VE/COIL Clinic: Intentional Collaborative Learning Design

Overview

Meaningful virtual exchange/collaborative online international learning (VE/COIL) experiences require more than connecting students across locations. They depend on intentional choices about what students will learn together, how collaboration will unfold, and how technology will support—not drive—the learning experience.

This three-week online AAC&U VE/COIL Clinic helps participants translate learning goals into purposeful collaborative experiences. Through applied tools, guided design work, and peer exchange, participants explore approaches to collaborative activity design, student interaction, scaffolding, accessibility, and technology selection while considering the different contexts students and partners bring to the collaboration.

Learning Outcomes

Participants will

• align learning goals with purposeful collaborative activities that enable students to learn with and from their international peers;
• design and scaffold student interaction to support meaningful participation, accessibility, and engagement across different learning and cultural contexts; and
• select technologies based on pedagogical purpose, participant needs, and the forms of collaboration they are intended to support.

Who Should Participate?

This clinic is designed for faculty, instructional designers, teaching and learning professionals, international education staff, and others involved in designing or supporting VE/COIL experiences. It is relevant both for those developing a new collaboration and for experienced practitioners seeking to strengthen the intentionality, accessibility, and quality of an existing VE/COIL design.