Handbook for practitioners on how to embed collaborative online international learning (COIL) created for Internationalization Department at Kibbutzim College of Education by Susana Galante and Dr Anya Glickman

1. International Courses
Guidelines for Implementation
of Collaborative Online
International Learning
Kibbutzim College
of Education, Technology & Arts
CREATED BY:
SUSANA GALANTE
DIGITAL PEDAGOGY UNIT
DR. ANYA GLIKMAN
COORDINATOR OF INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATIONS
PARTNERS:
DR. RINAT ARVIV ELYASHIV
HEAD OF RESEARCH AUTHORITY UNIT
DR. DOVI WEISS
HEAD OF DIGITAL PEDAGOGY UNIT

2. This handbook contains guidelines
for embedding collaborative online
international learning (COIL) in courses at
Kibbutzim College of Education. It is aimed
at facilitating the implementation of the
techno pedagogical vision statement for
international courses designed in 2019
(see here). A careful and well-thought-out
integration of technology grounded on
pedagogical principles will help further
the development of intercultural skills and
enhance the learning in such courses.
Theoretical Background: Virtual Exchanges or COIL
The 21st century has brought about changes in every aspect of life through ubiquitous
technology and Internet-based social media (Shonfeld & Gibson, 2018). Life in this age
involves navigating in an ever-changing, multicultural, interconnected and interdependent
world. A globally-connected pedagogical approach (Ito et al., 2013) can connect students
to the realities of the workplace and the world in general, build bridges of communication,
and create new opportunities for collaboration. Its implementation can help students
acquire four essential competences as seen in Figure 1.
Figure 1. Essential skills for life in an interconnected world in the 21st century
Тhe pursuit of these goals and competences calls for a shift in pedagogy and the integration
of digital and online technologies (Lindsay, 2016). Virtual international exchanges, also
known as collaborative online international learning (COIL), can facilitate exposure to
other cultures and student engagement while helping participants practice, acquire and
enhance the skills required to be well adjusted-citizens of a global world (Partnership for
21st Century Skills, 2006).
They can serve as a format for experiential cross-cultural learning (O'Dowd, 2018).
Through them students engage in digitally-enabled interaction and collaboration with
classes in distant locations. In telecollaborations, knowledge and understanding are
constructed through learner-interaction and negotiation (UNIcollaboration, 2019).
Computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) environments can make such
collaborative learning experiences possible. In order to design them successfully, it is
essential to create an appropriate social infrastructure (Bielascyk, 2006). This refers to the
supporting social structures that facilitate the desired interaction between collaborators
using the CSCL tools, and comprises three levels (Bielascyk, 2006) as seen in Figure 2.
Intercultural
English
Language
Collaboration
Digital

3. Figure 2- Social infrastructure for a computer-supported collaborative learning environment
Digital Pedagogy in Virtual Exchanges:
Practical Guidelines for Implementation
How to Get Started
Finding global partners and coordinating a shared design
Getting a partnering lecturer and class that are cooperative and responsive is usually
identified as the key to success. Partners can be found in the following platforms or
proceedings:
■ Unicollaboration. For collaboration within the European Community.
■ Gridpals. For finding partners from all over the world on Flipgrid (Sign in, log in to
the Educator Dashboard, complete the profile, activate GridPals and toggle on email
invites for fellow GridPals to connect)
■ Conferences. For lifelong learning and networking as a connected educator.
■ Twitter. For the creation of professional learning networks (PLN) around common
interests (See @globaledcon, @Robodowd, @FlatConnections and #Globaledchat)
At the start, it is necessary to discuss the possibilities for collaboration by exchanging
the necessary information, and coordinating the design and implementation with
your partner. Building a work relationship will probably take time as trust, which is
essential for effective collaboration, is built gradually. Partnering lecturers must try to
create exchanges that work with current curricula while providing an opportunity for
meaningful learning in their respective courses.
The initial discussion among partners should focus on the following:
■ Students in each class (number, age and background information). To decide on
the type of interaction and other connected issues like the size and composition
of mixed teams.
■ Course content, pedagogical goals and syllabi. To find points of common interest
for collaboration and have each group benefit from it.
■ Schedules and academic calendars. To decide on a timeline for the exchange and see
whether synchronous work is possible and desirable.
■ Technological conditions in class and at students’ homes. To pick digital platforms that
are not only effective for the learning but are accessible to both groups.
The frameworks below can facilitate the inclusion of global learning as an integral part of
courses and help achieve its goals.
1. Fostering Communities of Learners (FCL). Learning communities are characterized
by a culture of learning in which everyone is involved in a collective effort of
understanding. This is done through distributed expertise and the support of
individual growth (Brown & Campione, 1994; Scardamalia & Bereiter, 2007).
2. Knowledge-Building Communities (KBC). According to this approach, knowledge
is built as part of societal effort for the improvement of ideas (Scardamalia &
Bereiter, 2006).
3. Community of Practice (CoP). This is a simple social system of learning (Wenger,
2010). It consists of a group of people who share a concern or a passion for
something they do, and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly.
4. Project-Based Learning (PBL). Through this student-centered approach students
canacquireadeeperknowledgethroughactiveexplorationofreal-worldchallenges
and problems.
5. Inquiry-Based Learning (IBL). The salient characteristic of this student-centered
approach is that the learning process starts by posing questions, problems or
scenarios (Spires et al., 2014).
Philosophy,
goals
and norms
Culture Activity
Participant
structures
Tool
Use and
adaptation of
capabilities

4. 6. Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL). The learning of content is
performed through an additional language, thus teaching both the subject and
the language (David Marsh, 1994). It allows students to achieve the appropriate
level of academic performance in CLIL subjects, improving students’ proficiency
in both their mother tongue and the target language, developing intercultural
understanding, and also social and thinking skills (Coyle et al., 2010).
7. Task-Based Learning (TBL). Learning revolves around the completion of tasks,
which can be real-life situations or have a pedagogical purpose (Willis, 1996). The
main focus is on the authentic use of language for genuine communication.
Types of Interaction:
1. One-on-one. This allows for intimacy and more meaningful ties. Students can also
serve as mentors for others.
2. Mixed groups. Two to three students from each class in one mixed team work on
a shared product or task. This could be completed in collaborative documents,
boards or mind maps.
3. Whole class. This can be conducted in video conference platforms, in collaborative
shared boards (for written, graphic or oral posts; for recorded messages in videos),
through assignments uploaded in shared sites/digital portfolios, or in forums for
discussion.
Suggested Models
The models for collaborative online international learning that have emerged from
interviews with lecturers and others who have engaged or been involved in COIL can
be seen in Table 1. They are arranged according to decreasing level of intensity in the
participant structure. The most intense type of collaboration is done mostly synchronously
with an identical syllabus for both courses. The least intense ones consist either of
special videoconference events for sharing and discussion, or a virtual course open to
international students.
Models
A fully shared
learning experience
Intense short-term
collaborative learning
Ongoing
collaborative learning
in addition to regular
course content
Collaborative tasks
for learning of regular
content in each
course
Special
videoconference
events for sharing
learning
Virtual course open
to international
students
Schedule
Synchronized
Synchronized
of different
Different
Different
Synchronized
scheduled
meetings
One
Syllabi
Same
Different
Different
Different
Different
One
Modality
Mostly
synchronous
Mostly
synchronous
Synchronous
and
asynchronous
Asynchronous
Synchronous
Asynchronous
Participant
structures
Collaborative tasks
in one same mixed
team
Collaboration in
mixed groups to
advance a project
Mixed pairs or
teams
Mixed pairs, teams
or whole group
interaction
Lectures,
interaction in
mixed groups
and whole group
interaction
Whole class
interaction
in forums for
discussion;
collaborative
assignments
Culture/
Framework
TBL; CUL
PBL
PBL
TBL;IBL;
KBC;CoP
CoP;KBC
KBC
Table 1- Models of collaborative online international learning in courses

5. Planning Stages for Implementation
The following stages are necessary in most virtual exchanges. In shorter collaborations
stage 1 and 2 become part of the same one.
1. Community-building activities. It is necessary for students to get to know each
other to be able to work together. This could be done through whole a class video-
conference, introductions in individual slides in a collaborative presentation, or
introductory posts in a collaborative board where students can also respond to
others.
2. Team-formation activities and gradual familiarization with digital tools.
Collaboration and digital skills should be learnt in a gradual way through
tasks designed accordingly. Teachers’ modeling the use of tools and students’
experimenting with them or with collaborative activities within their group first
are recommended before engaging in collaborative activities with the other group.
For long and continuous virtual exchanges in mixed groups, students could begin
by discussing the group identity and working on a contract.
3. Collaborative work. Students from both groups build a shared product which is the
outcome of negotiations and collaboration. Or they engage in knowledge-building
in an effective and meaningful way.
4. Reflection. The experience itself is not enough to conclude the learning process. As
Dewey stated “We learn from reflecting on experience”.
Special attention needs to be paid to scaffolding students’ use of the English language,
especially for programs outside the English Department. This could be done through the
collaborative building of a glossary (for example, in Google Slides or Docs) with useful
expressions and words before engaging in any type of international virtual exchange. It is
also recommended to get language support, which is offered by the Research Authority,
for the students in the presentations of their tasks.
Selection of Digital Tools and Platforms
After having decided on the philosophy and the participant structures, partnering lecturers
will need to evaluate different alternatives to select the most suitable tool for achieving
their pedagogical goals. The eight most recommended tools can be found in Figure 4.
Figure 3- Recommended digital tools for international courses

6. Recommendations and Conclusions
The following recommendations should be kept in mind when embarking on international
collaborations.
1. A “start small” approach. Engaging in a collaboration on a small scale, preferably
with one ongoing collaborative task the first time, for the gradual building of the
partnership through regular fine-tuning of the design, the lecturers’ increasing
familiarity with the tools and each other, and a rise in the level of comfort with
using English.
2. Inspiration and connectedness. Educators seen as design partners of a vision for
global learning, sharing through professional learning networks and online or
local opportunities.
3. Awareness of linguistic issues. Language assistance provided to students who are not
in the English program as part of a support system in place.
4. Consideration given to granting special credit to students as part of the assessment.
Recognition of participating in international courses or for additional effort as
an incentive in view of the increased challenges some students may face in these
courses.
5. Coordination among all concerned. Virtual exchanges being the result of joint
coordinated efforts (by lecturers, technical support facilitators, techno pedagogy
consultants, rooms administrator and language experts).
6. Focus on community-building and team formation in initial stages. A careful design
of the course with the inclusion of adequately planned Getting-to-Know-You
activities (to build trust while focusing on the development of intercultural skills)
and team formation ones (to diffuse negative emotions or stress, and guarantee a
successful collaboration).
7. Pursuit of opportunities to increase social presence. Virtual synchronous meetings,
video-based asynchronous tasks and hand-crafted cards to help students be
perceived as “real people”; and face-to-face encounters of delegations visiting
partnering institutions to help build stronger ties.
8. Continuous contact among partnering lecturers. A regular analysis that allows for
the necessary improvements to be made in time and that involves understanding
what each group can benefit from, what can bind both together, what works and
what does not.
9. Global issues viewed as an integral part of the course syllabus. Discussions within a
glocal and multidisciplinary approach that reflects the complexities of life in the
21st century to give a richer dimension to courses in any subject area.
10. Acceptance of the possibility of initial failure as an inherent part of the design process.
Understanding the nature of meaningful custom-made collaborations, which
involve refining and iterations, and tangible results being noticed only after some
time.
To conclude, being connected educators and encouraging students to become connected
learners should be desired and achievable goals in Higher Education in the 21st
century. Global learning is the key to prepare students to be well-rounded citizens of
this interconnected, interdependent, multicultural and ever-changing world. This can
be achieved through virtual exchanges facilitated by computer-supported collaborative
learning environments. The techno-pedagogical knowledge relevant to virtual exchanges
shared in this brochure and the coordinated efforts by everyone involved will hopefully
help make the above-mentioned dreamt goal a reality.

7. Kibbutzim College
of Education, Technology & Arts