Most disciplines strive to ensure that their graduates have the requisite knowledge and skills to engage effectively in cross-cultural and transnational contexts. However, many colleagues and students may struggle to find the time and resources to embed these concepts meaningfully into the curriculum. Associate professors Dr Helen Mongan-Rallis and Dr. David Syring from the University of Minnesota Duluth have joined a growing cadre of colleagues from across the globe aiming to overcome the challenge of connecting students and academics through collaborative online international learning (COIL).
Typically, COIL projects involve the co-development of a course, module or series of lessons by two or more lecturers from different countries who recognise that an innovative and valuable kind of learning occurs when students from different parts of the world work together on a common area of focus. Helen and David have ample experience of how this works by connecting students and lecturers so they can expand their understandings of intercultural and transnational learning.
If you’d like to develop links in your own discipline with other colleagues throughout the world, or even if you’d like to know more about COIL and how it works, then you’re cordially invited to attend one of two open sessions. Details of these sessions are as follows:
Monday 19th February 2018 – 9.15 – 10.15, at St John’s Campus (room BY 1147) An additional hour has been added (10:15 – 11:15) for an informal discussion/drop in session in the same room
Monday 19th February 2018 – 13.15 – 14.15, at City Campus (room CH 1003). An additional hour has been added (14:15-15:15) for an informal discussion/drop in session in the same room
Interested colleagues are invited to express their interest by signing on via the Staff Development Workshops website.
If you’re unable to attend either of these learning and networking sessions, and if you’d like to make an individual appointment to meet up with Helen and David while they’re visiting Worcester between the 19th and 22nd of February, please email Helen directly at: hrallis@d.umn.edu.