Award for Innovative International Initiatives

The College of Education and Human Development strives to provide every student with a global experience. One low-cost, high impact mechanism for providing such experiences is through collaboratively taught online international experiences for students.

The COIL Initiative connects CEHD faculty and their students with classrooms at the National University of Cyprus, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Qingdao University and the University of Zambia. The COIL team creates and supports a virtual global classroom that allow student collaboration on projects that include music education, speech communication, education policy and sports management with their international counterparts. COIL offers students to engage, in real time, international experiential learning from their classrooms on both sides of the world.

Academic Technology Services at CEHD developed the COIL training curriculum and leads the program sessions. ATS has been the first unit able to operationalize an approach to support this groundbreaking and innovative initiative. By Fall 2015, CEHD will have four classes based on the COIL methodology, which will provide 80-100 students with a global and cross-cultural experience without leaving their classroom.

The COIL initiative has advanced international learning to the faculty and students at CEHD. Their non-traditional approach to learning has facilitated innovate international learning not only in classrooms at the University but also in classrooms at universities in Cyprus, China and Zambia.