Political Science Educator: volume 29, issue 2
Reflections
By Nathaniel Smith (nsmith2@nebrwesleyan.edu)
In an increasingly interconnected world, the traditional classroom model faces the challenge of adequately preparing students for global citizenship. Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) offers a compelling solution, fostering cross-cultural understanding and collaborative work through virtual interaction. This essay explores my recent experience implementing COIL in two sections of my Introduction to International Politics course as a transformative, adaptable, and citizen-enabling pedagogy for the political science classroom.
COIL, as described by Rubin (2017), involves partnering with faculty at international institutions to create shared, co-developed learning experiences. Unlike traditional virtual exchanges, COIL is rooted in mutual curricular integration, sustained collaboration, and can have co-facilitation between instructors across borders. This structure enables students to move beyond surface-level interaction, and instead, engage in a collaborative project thereby practicing essential elements to the development of civic-minded and globally competent citizens. Many have noted COIL’s ability to provide interaction and internationalization during the COVID pandemic (Cotoman et.al. 2022). However, COIL’s utility to the classroom continues despite the lifting of travel restrictions post-COVID.
In my course, students collaborated with peers from the Universidad Jesuita de Guadalajara (ITESO) on projects centered around contemporary international issues such as climate change, human rights, global health, and trade. These topics, selected deliberately for their transnational implications, served as the mechanism by which students were able to examine cross-cultural differences and opinions. Students selected specific topics within these categories in consultation with either myself or my colleague. The selection process was guided by student interest and relevance to current global events. Collaboration was facilitated through synchronous Zoom meetings, allowing students to engage in real-time dialogue. The international students from ITESO were enrolled in a parallel course focused on global political issues. Thus, both groups of students had topic area familiarity, and the content of the COIL experience could fit seamlessly within the existing class content and structure. The major assignment for this collaboration centered on a survey conducted by the student groups at the respective institutions. Each group (normally 2-3 students from each institution) conducted a survey on their respective campuses to gather local public opinion on the issue they chose to focus on. Before conducting the survey, students met synchronously via Zoom to discuss their own conceptions and understandings of the topic before developing their surveys and getting feedback from us, the faculty. After collecting and analyzing the survey data, each group wrote a memo summarizing and discussing their findings. These memos were then shared with the entire class to facilitate broader discussion and reflection.
One of the most notable outcomes of this experience was the organic development of friendships. Students, initially hesitant to engage with unfamiliar peers, quickly discovered common ground. They exchanged cultural insights, discussed personal experiences, and formed genuine connections that, in some cases, extended beyond the semester into longer-term friendships. As Hackett et. Al (2023) notes, COIL increases student’s intercultural competence. These interactions foster a deeper understanding of diverse perspectives, challenge preconceived notions, and promote empathy. This is of particular importance to students who might otherwise lack the ability to have such interactions. I have found that students in athletics for instance, often fail to take advantage of things like study abroad due to their athletic commitments. Thus, COIL provides these students with an experience they would have otherwise never had.
Beyond intercultural growth, the practical skills gained from the COIL project were substantial. Students had to navigate differences in time zones, overcome language barriers, and learn to function effectively in virtual teams. These challenges mirror those that many students will face in their careers as the world becomes increasingly interconnected. As political science increasingly emphasizes experiential and applied learning, COIL offers a scalable and inclusive alternative to study abroad, especially for students who face financial, familial, or logistical barriers to international travel.
Importantly, COIL also encourages collaboration among faculty. COIL is not simply about pairing students with international partners; it’s about instructors collaboratively building a shared virtual experience for their course. In my experience, working alongside a faculty partner prompted me to reflect more deeply on my own assumptions and pedagogical choices as a political science professor. We revised our assignments together, problem-solved in real-time, and adapted assessment criteria to meet both our own courses learning goals and our shared COIL outcomes. This process, while at times messy and difficult, allowed me to model the kind of collaboration I hoped to instill in my students.
Finally, the discussions that emerged from these COIL pairings were a final, critical component of the experience. Students from ITESO offered firsthand accounts of the political and social impact of environmental policies in their region, while my students provided insights into how the U.S. views these same issues. These exchanges brought abstract political concepts to life and grounded theoretical debates, fostering greater understanding and empathy. Through their collaboration, students gained a deeper understanding of global political dynamics, recognizing that many issues have broad international effects and are rarely simple or self-contained. As a result, students reported feeling more intellectually engaged and described wanting to stay up-to-date on the issues they collaborated on. Recent research backs up this anecdotal evidence finding that increased interest is a key outcome of a COIL experience (Benstead 2024).
As students engaged in COIL, they not only developed a broader global consciousness around the issues but also gained a deeper understanding of their own national and local identities. As Wimpenny et al. (2024) describe, COIL creates a space where students can reflect critically on their own “microsocial realities” in relation to others. This space allows students to explore how their own personal and cultural perspectives intersect with global issues. What stood out to me was how COIL doesn’t just connect students across borders; it also prompts them to look inward, rethinking their place in the world and their responsibilities within it. That dual development is what makes COIL such a powerful pedagogical tool.
My experience with COIL has been profoundly rewarding. It has demonstrated the power of virtual exchange to cultivate global citizenship, foster cross-cultural understanding, and equip students with the skills necessary to thrive in an interconnected world. As political science professors, we must embrace innovative approaches like COIL as a core strategy for reimagining international education. By embedding global collaboration into our courses, we allow our students an opportunity they might otherwise never have.
References
Benstead, Lindsay J., Kristina Katsos, Sally S. Mudiamu, and Corinne Hughes. 2024. “Does COIL Build Social Capital? Trust, Tolerance, and Political Engagement Among Students in the USA and UAE.” Journal of Political Science Education: 1-19.
Cotoman, Violeta, Annabel Davies, Nanako Kawagoe, Hana Niihashi, Aisha Rahman, Yuki Tomita, Atsuko Watanabe, and Felix Rösch. 2022. “Un (COIL) ing the pandemic: Active and affective learning in times of Covid-19.” PS: Political Science & Politics 55(1): 188-192.
, Simone, Jeroen Janssen, Pamela Beach, Melanie Perreault, Jos Beelen, and Jan Van Tartwijk. 2023. “The effectiveness of Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) on intercultural competence development in higher education.” International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education 20(1): 5.
Rubin, Jon. 2017. “Embedding collaborative online international learning (COIL) at higher education institutions.” Internationalisation of Higher Education 2(27).
Wimpenny, K., Jacobs, L., Dawson, M. and Hagenmeier, C., 2024. The potential of collaborative online international learning as a border thinking third space for global citizenship education. International Journal of Development Education and Global Learning, 16(1):, pp .29-42.
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Nathaniel Smith is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Nebraska Wesleyan University, where he specializes in international politics with a focus on political violence. He holds a Ph.D. from Michigan State University.
Published since 2005, The Political Science Educator is the newsletter of the Political Science Education Section of the American Political Science Association. As part of APSA’s mission to support political science education across the discipline, APSA Educate has republished The Political Science Educator since 2021. Please visit APSA Educate’s Political Science Educator digital collection.
Editor: Matt Evans (Northwest Arkansas Community College)
Assistant Editor: Colin Brown (Northeastern University)
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