personal meaning and confirm mutual understanding.

The Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework theory, methodology, and instruments were developed during a Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities research funded project entitled "A Study of the Characteristics and Qualities of Text-Based Computer Conferencing for Educational Purposes" project which ran from 1997 to 2001. Central to the original study was the creation of a model of a community of inquiry comprised of three essential elements of an educational experience: Cognitive Presence, Social Presence, and Teaching Presence.

Outcomes of the original project were published in peer-reviewed journals which, in turn, have resulted in hundreds of research studies applying and extending the original CoI theory, method, and instruments. The seminal paper "Critical Inquiry in a Text-Based Environment: Computer Conferencing in Higher Education" (Garrison, Anderson & Archer, 2000) has been cited more than 7000 times (as reported by Google Scholar, July 2021) and provided the foundation for valuable empirical research in learning theory across multiple disciplines and in varied educational settings.

The Community of Inquiry theoretical framework represents a process of creating a deep and meaningful (collaborative-constructivist) learning experience through the development of three interdependent elements: social, cognitive and teaching presence.

The Community of Inquiry survey or questionnaire is a stable instrument that can be used in a variety of studies, including large scale inter-institutional or cross-disciplinary studies.

Shared metacognition (MC) exists at the intersection of the cognitive and teaching presence constructs and goes to the heart of a deep and meaningful educational learning experience. The Shared Metacognition Questionnaire (SMQ) has been developed for the study and practice of shared metacognition in a community of inquiry.

The Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework theory, methodology and instruments were developed during a Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities research funded project entitled "A Study of the Characteristics and Qualities of Text-Based Computer Conferencing for Educational Purposes" project which ran from 1997 to 2001. Central to the original study was the creation of a framework of a community of inquiry comprised of three essential elements of an educational experience: cognitive, social and teaching presence.

Outcomes of the original project were published in peer reviewed journals which, in turn, have resulted in hundreds of research studies applying and extending the original CoI theory, method, and instruments. The seminal paper "Critical Inquiry in a Text-Based Environment: Computer Conferencing in Higher Education" (Garrison, Anderson and Archer, 2000) has been cited more than 2800 times (as reported by Google Scholar August 2015) and provided the foundation for valuable empirical research in learning theory across multiple disciplines and in varied educational settings.

In the following interview for the Reflective Teaching in a Digital Age podcast, Dr. Randy Garrison describes the history of the CoI framework, including its role in the thoughtful design of online education, and practical ways of helping students learn through active participation and shared meaning making.

Your browser does not support the audio element.

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The Community of Inquiry: About The Framework

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A research community for studying the Community of Inquiry

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Send your Certificate request to hope.windle@oneonta.edu

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Send your Certificate request to hope.windle@oneonta.edu

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To receive the COIL certificate for this course, you need to participate in ALL of the YELLOW BOX activities ... posting your ideas, peer responses, curriculum activities and reflections.

You will receive the certificate once you have posted and we can acknowledge your participation in the online course space in addition to your wonderful presence in our ZOOM meetings.

As you know, we are just mirroring what YOU as instructor, would observe and note the work of your students.

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Hi everybody! Welcome welcome! I am so glad that you’re here.My name is Hope Windle. I will be the facilitator for this course. A little bit about myself... I like to sit on a big ball while I work instead of a chair it keeps me focused. I really like dark chocolate. I have a cute dog named Bagel and we go on big walks every day in the woods near where I live. We walk a couple times a day so that I can breathe in the day and nature, even just to hear birds and see the trees. I don’t think the dog gets sick of it. He likes to chase frogs. I love to meet people from different places. There is something about it that gets me so excited! Especially when we first meet through technology, I love reading about each person and then to meet you on ZOOM is so fun. An added bonus is to meet in person.. like at a conference or visiting each others' schools. The whole process is so exhilarating! I don't live near the ocean but I love the sounds, smells and floating in water of any size, either to swim or kayak or just walk alongside a river or creek.

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Padlet  is a tool for sharing and collaborating. Click anywhere in this column to be able to scroll down the column.

To expand posts, which may make them easier to read on a computer screen, hover over the upper right corner of the post and click on the three vertical dots that appear.

To start a new post, click on the "+" sign at the TOP of the column.

While you are writing a post, click on the icons that appear in the bottom of the post  to add photos, voice, and video.

You do not need to have a Padlet account to use it, however, if you are not logged in, please be sure to add your name to your posts so we know who you are - otherwise you will be listed as anonymous.

If you need more help, visit the Padlet support center at https://padlet.com/support

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Maybe you have a lot of experience with reflective practice and have an approach that works for you.  If so, great!  Feel free to use that in your COIL Collaboration.  If you don’t have a lot of experience with reflective practice, a model and technique that works well is Describe - Analyze - Evaluate.

Describe

What happened?  Describe the situation without adding emotion or evaluation, as if you were an outside observer.  Who did what?  What was said?  Where did this take place?

Analyze

This is where we really try to understand what’s going on. Why do I think this happened?  What do I know about the cultures involved and how they are influencing the situation? Can I make connections to situations I’ve encountered before?  Try to generate theories or ideas about what’s going on and why.  If I don’t really understand why something happened, how do I become better informed?

Evaluate/Apply

What did I learn from this?  What does it mean going forward?  How do I apply what I learned from this situation next time?  Are there generalities I can take from this?

An easy way to remember this is:

What? = Describe

So What? = Analyze

Now What? = Evaluate/Apply

Note that in a situation where emotions are high, you may also want to add a short time for students to react.  This will acknowledge their feelings, but keep the focus on What- So What - Now What.  If you add a reaction time at the beginning, students should use "I" statements and keep the reaction focused on their feelings, not on what they perceive as happening.  For example, "I was really frustrated" or "I felt disrespected" without assigning blame allows students to express their emotions before moving onto the reflection prompts.

At the top of this post is a video about the What - So What - Now What reflective practice in education.

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What is a Critical Reflection? Introducing the “What, So What, Now What” Model

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Language as cultural expression vs means of communication

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Language as cultural expression vs means of communication

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We have considered the cultural basis of communication styles. What about language?  Language and culture are closely related. The words we have in our language help us describe the world around us and help us organize our thoughts to make sense of it. Vocabulary can both reflect culture and define it.

Among people who speak the same language, slang, idioms and accents create a sense of group identity - whether that’s a national, regional or local difference, or identity in a group defined in other ways, like ethnic groups, organizations, social class, etc. Using language as cultural expression can be a way to include people in a shared identity, but can also exclude those who don’t have the shared frame of reference.

In a COIL Collaboration, we need to help students think about language as cultural identity and as a means of communication. This is particularly important if the language of the collaboration is the primary language of only one group. To get students introduced to the idea of language as identity and communication tool, you can have your students greet the other students in that group’s language as part of the icebreaker. Students can then talk about greetings, for example, how they would greet a teacher, a grandparent, a close friend, a stranger.

Attached is some advice from the University of Kansas about communicating with people if proficiency is unequal. These tips can be helpful to share with your students, and can be helpful reminders for yourself if you and your COIL teaching partner don’t have the same level of proficiency in the language you will use for communications.

Another technique that COIL professors use is to have posts in the dominant language of both groups. That is, if the primary language of one group is Spanish and the other is English, students have to post in both languages.  If they don’t have proficiency in one of the languages, they need to use available tools, like Google Translate, to assist.  This can help give all students the perspective of communicating in a language that’s not primary to them and generate conversation about language and communication. You can do this for one or more discussions, even if you agree on one language for the collaboration. It does require some guided reflection to help students unpack the experience and apply learning going forward - more on that next week.

Click the + column to start a new post.  If you have experience communicating across languages, share some stories, tips, challenges and success you’ve had that could help your students and your colleagues as they prepare their COIL collaborations.  If you don’t have a lot of experience, do you have concerns, questions, things you’re looking forward to?

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Below are two COIL pairings, which include course names, countries where the universities are located, and one of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that the professors would like to focus on for their COIL Collaboration.

Choose one or both of the pairings. Create a new post and give at least one possible title and a short description of an activity they could do, as in the examples we just looked at.  Respond to your colleagues.

Civil Engineering (Netherlands)

Political Science (US)

COIL Collaboration on SDG 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure

Introduction to Psychology (US)

Organic Chemistry (Morocco)

COIL Collaboration on SDG 3: Good Health and Well-being

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ACTIVITY: Finding your institutional resources

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ACTIVITY: Finding your institutional resources

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Your institution has support services that can help you with COIL.  As you move forward with creating your first COIL collaboration, give some consideration to who can support you and make connections with them before you finalize your planning for COIL. If you don’t know the contact person for these areas, start developing an outreach list to include in your resource bank.

ACTIVITY: Please share your answers to the following questions

1. Which areas, including the ones noted below, are at the forefront of your institution’s strategic plan?

2. Are there incentives or additional support in these areas that you can access?

International Education: If there is an International Programs Office or equivalent on your campus, they can be helpful in many ways. International Educators are usually happy to help prepare students for intercultural communications, and as they are concerned with global learning at your institution, they can be very supportive allies for COIL collaborations. Your university may have existing international partnerships, and these could be a great way to find COIL teaching partners.

Teaching and Learning Centers: COIL is active pedagogy that promotes the development of 21st century skills.  Teaching and Learning centers will be interested to learn about what you’re doing with COIL, and to offer support for your project based activities and pedagogical approach.

Academic Programs: If you are planning to work with someone from another discipline, and/or a university whose language is different than yours, don’t overlook the academic expertise that may be available at your university. Talk with professors in other departments about your ideas for COIL activities and get their input on how it aligns with their discipline. Language professors could offer suggestions and support for bridging languages.

Technology support: Talking with your technology and/or instructional design staff can be very helpful when designing your COIL collaboration. These staff will often have suggestions for technology tools, can help ensure you select tools appropriate to your learning outcomes and institutional policies, and may be able to offer you additional support.

Library:  Librarians are masters at finding and organizing content on a broad range of subjects. Are Librarians at your institution able to help you curate some resources that you can use for your COIL collaboration, such as background information on the country and region of your partner’s institution, resources to help students understand culture and intercultural communication?  Perhaps your library can create a Lib Guide, such as this one: https://sunyolis.libguides.com/sunycoil/start

Higher level administrators:  COIL supports many institutional strategies, such as diversity, equity and inclusion; student engagement; active learning; internationalization; widening perspectives; and digital professionalism.

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This SUNY COIL Student Guide provides information and resources to help students succeed in COIL courses throughout SUNY. Here you will find information about the benefits of participating in COIL; tips on cross-cultural communication, collaboration, and expectations; and recommended resources for research as well as some research tips.

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Guides: SUNY COIL Student Guide: Welcome

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Information and online resources for students participating in SUNY COIL (Collaborative Online International Learning). An overview of this guide and COIL

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Team formation and cultural considerations

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Team formation and cultural considerations

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Teams go through recognized stages, beginning with coming together, then developing a sense of team (which can include going through a period of disagreement between team members, hopefully resulting in a shared understanding of how the team works together), leading to effective teamwork.  A frequently cited model of team development was theorized by Organizational Psychologist Bruce Tuckman: Forming - Storming - Norming - Performing - Adjourning. Though this model was developed largely from examination of groups in the United States, it has been shown to be applicable to team formation in different countries and cultures worldwide. If you are not familiar with this model, here’s a short video describing the stages:

https://guides.himmelfarb.gwu.edu/c.php?g=379280&p=2568609

The behaviors and expectations of people at different stages of group formation vary from culture to culture.  It’s important to recognize, particularly during the phases where students are forming a sense of team and disagreeing, that behaviors can be misinterpreted, and that this has the potential to negatively impact your COIL collaboration. This is where students’ understanding of cultural differences and their ability to suspend judgement will benefit the group formation process.

If you have participated in the COIL Foundations workshop, you have examined different culturally based communications styles and different ways that people build trust. You can now see how this overlays the team development model. Developing trust during the Forming stage will look different if you are working with two primarily task-based cultures, when you would likely ask teams to focus on the purpose of the team and the end product, than if you are working with two relationship-based cultures, when you would likely encourage teams get to know each other through more social interactions. If you are working with a task-based and a relationship-based culture, students need to understand the different expectations of the other students’ culture.

Cultural differences can become even more important and apparent during the Storming stage of Tuckman’s model, as disagreement or discontent can be expressed very differently from culture to culture.  For example, some cultures (low-context communicators) would assume that silence indicates acceptance. If you don’t say that you disagree, then you must agree. For other cultures, silence could mean that I don’t agree, but disagreeing openly or verbally would be disrespectful to you, so it’s better not to express my opinion.

Attached are some tips developed by the University of Minnesota for the participation of students from different cultures in class discussions, which also apply to student participation in teams. This was written for US professors.

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Think of an activity that you might want your students to do during their COIL collaboration.  If you don’t have an activity in mind, pick one of the activities you suggested for the sample pairings in the Exercise your Creative Muscle column.

List the types of interactions you want the students to have.  Consider the relative importance of student interactions (communications tools), a collaborative space, and other aspects.

What are the desired outcomes and outputs (product, portfolio, presentation, etc.) for this activity?

What technology tool characteristics would facilitate these outcomes and outputs?

Attached is a document that lists many online tools that are available - this list is certainly not comprehensive and you can feel free to use a tool that does not appear on the list.

Select a tool that you think could be effective and take a deeper look. Do a bit of research into the particulars of your tool. By reading through the website of your tool and doing a quick Google search you should be able to find information and user feedback that will help you understand how well this tool aligns with your needs.

Click the + sign to start a new post.  Tell us which tool you selected, why you picked it, and how well you think it would work for your purposes. Please give enough context from the questions above to help others understand your needs.

Read through what your colleagues have learned about their tools and comment, share your experience if you’ve used the same or similar tech tool, make suggestions about how they could resolve any concerns they have.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1q66u1rKxEWU93ThmsKwP46sxIpVtTBYyrQUuY0V8Pf0/edit?usp=sharing

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RESOURCES

Infusing Play and Humor into your COIL Collaboration

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/11ML2L5KeRPpE3QGkZrOSrhXXJRvLShLyb3a1SQct5yI/edit#slide=id.g1ef44c8525c_3_164

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SUNY COIL & FIU COIL Webinar Series | January 16 

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Please share your email or WhatsApp and or LinkedIn

to connect as partners or just stay in touch !

Here is mine

hope.windle@oneonta.edu

WhatsApp

+152 845 658 3676

LinkedIn

https://www.linkedin.com/in/hopewindle/

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Remember to get your partners' and your students' names correct! 

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Remember to get your partners' and your students' names correct! 

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So important to pronoun peoples' names correctly! Thank you Naomi Sigg. For virtualexchange, remember to share this with your students. microaggressions like these add up to no trust and not good team work. Everyone wants to make a COIL project work so keep this in your toolbox!

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50 ways to leave your teacher-centered lecture for student-centered alternatives in online teaching and learning.

https://www.slideshare.net/alexandrapickett/50-alternatives-to-lecture

Web page of Activity approaches…https://oscqr.suny.edu/standard29/

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50 alternatives to lecture - Download as a PDF or view online for free

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Support your instructors and students to create EQUITY in communication, language and across your COIL collaboration.

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Support your instructors and students to create EQUITY in communication, language and across your COIL collaboration.

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What can YOU as COORDINATOR do to create equity within your international COIL projects?

1. FOR NATIVE language SPEAKERS:
Read the article (also noted below) to become aware of inequities between professors and students from the Global North ( ie technology, resource & capital rich) and Global South (less resources and money, more likely to suffer from poverty, and political violence). How can you support your instructors and students to create equity?

2. FOR NATIVE language SPEAKERS:
Provide a local orientation specifically for native language speakers to include activities and reminders about language equity and support. See image below for pointers. Remind your students throughout the collaboration. We forget. ;0)

3. FOR NON_NATIVE language SPEAKERS:
Consider inviting an EFL/ESL course that perhaps includes the students in your course to follow your COIL project to provide additional opportunities to discuss concepts and practice speaking/writing about topics.

TIPS

Clarity and Simplicity: Use clear language and avoid jargon or complicated expressions. Simplicity aids better understanding, especially when there are differences in language fluency.

Use of Translation Tools: Take advantage of translation tools like Google Translate to enhance mutual understanding. However, be mindful of their limitations and verify the accuracy of translations.

Respect for Cultural Differences: Be aware of cultural differences in communication. What may be acceptable in one cultural context may be interpreted differently in another. Cultural sensitivity is key.

Practice Active Listening: Foster active listening to fully comprehend messages. Ask students to repeat or paraphrase to ensure they have understood correctly.

CHALLENGES

Language Barriers: Differences in language proficiency can be a challenge. Some students may feel insecure expressing themselves in another language, affecting participation.

Cultural Understanding: Understanding cultural nuances in communication can be complicated. Cultural misinterpretations can lead to misunderstandings and impact collaboration.

Differences in Speaking Speed: Speaking speed can vary significantly between native and non-native speakers. This can affect comprehension, especially in real-time discussions.

Time Coordination: If there is a time zone difference, coordinating real-time meetings and discussions can be a challenge. Careful planning is essential.

SUCCESSES

Cultural Enrichment: Linguistic diversity adds cultural richness to collaboration. Students can learn not only the language but also customs and perspectives of others.

Development of Intercultural Communication Skills: Collaboration in a multilingual environment develops valuable skills for intercultural communication, essential in a globalized world.

Overcoming Challenges: Facing and overcoming linguistic challenges strengthens students' resilience and adaptability, crucial skills in diverse workplace environments.

Building Bridges: Successful collaboration in different languages can build lasting bridges between people of diverse cultures, fostering understanding and mutual respect.

DO THIS ACTIVITY

1. What do you do to create equity locally, on your campus? Can you request or include support of these campus approaches for your COIL program, your instructors and in your classrooms?

2. How will you apply those ideas/activities to your instructors' COIL collaborations?

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Support your students to create EQUITY in communication, language and across your COIL collaboration.

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Support your students to create EQUITY in communication, language and across your COIL collaboration.

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What can YOU as professors do to create equity within your international COIL projects?

1. FOR NATIVE language SPEAKERS:
Read the article (also noted below) to become aware of inequities between professors and students from the Global North ( ie technology, resource & capital rich) and Global South (less resources and money, more likely to suffer from poverty, and political violence). How can you support your instructors and students to create equity?

2. FOR NATIVE language SPEAKERS:
Provide a local orientation specifically for native language speakers to include activities and reminders about language equity and support. See image above 👆 for pointers. Remind your students throughout the collaboration. We forget. ;0)

3. FOR NON_NATIVE language SPEAKERS:
Consider inviting an EFL/ESL course that perhaps includes the students in your course to follow your COIL project to provide additional opportunities to discuss concepts and practice speaking/writing about topics.

TIPS

Clarity and Simplicity: Use clear language and avoid jargon or complicated expressions. Simplicity aids better understanding, especially when there are differences in language fluency.

Use of Translation Tools: Take advantage of translation tools like Google Translate to enhance mutual understanding. However, be mindful of their limitations and verify the accuracy of translations.

Respect for Cultural Differences: Be aware of cultural differences in communication. What may be acceptable in one cultural context may be interpreted differently in another. Cultural sensitivity is key.

Practice Active Listening: Foster active listening to fully comprehend messages. Ask students to repeat or paraphrase to ensure they have understood correctly.

CHALLENGES

Language Barriers: Differences in language proficiency can be a challenge. Some students may feel insecure expressing themselves in another language, affecting participation.

Cultural Understanding: Understanding cultural nuances in communication can be complicated. Cultural misinterpretations can lead to misunderstandings and impact collaboration.

Differences in Speaking Speed: Speaking speed can vary significantly between native and non-native speakers. This can affect comprehension, especially in real-time discussions.

Time Coordination: If there is a time zone difference, coordinating real-time meetings and discussions can be a challenge. Careful planning is essential.

SUCCESSES

Cultural Enrichment: Linguistic diversity adds cultural richness to collaboration. Students can learn not only the language but also customs and perspectives of others.

Development of Intercultural Communication Skills: Collaboration in a multilingual environment develops valuable skills for intercultural communication, essential in a globalized world.

Overcoming Challenges: Facing and overcoming linguistic challenges strengthens students' resilience and adaptability, crucial skills in diverse workplace environments.

Building Bridges: Successful collaboration in different languages can build lasting bridges between people of diverse cultures, fostering understanding and mutual respect.

DO THIS ACTIVITY

1. What do you do to create equity locally, on your campus? Can you request or include support of these campus approaches for your COIL program, your instructors and in your classrooms?

2. How will you apply those ideas/activities to your instructors' COIL collaborations?