Pioneered by the SUNY COIL Center, Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) is an educational methodology focused on fostering online intercultural learning experiences within universities in different countries. As a pedagogical approach, COIL offers reciprocal exchanges for faculty and students that are bounded and purposeful. To learn more about COIL, please visit the Office for Education Abroad COIL webpage or see this informational flyer. There are several benefits of COIL including:

Students

- international experience: cultural exchange, new perspective-taking, global citizenship

- skills development focused on geographically dispersed teamwork: multicultural communication, remote collaboration, project-based approach, digital literacy

- access to global learning for those unable to travel abroad 

Instructors

- worldwide networking and collaboration with like-minded peers 

- professional development: multicultural teaching skills, global mindset

- curriculum internationalization: global and intercultural dimensions

- content for research, academic publications, and conference presentations 

Institutions

- support to broader internationalization plan: partnerships with international institutions, complement to other abroad experiences, sustainable practice with inclusion of trained staff/campus coordinators

- opportunity to develop “globally engaged citizen leaders” which in turn can help achieve higher institutional student success’ metrics

- positioning as global institution through internationalized programs and curricula 

Since 2023, the Center for Global Learning and Innovation has been coordinating broader COIL-related initiatives at Michigan State University, in partnership with other units within International Studies and Programs. We aim to keep facilitating professional development opportunities for faculty interested in joining our growing number of COIL fellows and COIL coordinators worldwide, in addition to advancing COIL scholarship.

Below you can find more information about our faculty fellowship programs; to learn more about our work, please read the following news articles: June 2024, December 2024, and July 2025.

COIL Faculty Fellows Program-Africa

Offered through a collaboration between MSU's Alliance for African Partnership (AAP), the African Studies Center (ASC), and the Center for Global Learning and Innovation to promote global learning between MSU and institutions connected with AAP and ASC.

COIL Faculty Fellows Program-Canada

Offered through a collaboration between MSU's Canadian Studies Center (CSC) and the Center for Global Learning and Innovation to promote global learning between MSU and institutions connected with CSC.