COIL

As stated on the SUNY Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) website, the mission of the program is:

To encourage and support the development and implementation of collaborative online international courses as a format for experiential cross-cultural learning. Thereby participating students are sensitized to the larger world by deepening their understanding of themselves, their culture, how they are perceived and how they perceive others. These globally networked courses also intensify disciplinary learning in fields where engaging other cultural perspectives is key. COIL seeks to build bridges between study abroad, instructional design and teaching faculty through team-taught courses, thereby promoting, integrating and enhancing international education experiences across the curriculum. The COIL Center also strives to help international programs offices better integrate technology into their workflow.

The SUNY COIL center was created at SUNY-Purchase in 2006 to encourage the growth of cooperative online international learning. As of the fall 2011 semester, 22 U.S. institutions and 29 international institutions participate in COIL partnerships (a list is available here). 

On March 31-April 1, 2011, three members of the Oswego faculty and Provost Clemo attended a COIL conference at the SUNY-Global Center in Manhattan (the current location of the SUNY COIL Center) and heard first-hand accounts of the very engaging learning experiences that COIL classes have provided in a wide variety of classes. Each of us independently reached the conclusion that this was something that we should try at SUNY-Oswego. Jon Rubin, the Director of the SUNY COIL center,  was invited to present a workshop during our 2011 Spring Breakout program. (A video from one of Jon Rubin's earlier presentations at Oswego is available here.)

The first SUNY-Oswego COIL class (WST 396 - Women, Workplace and the Law) was offered by Susan Coultrap-McQuin during the fall 2012 semester. During the spring semester of 2013, our COIL course offerings doubled with the addition of a course in Transhumanism offered locally by Damian Schofield and Pat Murphy. We are now in the process of expanding our COIL course offerings in a growing mix of departments and programs. If you are interested in developing a COIL class or learning more about this program, please contact John Kane at celt@oswego.edu.