Why COIL

Diverse perspectives: Interaction between students and faculty from different cultural and educational backgrounds fosters a rich exchange of ideas, professional methods, and perspectives. This diversity stimulates critical thinking, creativity, innovation and understanding.

Intercultural competence: Intercultural competence is about gaining respect, openness, curiosity and cultural knowledge – and international experiences are gateways for accomplishing this. As students get to know each other, they will gain more tolerance and understanding towards each other, both on a personal level and in groups. And who knows, friendships might even be possible.

Multiple perspectives: Seeing content from different angles and from multiple perspectives can lead students examine the values and beliefs of their own profession, practices, knowledge and culture in new ways. At the same time, they will experience how their cooperation partners are going through the same process. This will broaden their understanding of the course content.

Transformative learning: International learning experiences can spark students’ interest in the world. Students will often explain how an international experience changed them and made them look at themselves, their profession and other people differently. Deep learning has occurred. This is what we call transformative learning.

Digital competence: Having to work with new and different digital tools increases students’ digital competence. Communicating and cooperating internationally is a good motivation for trying digital tools, as there will be no other way to communicate.

Preparation for the profession: Students are expected to work in a globalized, diverse, and complex world. International learning environments provides experiential learning possibilities for this, hereby giving them the competences that they will need later.

Widening participation: When internationalization equals travel, there will always be students and countries who are not able to participate due to lack of resources or other factors. In a COIL project all students can take part and gain international experience.

Cooperation and communication skills: Cooperation across countries and cultures creates unexpected and new types of challenges. Coping with and trying to solve the challenges arising is an important learning experience that will provide students with cooperation and communication skills.

Global awareness: Through cooperation with a project, students will learn about other countries, their education systems, food, culture, geography etc. The experience of interacting with different national contexts will foster global awareness.

Language skills: When students must communicate in a second language it is a challenge but also potentially a learning experience. By interrelating with peers from various linguistic backgrounds, individuals are motivated to learn new languages and improve both oral and written communication abilities. COIL projects have also experimented with using body language to support communication.

Expands and innovates pedagogical practices: The use of technology and digital platforms expands teaching methods and pedagogical practices, allowing for more dynamic and innovative educational experiences.

Increases professional development: Working with colleagues from different cultural backgrounds and educational systems enhances professional development for lecturers. Through collaboration teachers are able to examine the values and beliefs of their own educational culture, knowledge foundation and pedagogical approaches and beliefs, and increase their cooperation skills.

Sustains and deepens international relations and networks: COIL collaboration provides an opportunity to replace short meetings with in-depth, pedagogical collaboration with an international colleague.

Fosters international R&D collaboration: COIL can lead to future international research and development collaborations and partnerships.

Promotes Diversity and Inclusion: COIL and virtual exchanges increase the diversity of the student body and promote a more inclusive learning environment.

Strengthens relationships with partners: Teachers, faculty and students cooperating across countries will strengthen bonds between the institutions, which will enhance cooperation at multiple levels.

Promotes 21^st century skills for a diverse and complex labour market: COIL and virtual exchanges support of higher education institutions commitment preparing students with 21^st century skills; stronger communication skills, problem solving, social and cultural skills, collaboration skills, technological literacy, and global awareness.

Innovation and new educational practices: Institutions that adopt COIL and virtual exchange practices can enhance their reputation as innovative, forward-thinking, and globally engaged. The new practices can be shared within and across institutions.

Promotes Global Collaboration: COIL fosters cross-cultural understanding and collaboration by connecting students and faculty in different countries for collaborative projects and discussions. This is a cornerstone in relation to securing peace and understanding in the world.

 Increases Access: COIL and virtual educational practices allows access to international collaboration without the need for travelling, making it possible for a broader range of people to participate. This will reduce the differences in opportunities for internationalization.

Reduces the carbon footprint: Working with COIL is internationalization without travel. The method therefore contributes to the global challenge of reducing the carbon footprint while also working towards globalization, understanding and intercultural competencies.

Addresses Global Challenges: Many of the problems we face today are global in nature and require international collaboration to solve. Working virtually on internationalisation can help address these challenges. 

Promotion of Best Practices: COIL allows for the sharing and adoption of best practice in education across international borders. This collaborative approach can lead to improvements in teaching methods and curriculum design, thereby elevating the quality of education globally.