Collaborative Online International Learning
« We live in a dense, tangled global system [and it] is very difficult to give up our certainties -our positions, our beliefs, our explanations. These help define us; they lie at the heart of our personal identity. Yet I believe we will succeed in changing this world only if we can think and work together in new ways. Curiosity is what we need.«
– Margaret Wheatley
What is COIL?
The Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) model for teaching and learning aims to foster intercultural competence via a common online multicultural learning environment.
COIL 2025
THEME: HUMAN SERVICES FACING CLIMATE CHANGE
UQAM Facilitation Team: Jaime Demperio, Sara Djamàa, Martyna Kozlowska
Participating institutions:
- Evangelische Hochschule Nürnberg, Germany
- Fundación Universitaria Los Libertadores, Colombia
- Maseno University, Kenya
- Protestant University of Rwanda
- Uniwersytet Gdański, Poland
- Université du Québec à Montréal, Canada
- Univille Universidade, Brazil
The COIL 2025 project brought together students from around the world in a collaborative initiative aligned with Human Services Week. The central goal was to explore the intersection of climate change and human services organizations—examining its impact both on the populations they serve and the professionals who work within them, all within the context of each participant’s local environment. Through this shared task, students applied global problem-solving skills, engaging with a common challenge through diverse regional lenses.
COIL 2022/23
THEME: COLLABORATIVE ENGAGEMENT ACROSS BORDERS
Facilitation Team: Nuria Alonso García, Jaime Demperio & Martyna Kozlowska
This course connects learning communities of Providence College and UQAM using the COIL model as a platform for student engagement and leadership, global education, and human development. The cohort of students from the École de langues (UQAM) and the Global Studies Program (Providence College) reflect on knowledge creation, framing interculturality through storytelling, and essential questions relating to global issues. Students engage in a collaborative process of blog-format reflections, a community voices project, and facilitate intercultural dialogues on topics aligned with the United Nation Global Goals, language plurality, translanguaging and belonging.