Unfolding Collaborative Online International Learning Didactics

The UCOILD project, “Unfolding Collaborative Online International Learning Didactics”, has addressed the challenge and paradox of maintaining international openness and sustain internationalizatio...

The UCOILD project has strived to complement large scale projects addressing structural challenges within HEIs towards implementation of COIL by contributing to the next important step: The identification of didactical challenges and possibilities needed to develop strong COIL didactics that can unfold the learning potentials related to a digital and international learning environment. The overall objective has been to dvelop and strengthen COIL didactics to meet the need for strengthening intercultural and digital competences and critical reflection for students by: - exploring inclusive, student-centered, experiential and reflective didactics within COIL projects with students as co-developers to support didactical innovation processes - translating the didactical innovations into a COIL toolkit, hereby supporting lecturers’ capacity to facilitate quality COIL projects - contributing to quality COIL projects as an inclusive instrument for international, digital learning environments by producing a COIL curriculum design for local implementation of the participating partners, - as well as submitting a scientific paper on the exploration and implementation of the UCOILD project.

To realize the objectives the UCOILD project has implemented the following activities: 4 interrelated project results: Project result 1: “Mapping didactical challenges and approaches to COIL” has established a baseline and a theoretical and methodological foundation for project result 2: “Developing a Didactical Toolkit for COIL”. This project result has provided innovative open access didactical tools. Project result 3 has focused on quality assurance and dissemination through conferences and scientific papers and project result 4: “COIL curriculum design” has focused on implementation by developing existing curriculum initiatives to include COIL didactics within the participating HEI’s. In relation to project result 2, 4 COIL projects have been developed and realized as learning labs for experimenting, developing and testing various didactical student-centered, experiential, inclusive and reflective approaches to facilitating virtual international learning environments. 4 Learning/Teaching/Training activities for HEI ECEC students has also been realized. These have focused on extending the online international learning environment to a physical international classroom, making use of students as co-developers of the COIL didactics developed throughout the project, including 4 video student evaluations for lecturers realised as a student product focusing on disseminating student experiences and insights in relation to COIL participation and co-development processes. In addition each institution has involved local lecturers in dialogues to support critical feedback in relation to project results. 1 Multiplier event has been realized, supported by the ETEN associated partner, to share and promote UCOILD project results, realized as a blended event allowing for both physical and online participation of stakeholders, target groups and associated partner members. 4 transnational project meetings have been realized to support project progress - alternating with 3 supplementary online transnational online project meetings. 12 project steering group meetings have been held to monitor and secure realization of the UCOILD project plan . 3 meetings between the project steering group and a follow up group consisting of educational managers and representatives of the international offices at each partner institution have been held to ensure quality project realization and implementation. 3 meetings with the associated partner ETEN have been realized to work towards stronger and wider dissemination as well as sharing and promotion of UCOILD project results.