Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL)
Virtual international exchange enriches teaching and makes international learning accessible to all students. If you would like to design your modules internationally and enhance them with innovative online teaching methods, the International Office will support you with the organisation and implementation.
The project ‘BeCOIL Collaborative Online International Learning - Joint Project Berlin Universities’ is funded by the Berlin Senate until the end of 2024 at nine state universities in Berlin. The aim of the project is to promote and advance internationalisation at home (‘Internationalisation@Home’) at Berlin's universities. At the same time, cooperation between Berlin's universities and their international partners and with each other will be strengthened. Standards for the implementation of COILs are being developed as part of this project. We are also jointly offering further training for students and lecturers on digitalisation and international topics. With COIL, we are strengthening our international networks and offering our students and lecturers the opportunity to develop further in a global, digital learning environment. Let's shape the future of higher education together!
In concrete terms, this means that the COIL project will develop and establish international digital teaching and learning formats that can be implemented into the curriculum in the long term if successfully realised. This will promote the participation of all students in international exchange. Non-traditional students are an important target group at ASH Berlin. These students are often in circumstances that do not allow for a traditional stay abroad. Through the successful implementation of COILs, this target group benefits from international exchange and international teaching.
Transcultural competences play an important role in the academic training of the SAGE professions. Graduates should be able to think in a multi-perspective way and work internationally and culturally with a wide variety of target groups. The profile of professionalised SAGE specialists includes the ability to deal with and reflect on their own culture, their own biography and their own way of acting. This also includes the ability to make international comparisons. These competences can be acquired through physical stays abroad. As these are not accessible to all students, for example due to personal circumstances or an inflexible degree programme structure, formats such as COIL enable all students to participate in international exchange.
In the summer semester of 2024, the COIL seminar Human Rights and Children's Rights was offered for the first time as a compulsory elective module in the Childhood Education programme. Led by Prof Dr Dagmar Bergs-Winkels, the seminar took place in collaboration with lecturers and students from HAW Hamburg and CSULB California State University Long Beach.
In this interdisciplinary seminar, bachelor's students from ASH Berlin worked together with master's students of social work from CSULB and HAW Hamburg. The motivation for the collaboration was the planned visit of the American students to Hamburg and Berlin. The seminar began with a hybrid kick-off at HAW Hamburg, in which the ASH students participated virtually. After the visit to Hamburg, the CSULB students travelled to Berlin and visited various social institutions in addition to ASH Berlin.
At the university, they took part in two seminars together with the Berlin students. The session of the Human Rights and Children's Rights seminar was held jointly with the students from Hamburg, supplemented by a guest lecture. During this phase, the students were divided into groups and prepared presentations on topics relevant to the seminar, which were presented in a final online meeting.
One example of a COIL project at ASH Berlin is EEE4all - Euro-Education: employability for all . The seminar takes place every winter semester and is offered in the Master's degree programmes Practice Research in Social Work and Education as well as Management and Quality Development in Healthcare.
EEE4all is an international, interdisciplinary project in which students are enabled to promote the employability of people who are disadvantaged on the labour market due to their migration background or disability. The module extends over two to three semesters and is the only comprehensive offer for the consecutive Master's degree programmes. ASH Berlin cooperates with a local partner in Berlin and the Croix-Rouge Compétence Centre-Val de Loire at the University of Tours. The international student exchange programme includes attendance days in France (3 to 4-day study trip to Tours) and Berlin (one-week stay for international students). The first semester is mainly taught in English and can be taken as an elective module. Please contact Prof Dr Elke Kraus (kraus@ ash-berlin.eu) or Prof Dr Heinz Stapf-Finé (stapf-fine@ ash-berlin.eu) if you have any questions.
The following structure can serve as inspiration when designing a COIL project:
Together with the BZHL (Berlin Centre for Higher Education Teaching), the BeCOIL network team creates training opportunities for lecturers who want to learn more about COIL. The recurring programmes currently include the following events:
In addition to the training courses, the joint project members were able to present BeCOIL in various other formats:
Blog zum Berliner Verbundprojekt
The SUNY COIL Centre has been working for more than 15 years to promote and professionalise the practice of collaborative international online 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)
Der Berliner Verbund kooperiert mit dem Berliner Zentrum für Hochschullehre um Fortbildungen für innovative Lehrformate anzubieten
Erasmus+ Blended Mobility Implementation Guide
Austausch und Informationen zur Online-Lehre – ASH Moodle Kurs
The COIL joint project of the Berlin universities is funded by the state of Berlin until the end of 2024 as part of the "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!