Collaborative online international learning: what COIL means

Imagine two classes investigating the same water question. They can send each other reports, but the collaboration goes further when they compare evidence, ask questions and use both classes' findings in a joint explanation. The shared work gives the connection a learning purpose.

What makes collaborative online international learning different?

SUNY COIL describes teachers working together to design learning and students working together on the activities. The approach developed in higher education, but teachers can adapt its principles to school subjects: a shared question, a contribution from each class and a response that uses both perspectives.

A letter exchange or introductory call can be a useful beginning. COIL adds a jointly planned task: compare a finding, test an explanation or make a shared product. A pen pal exchange can include collaborative work too; the task design matters more than the label.

See a school-life example

My School, Your School invites classes to share what school is like through games, stories and art. The current public listing shows age bands 6-8, 9-12 and 13-15, with a four-week duration. View the project to see its current details and decide what to adapt.

The published classroom story describes a teacher in Argentina hosting two separate exchanges, one with a class in India and one with a class in Ukraine. Students prepared school presentations and asked questions about each other's school life. Use the story to see the questions and classroom context behind that first connection.

Plan the work with your partner teacher

1. Choose one subject question and what students should learn.
2. Agree a task each class can complete with its available time and tools.
3. Plan how students will respond to the other class's work.
4. Decide what the shared result will contain and how you will assess it.
5. Include a short reflection and a backup if a live call is not possible.

A short introduction can start the relationship, then the classes can develop a longer task. SUNY's higher-education guidance recommends a multi-week COIL module. For a school exchange, choose a pace that leaves time for preparation, a partner response and reflection.

Give the activities a clear rhythm

Meet and ask a first question

Students might prepare a short introduction, a photo board of their school or a question for the partner class. Give them time to notice something and ask about it. Teachers decide what can be shared and how it will be exchanged.

Investigate and build

Each class gathers information about the shared question. Students compare the findings and decide what they mean together. They might combine research into a presentation, propose a change or create a shared explanation.

Share the result

Students explain their contribution, answer questions and hear how the partner class understands the same work. A recorded presentation or teacher-shared document can work when the classes cannot meet live.

Look back on the collaboration

Ask: what did the partner class help us notice, how did we change our work, and what would we try differently? Include an individual response as well as the group product. The teacher reflection guide offers questions to discuss with your partner after the project.

Where Class2Class fits

The Class2Class educational framework connects international collaboration, competencies and student agency. You can begin with exploring school life, investigate a global issue or design a response together. Project-based learning helps structure the investigation; COIL helps connect it with another class's work.

Class2Class is free for teachers and students. Teachers find and connect with each other through Connect, then agree the project. Work can be exchanged at different times; any live meeting uses a video tool the teachers choose.

What students can practise and what teachers can check

Intercultural communication means listening and explaining respectfully across different perspectives. Global awareness means linking a local finding with a wider question. Students can also practise digital literacy, teamwork and critical thinking when they check sources, coordinate tasks and compare evidence.

UNESCO's 2015 guidance on global citizenship education gives learning objectives for knowledge, attitudes and action. Use student work, feedback and reflections to judge what was demonstrated; one shared product does not tell you everything about each student's learning.

What the research tells us

A 2023 study by Hackett and colleagues examined 108 university students in the Netherlands and the United States. The US COIL group showed a larger improvement than its comparison group; the same difference was not found in the Dutch groups. The study used self-report measures and supporting qualitative evidence. These results do not establish the effect of a short K-12 exchange.

Robert O'Dowd's 2018 review describes different forms of virtual exchange in higher education. It offers background on the approach, not a measured guarantee for a school project.