SUNY COIL Conference 2018

When adopted in language education, COIL aims to develop students’ language skills, especially output skills, and cross-cultural competence. Existing studies of such online facilitation in language education have largely employed online communication data over loosely-assigned discussion tasks, instead of more rigorously-organized collaborative projects which are not typical conventional practices, and reports about COIL projects in learning English as a foreign language (EFL) are scarce. The present study details online facilitation of an 8-week COIL module entitled “European (-style) buildings in Tianjin: Exploring modernity in East Asia”, collaborated by a College English class in a Chinese university and a Japanese Art and Civilization class in an American university. Students formed international teams and collaborated on projects on various European-style buildings in Tianjin, during which they continuously communicated within and beyond their own international team by online tools. Examined in this study is the 8-week online text-based communication between students from both sides, as triangulated with qualitative data of interviews and students’ essay. Quantitative and qualitative measures were employed to evidence the effect of online communication during COIL projects on Chinese students’ incidental development of linguistic complexity and accuracy. Data revealed Chinese students’ improvement in syntactic and lexical complexity, but no reliable increase was found in their linguistic accuracy, which might be expounded by the fact that, to facilitate their COIL projects, the students’ information exchange was more meaning-focused than form-focused. There was evidence that Chinese students intentionally adopted the language structures used by their international partners. Common errors committed by Chinese students, surprisingly, were related to basic grammars. This study will help to build a more comprehensive ecosystem of COIL in integration with technologies and language education, which may empower students with improved English proficiency and international outlook, and instructors with better professional development.

This presentation addresses the question of relevant competencies and prior knowledge students as well as lecturers need to have in order to teach and comprehend the advantages of collaborative online international learning projects. COIL projects are an excellent method to provide opportunities for gaining international experiences at home. Students do not necessarily have to travel to other countries or study abroad in order to increase their intercultural awareness. Integrating a COIL project to the curriculum leads not only to increasing cross-cultural awareness of students but also to improving media and digital literacy and to work in virtual teams. However, not all of the students understand this unique opportunity and therefore the learning outcomes are limited in some groups.
The obvious advantages of COIL projects need to be discussed on a meta level. The prerequisite is that students understand the main purpose of those projects. This understanding can be created through several channels: find out about prior knowledge the students have, share new knowledge about intercultural teamwork and virtual teams, discuss their self-competence, etc.
An interesting question shall be raised: does working in cross-cultural teams automatically lead to an increase of intercultural competencies? The competence model by Heyse and Erpenbeck will be the basis to discuss this question. Competencies students and lecturers need in order to be prepared for COIL projects are as follows: social skills, professional skills, methods expertise and self-competence.
Another approach to discuss the relevance of prior knowledge is the Development Model of Intercultural Sensitivity by Milton Bennett and Mitchell Hammer. This model describes the reactions of people to cultural differences.
In this presentation, I would like to discuss the basis and prerequisites to work in cross-cultural teams. It is essential to have an open and flexible attitude towards the team and the people. Another key factor is self-competence.

DePaul University launched an institution wide COIL initiative in 2013. In Fall 2015 a single assessment instrument for students participating in COIL courses was developed and deployed each term. The instrument is aimed at assessing the impact of the intercultural aspects of the COIL experience on students’ attitudes and behaviors (it does not address content-focused learning outcomes). The instrument has been distributed to 673 students from 34 courses through 7 terms. Responses from 297 students (44% response rate) have been collected and results of the assessment will be presented. As each COIL course is unique in the structure, intensity, and modality of intercultural interaction, the success of COIL courses varies from course to course, faculty to faculty. This variability is clearly reflected in the results; nonetheless, a few general trends emerge from the results and the presentation will highlight them.

The world looks to be changing.
We are witnessing a series of changes between the countries, in our specific context, the bilateral relationship between the United States and Mexico, could turn us back to a point where none of us has seen before. All these changes have been promoted based on the implementation and maintenance of a series of stereotypes, which, as we know, do not represent the objective reality of any culture.

It is our responsibility, the teachers located on each side of the bridge, to fight that these currents do not destroy the work that has been done over the years.

On our end - the teachers from Mexico - we understand that we have to work a little harder, always having the mission of making the international community, to see that our country has a great variety, and that we have many people who work and study every day to live in a country - and in a world - better.

This panel is a sample of those practices that we have developed, together with our partners in the COIL courses, in order to question - or to break - with those stereotypes.

COIL integrated modules enable students to participate in online learning with intercultural dimensions to achieve curricular outcomes and become globally engaged, lifelong learners. When designing a COIL project, the technology tools and assessments/assignments used impact students’ interactions, performance and overall learning experience. There is minimal research on students’ perspectives about virtual engagements within online communities. Faculty expectations concerning the type of engagements that could be elicited through specific tools and assessments may not match the students’ opinions of how these impacted their experience and performance.
Dental technology students from the Durban University of Technology in South Africa and dental assisting students from Monroe Community College in New York collaborated on a cross-disciplinary case-based COIL module in spring 2017. Students used various technology mediated tools to achieve curricular outcomes. Project assessments were designed to present didactic content and provide opportunities for intercultural and interdisciplinary engagement.
In navigating the effectiveness of the project, faculty analysed student perspectives elicited through the various assessments. An exploratory qualitative research approach was used to investigate how students perceived their overall learning experience. Student reflective reports, video assignments and team interactions via discussion forums and WhatsApp were reviewed using thematic analysis.
Four prominent themes emerged from student perspectives: co-construction of discipline-specific knowledge; collaborative learning enhanced through technology tools; acquisition of intercultural competencies; and barriers to online learning. Feedback indicated that the COIL module enriched students’ learning experiences, while enabling them to communicate across cultures and between disciplines. Feedback also indicated a need for ongoing technical support and explicit student training prior to implementing a virtual learning project. This presentation will provide evidence of students’ perspectives, whether project goals were met and if students experienced intercultural exchanges as well as provide specific changes that faculty will implement for the project in 2018.

In September 2018, Dr. McCoy and Professor Tshibangu, will implement the third revision (3.0) of their COIL International Joint Venture project. They were part of the 2016 Mexico-USA Multistate COIL Program (MCP). Their presentation will focus on how their project and partnership has evolved over the last two years.
They will discussed the challenges they faced while implementing the first version of the project; lessons learned such as the importance of being flexible, simplifying instructions, streaming the communications process and giving students more time to get to know their international partners. Both instructors continue to build on what they learned in order to enhance the international learning experience for their students. As educators, they have also benefited from their COIL experience personally and professionally. They have learned from each other’s differences, and having an open mind during the development of their COIL Module led to a positive and informative exchange.
Their presentation will outline the collaborative tools they employed during their first COIL Module. How they used, Blackboard, Facebook and Google Docs. What worked well? What were some of the mistakes made? The second version of the COIL project implemented in fall 2017, took these successes and failures into account. New and seasoned COILers will find this information especially helpful.
They will also discuss they type of support they received from their institutions in the area of Library Services, and the Virtual Campus Center.
Fall 2018, will be another opportunity to build on what they learned. They will discuss the Collaborative online tools they plan to use and why. For example, Facebook, WhatsApp, Slack and Zoom.

“Connecticut CLICKs” (Collaborative Learning for International Capabilities and Knowledge) is “our COIL.” It is the on-ramp for the first ever International Education Initiative of the CT Community College system. Strategy and assessment are our cornerstones. Join us for an Assessment Action Lab -- a"fair trade" workshop.  We give you our assessment tools and you give us your frank advice and feedback. We help you think through how to leverage assesment information about student and faculty results for your course, program or campus. Your lessons strengthen our program. My co-presenter is Karen Birch. She has long experience with NSF assessments and several successful NSF grants.  We have been working with the French and ERASMUS funding partners to build our overall international initiative.  All put high priority on knowing if and how we are getting results. Our CT system leadership, also, needs compelling outcomes data as well as good narratives.
      Wrestle several questions with us as we share our tools and approaches in this interactive session.  How can we discern, present and connect the value of the CLICKs modules for student learning outcomes, faculty development, and curriculum enrichment? How can it help us  garner buy-in from leadership, funders and employers? How can we leverage our lessons to foster truly reciprocal exchange and sustainable internationalization for most of our students? 
      During the Action Lab,  Part 1.a,b. For student outcomes, review our pre- and post-module assessment tools. Critique their value in understanding cross cultural gains and also in global workforce preparedness terms. Consider how campus and class results compare to national studies of study abroad and employer needs.  Introduce a powerful multi-institution data set of the University of Toledo Community College Student Internationalization Survey.  Part 2. For faculty outcomes, review our instrument(s).  Critique them for their value in assessing the quality of CLICKs learning outcomes and scalability for larger international efforts. Final wrap-up. How to present value propositions for funders and employers? How can assessment results help you secure their support for you, your partners and your students.

Assessment involving COIL projects is one of the most challenging issues and still underdeveloped. These facts are due to the nature of COIL activities which facilitate multiple aspects of learner’s skills development, such as practical language skills in foreign language, intercultural competence. While there are scales and descriptors to measure learner’s foreign language competencies, assessing learners’ intercultural competences growth is a complex matter because it encompasses a developmental process of growth which requires several assessment tools or methods and an extended period of interaction.
In Kansai University, students who participated in a COIL exchange are required to complete a set of pre- and post-COIL Exchange survey. These surveys are adapted from various surveys which focused on the development of intercultural communicative competence based on Byram’s model. In Fall Semester 2017, Kansai University introduced two assessment tools to measure student’s learning outcome through COIL practice. The first tool is internet delivered testing, Oral Proficiency Interview – Computer (OPIc). The second tool is web-based survey, Beliefs. Events, and Values Inventory (BEVI). In this presentation, the presenters will briefly describe the assessment tools used, and share the result gained from the test and survey. The feasibility of these tools to assess learning outcomes of COIL activities will also be discussed.