Reflecting on Teaching a Collaborative Online International Learning Course: Connecting Classrooms in the United States and Brazil

Abstract

The purpose of this reflective practice was to critically examine a revelation discovered after facilitating a Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) course. COIL is an andragogical teaching strategy that uses innovative technology to connect classrooms worldwide. This reflection will highlight a COIL opportunity that brought together students from classes in the United States of America and Brazil. After facilitating COIL in our intercultural communication classes, we discovered that these global virtual exchange courses or units could be incorporated into various other disciplines. There were two distinct reasons why this knowledge was surprising. First, during our COIL training, we directed our attention to the course we planned to facilitate. Second, we had never taught COIL classes before, so we were unsure how to include this teaching method in other areas of study. We used Stephen Brookfield’s model of reflection to critically examine our assumptions and pre-conceived notions about COIL and left with takeaways that can be shared with our colleagues.