University of Minnesota
'Not-for-profit
Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
- Undergraduate students
- Graduate students
- Adults
All regions
2016
- Professional development for instructors
- A unique, facilitated VE program
- Support for Research
- Conferences, workshops and webinars
- Leadership training for staff/admins
- General consulting
- Partnering activities and/or a partnering platform
- English
- Spanish
Please consider joining us for a Global COIL Training Cohort this summer! Visit global.umn.edu/coil for details.
Our vision for a fully internationalized University of Minnesota supports intentional, digital intercultural exchanges that empower students to realize new potential and confront twenty-first century challenges through critical and collaborative problem-solving in diverse global teams.
Our mission is to pursue that vision by intentionally harnessing the powerful potential of international and intercultural learning in digital environments. We offer equitable access to international experience for all students in all disciplines.
The COIL Initiative provides training and support to those committed to creating classroom-based virtual international exchanges by:
- supporting recognition of the value of diverse student voices, both at our own and at our partners' institutions, to foster growth of meaningful connections and encourage critical exchange;
- assisting faculty in creating partnerships with universities around the globe that are based on trust, expertise and long term commitment to international learning and research;
- streamlining access to international learning by removing barriers in the project development process.
Our activities include:
- enriching and expanding international learning opportunities through COIL development;
- engaging and training faculty, developing partnerships, and supporting assessment and research on results of that work;
- focus areas include sustainability education and equity and inclusion.
These are the services we provide to the field:
The University of Minnesota COIL Initiative has benefited from the generosity and leadership of many other institutions. We also view the focus on equity in this quickly emerging field as central to the benefit and impact of VE work. We seek to assess and address the needs of the field and supply opportunities and resources to the field that are most needed.
The University of Minnesota COIL Initiative's current contributions to the field include:
- developing lasting relationships with partners who support increased access to international learning;
- developing open educational resources that support faculty in all settings (COIL Workbook), with further development in focus areas of sustainability education and diversity, equity and inclusion;
- providing COIL partnership fairs, both for general partnership development and within the focus areas of sustainability and diversity, equity and inclusion;
- providing open-access training for faculty around the world at no cost (https://global.umn.edu/coil).
Current work is focused on capacity building and external facing programing.
Discussion of previous projects and professional development
The University of Minnesota COIL Initiative is developing a training program in partnership with the nine member universities of the Aurora Alliance. The University of Minnesota COIL Initiative also provides training workshops on request. We invite COIL Coordinators at institutions from around the world to reach out to us for an initial consultation, after which their faculty are welcome to join our COIL training program (5 sessions over two months, 2 synchronous, 3 asynchronous).
Unique VE programs our organization has developed
The University of Minnesota COIL Initiative provides unique training at the intersection of sustainability education and virtual exchange.
Current initiatives
We are currently developing a new version of the University of Minnesota COIL Workbook focused on the intersection of sustainability education and virtual exchange. In conjunction with that effort, we are also running a sustainability COIL fair in spring 2024, and co-developing a sustainability-focused COIL training with partner universities in the Aurora Alliance.