What is Virtual Exchange?

 

Welcome to the beginning of our online hub for Global Classrooms at UC Santa Cruz!

We're excited that you're here to learn more about Virtual Exchange and how you can get involved.

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UC Santa Cruz Global Classrooms are Virtual Exchange courses which are developed by UCSC faculty and international faculty partners. Each courses serve students from both participating institutions and are intended not only to increase the accessibility of international opportunities, but also to build relationships with international institutions which can be expanded through other program types such as direct exchange or research agreements. 

This Canvas course is designed to give you an overview of the Virtual Exchange model, our approach at UC Santa Cruz, and the considerations you need to think through before applying to join our annual Global Classrooms Faculty Cohort. The first seven modules are available to anyone interested in Virtual Exchange. Cohort-specific content is hidden unless you are a current or past cohort member or support staff.

Each module will walk you through a topic through a combination of written and video content. This course is self-paced, and you are encouraged to take your time with each module. This course is also not linear, so feel free to jump around the modules as you need.

With that housekeeping complete, let's begin the course by asking the question: What is Virtual Exchange?

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If you're pressed for time, here are the key takeaways from this page:

1. It is more than an online course with international students.
2. It can be applied to any discipline, and is commonly used for interdisciplinary courses.
3. It incorporates intercultural learning and project-based collaboration to enhance the coursework.
4. It can be a short module within a course or can be stretched to a full term (typically 5-15 weeks).
5. It takes time and effort to be successful. 

 

To start learning about Virtual Exchange, watch the video below! 

 

Virtual Exchange, often called Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) in the US context, is a way to bring students and faculty from across the globe together for collaborative learning through the power of technology. As society becomes increasingly dependent on the internet for daily life, virtual exchange gives us a way to create international learning opportunities for students who may or may not have the ability to participate in traditional mobility programs like study abroad or international internships.

Virtual Exchange was pioneered in the early 2000s as a way to facilitate location-independent collaborations between institutions and is now widely used across the world to give students intercultural learning opportunities without the complexities of international travel. The term Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) was coined in the US by Jon Rubin, who developed the idea within New York's SUNY system and later founded the SUNY COIL Center. Throughout this course, you will see both terms - they are largely interchangeable in our context, though they can mean different things internationally.

 

Listen to faculty and students from University of Minnesota talk about their experience with COIL!

 

Great, but what is Virtual Exchange?

It isn't just adapting an in-person course to be online with students from another country. Courses are reworked, either entirely or in part, with a collaborating faculty member from an international institution specifically to bring COLLABORATION and INTERCULTURAL LEARNING into the activities and learning goals of the course. 

From the initial development of a COIL course or module within a course, the purpose is to bring new perspectives and experiences to the students. This generally involves an intercultural orientation of some kind to help set expectations for the collaboration, and then one or more collaborative assignments for the students to complete which tie into the rest of their course. As noted above, interdisciplinary courses are common; finding assignments that can be mutually beneficial is an interesting exercise in creativity!

 

  

 

Listen to COIL pioneer Jon Rubin give an overview of COIL as a pedagogical tool.

 

Here are some helpful links if you're interested in doing some independent research:

• SUNY COIL Center's "Intro 2 COIL" self-guided online course (FREE) Links to an external site.
• Steven's Initiative "2020 Survey of the Virtual Exchange Field" Links to an external site.
• COIL Institute for Globally Networked Learning in the Humanities - Case Studies Links to an external site.

 

Now that you have a basic understanding of what Virtual Exchange courses are, let's dive deeper into the structure of a course and how it's developed. Click "Next" to move to the next module.