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Faculty Resources

The GEER office provides resources to faculty to support international programs, research and partnerships. Resources available include:

  • Registering International Travel
  • Initiating Collaboration with an International Partner
  • Hosting an International Visitor
  • Joining the Academy for Global Engineering
  • Developing Faculty-led International Programs for Students
  • Finding Financial Support
  • Global Teaching and Learning 

To provide support to university-supported international travelers in the event of an emergency, Virginia Tech Policy 1070: Global Travel Policy requires all university-supported travelers — including faculty, staff and students — to register their international travel prior to departure to ensure financial approval, credit transfer authorization, safety tracking, and export control support. A full listing of Virginia Tech Policies and Procedures regarding international travel are available at this link.

 

Employee Travelers

Undergraduate and Graduate Student Travelers
Please see Travel Preparation & Safety Abroad for Undergraduate & Graduate student procedures. This information helps students who are travelling on their own or without an official group (conferences, research, etc).

 

  • The College has a process for initiating new partnerships and agreements, which requires that the initiating faculty member Proposes a new agreement. With this information, our office will draft and finalize the agreement in collaboration with the proposed partner institution, and submit it for review and approval.

Faculty can join this community of research and practice and gain access to resources for grant incubation, program development, and program assessment.

 

Global Teaching and Learning

Appiah-Kubi, P., & Annan, E. (2020). A Review of a Collaborative Online International Learning. International Journal of Engineering Pedagogy (iJEP), 10(1), 109. https://doi.org/10.3991/ijep.v10i1.11678

The research was about engineering students from two universities that used COIL. The researchers found that most of the students had a positive experience with the collaboration. A mixed methodology was used in this study.  

​The major strength was that it was a literature review about engineering students. The researchers also found that the students that participated in COIL scored better than their No COIL colleagues. The limited study found that COIL can improve student performance on project work through the environment it creates for idea generation. It also acknowledges that it takes a lot of time (preparation and clarification should be made before the experience).  

Bletscher, C. G., & Hellmann, K. (2022, November 30). “We come from different countries, but we all have one Earth”: Enhancing intercultural competencies through international and Domestic Student Service Learning. Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies in Education. https://eric.ed.gov/?q=learning%2Band%2Bmultiple%2Band%2Brepresentations&ff1=dtyin_2022&pg=553&id=EJ1374845

This article was about two learning projects on global issues of food security. It explored the impact of intercultural competency development through qualitative and quantitative data. The authors touch on how studying abroad may not always be beneficial for domestic students and how it could even reinforce stereotypes, ethnocentrisms and prejudice as opposed to working with the international students already at the institutions.  

Most of the participants perceived themselves to have higher intercultural competence vs the perceptions of others from a different culture. Another strength of the study is that it found that communication between international and domestic students fosters relationships. The article in its implications talks about the need to deepen intercultural competence in international education, and the role that it plays in global business, marketing, and recruitment for universities.  

​​COIL, Copenhagen University Colleges: https://www.coventry.ac.uk/study-at-coventry/centre-for-globalengagement/collaborative-online-international-learning-coil/(2022)

The Copenhagen University Colleges website defines COIL at the university as a fantastic way to interact with international universities and professional institutions. It looks at how the program is conducted asynchronously and synchronously. The university website talks about how COIL courses help in the development of intercultural competence and digital skills.  

One advantage is that it gives the benefits of COIL for the students, staff, international partners and industry partners. For students, it gives them the opportunity to gain valuable international experience which would look great for them post university. For the staff it creates lasting links with international institutions, and gives their students unique activities. For the international partners, COIL offers connections with top institutions with opportunities for collaboration with students. For the industry partners, COIL helps them gain insight from students while providing them with an educational experience.  

Crawford, I. (2021). Employer perspectives on virtual international working: Essential skills for the globalized, Digital workplace. IGI Global. http://dx.doi.org/10.4018/978-1-7998-7331-0.ch010

In this work, Crawford investigates the perspectives of employers regarding Virtual International Working. Based on a doctoral research project that examines employer perceptions of virtual international working. The author analyzes these perspectives before, during, and after the pandemic.  

The strength of this is that Crawford discusses the skills that employers value in the context of COIL. These include awareness and understanding of other cultures, effective operation within multinational companies, positive work relationships with international partners, and the ability to work with culturally diverse teams. The author argues that these COIL-related skills can be transferable to various work contexts.

Rubin, J., Guth, S., Doscher, S., Prior, C., & Wit, H. de. (2023). ˜The guide to Coil Virtual Exchange implementing, growing, and Sustaining Collaborative Online International Learning. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group. 

In this book, Rubin and Guth (2023) provide a guide on implementing COIL, offering the most recent data on the impact of limited mobility, particularly in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors also discuss the role of Instructional Designers in the development and success of COIL courses. The book touches on the strategies for engaging faculty in COIL. 

The main strength is that this is the most recent book on the topic by one of the COIL founders, Jon Rubin. The book gives the most recent data on the limits to mobility. It addresses the inability of students to travel abroad post COVID and gives insight into the role of Instructional Designers in COIL. 

SUNY COIL Center. (n.d.). https://coil.suny.edu/

The SUNY website is a great resource for COIL. It looks at the different things done by SUNY like global networking, workshops and consulting, news and events and featured spotlight where they highlight faculty using COIL to help their students build opportunities and global connections.  

One of the strengths of the SUNY center is the resources they offer members in finding a COIL partner and access to Quarterly Virtual Partnering Fairs. They also offer workshops by trained facilitators to help in the development of COIL courses that meet the learning goals. As a pioneer of COIL they have a lot of experience and expertise to offer in the development of COIL courses. 

  •  Appiah-Kubi, P., & Annan, E. (2020). A Review of Collaborative Online International Learning. *International Journal of Engineering Pedagogy (iJEP), 10*(1), 109. https://doi.org/10.3991/ijep.v10i1.11678
  •  Asojo, A. O., Kartoshkina, Y., Jaiyeoba, B., & Amole, D. (2019). Multicultural learning and experiences in design through Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) framework. *Journal of Teaching and Learning with Technology, 8*(1), 5–16. https://doi.org/10.14434/jotlt.v8i1.26748
  • Boehm, D., Kurthen, H., & Aniola-Jedrzejek, L. (2010). Do international online collaborative learning projects impact ethnocentrism? *E-Learning and Digital Media, 7*(2), 133–146. https://doi.org/10.2304/elea.2010.7.2.133
  • Choi, S., & Choi, S. (2020). Virtual short-term intercultural exchange as an inclusive educational strategy: Lessons from the collaboration of two classes in South Korea and China. *Journal of Teaching in Travel & Tourism, 20*(4), 308–325. https://doi.org/10.1080/15313220.2019.1707147
  • Gunawardena, C. N. (2020). Culturally inclusive online learning for capacity development projects in international contexts. *Journal of Learning for Development, 7*(1), 5–30. https://doi.org/10.11114/jets.v11i3.6119
  • Hackett, S., Janssen, J., Beach, P., Perreault, M., Beelen, J., & van Tartwijk, J. (2023). The effectiveness of collaborative online international learning (COIL) on Intercultural Competence Development in higher education. *International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education, 20*(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s41239-022-00373-3
  • Hilliard, J., Kear, K., Donelan, H., & Heaney, C. (2020). Students’ experiences of anxiety in an assessed, online, collaborative project. *Computers & Education, 143*, 103675. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2019.103675

Please contact Dr. Nicole Sanderlin (npsander@vt.edu) with any questions.