MOVING FORWARD: Redefining Global Education through Curricular Innovation

In 2020-2021, Sheridan received a Global Skills Opportunity Outbound Student Mobility Pilot Study grant to develop and reflect upon Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) courses. With this funding, in Winter Sheridan launched its first three courses with COIL modules and undertook a report to better understand existing research on COIL methodologies as well as to learn from Sheridan’s pilot COIL experiences. In that report, Developing Global Education Experiences at Sheridan College Using COIL, we were particularly interested in understanding the efficacy of Sheridan’s COIL implementation for three students populations historically underrepresented in international education: low-income students, students with disabilities, and students who identify as Indigenous to Canada. We also provided a review of current research on the barriers to wider student access physical study abroad. While confirming the value of COIL for expanding access to global learning for all students, our report identified curriculum and cost – both direct and indirect - as two of the greatest barriers to accessing outbound education experiences, both among underrepresented groups and the general student population (Amaral & McLay, 2021, p.6-7). This raised the pressing question of how curricular innovations, including COIL, might be leveraged to support and expand access to physical outbound student mobility, an internationalization opportunity that continues to receive limited participation at Sheridan and other Canadian postsecondary education institutions (PSEIs). What follows here builds on our previous research as well as learning from the subsequent twenty-two COIL courses and four physical mobility trips undertaken by Sheridan from 2021-2024, all with the support of an additional CICan Global Skills Opportunity: Outbound Mobility Grant in Fall 2021. This report falls into two parts: The first is a literature review that looks closely at the relationship between virtual mobility and physical mobility, examining how PSEIs can seize the full potential of COIL to increase participation in outbound student mobility for all students while reducing barriers to high-impact international education practices, especially for historically underrepresented students. In an effort to hear directly from the students themselves about the potential relationship between these experiences, the second part of this report shares the results of qualitative interviews with post-secondary students who have experienced both COIL and physical mobility. It also asked students about the potential power of cost- and time-saving curricular designs for study abroad. Our sample size was small; however, the results point to the value of both “laddering” and course “bundling” approaches to COIL and study abroad and certainly warrant further investigation.While advancing key supporting actions laid out in Sheridan’s Internationalization & Global Connectivity Strategy 2021-2024, this scholarship, supported by the Government of Canada’s Innovation Fund administered by Colleges and Institutes Canada (CICan), contributes to knowledge production in an otherwise sparsely researched area to support policies and practices that encourage all Canadian students to benefit from the world of learning beyond our borders.

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