Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL)
The project "BeCOIL Collaborative Online International Learning - Verbundprojekt Berliner Hochschulen", which is funded by the Berlin Senate until the end of 2024 at all state-run universities in Berlin, aims to promote and advance internationalisation at home at Berlin's universities, while at the same time strengthening cooperation between the universities and their international partners and among themselves. Within the network, standards for the implementation of COILs are being developed. In this context, further training for students and teachers on digitization and international topics will be offered.
The COIL project will develop and establish international digital teaching and learning formats which, if successfully implemented, can be incorporated into the curriculum in the long term. This promotes the participation of all students in international exchange. Non-traditional students are an important target group of ASH Berlin. These students often find themselves in life situations that do not allow for traditional study abroad programmes. Through the successful implementation of COILs, this target group benefits from international exchange and international teaching.
Transcultural competencies play an important role in the academic education of social work, health and education professions. Graduates should be able to think multi-perspectively and to work internationally and culturally with a wide variety of addressees. The profile of professionalized social work and health specialists includes the ability to deal with and reflect on one's own culture, one's own biography and one's own way of acting. This also includes the ability to make international comparative references. The acquisition of these competencies can take place through physical study abroad. Since these are not accessible to all students - for example, due to personal circumstances or an inflexible study structure - formats such as COIL enable all students to participate in international exchange.
The following structure can serve as inspiration when designing a COIL project:
An existing COIL at ASH Berlin is the EEE4all - Euro-Education: employability for all module.
EEE4all is an international, interdisciplinary project integrated at ASH at Master's level, in which students are empowered to promote employability among people who are disadvantaged in the labor market due to migration background or disability. The two- to three-semester module EEE4all is the only overarching offering for the consecutive master's programs Practice Research in Social Work (2 semesters) and Pedagogy and Management and Quality Development in Health Care (3 semesters) at ASH Berlin. ASH Berlin always cooperates with a local partner in Berlin over the three semesters. Furthermore, the first semester is spent with the Bachelor of Occupational Therapy program at IRFSS-CVL, an educational institute of the French Red Cross and the University of Tours, and other international universities are recruited. An exchange of international students takes place regularly in the first winter semester and includes attendance days in France (3-4 day study trip to Tours) and in Berlin (international students come to Berlin for 1 week). The first international semester takes place mainly in English (almost all students do not speak English as their native language), and can also be taken as a single elective module. If you have any questions, please contact Prof. Dr. Elke Kraus (kraus@ ash-berlin.eu) or Prof. Dr. Heinz Stapf-Finé (stapf-fine@ ash-berlin.eu).
EEE4all Final Conference Winter Term 2022/2023
The SUNY COIL Center has worked for more than 15 years to promote and professionalize the practice of collaborative online international learning and virtual exchange. The SUNY COIL Global Network serves as a hub for the exchange of information and ideas, professional support, partner referrals, and resource sharing.
In conversation - Elspeth Jones and Eva Haug: COIL programme design and implementation
What is COIL (Collaborative Online International Learning)
Berliner Zentrum für Hochschullehre (Berlin Centre for Higher Education - Trainings for innovative teaching formats)
Logo Senat
The COIL joint project of Berlin’s universities is funded by the State of Berlin until the end of 2024 as part of its Schwerpunkt „Digitalisierung und Innovation“ der Qualitäts- und Innovationsoffensive (2. Förderphase)
COIL Project Coordinator
International Office
Room No. 345
Collaborative Online International Learning:
Are you interested in enriching your teaching through international virtual exchange? Feel free to contact me!
