Peter Galambos Champions COIL
On Monday, November 1st, Sheridan hosted the online webinar event A Faculty Perspective on COIL: A Sheridan Experience. It was the first in a series of webinars hosted by Sheridan as part of International Education Week.
In many ways, the event also represented the culmination of a year-long effort. Beginning in the Winter Semester of 2001, an enthusiastic team of faculty and staff, including FHASS’s Peter Galambos, has been working to introduce COIL (Collaborative Online International Learning) to Sheridan College.
COIL is an innovative approach for integrating intercultural learning into existing curriculum by means of virtual partnerships with institutions abroad. Especially at a time when international travel is unpredictable and budgets are tight, COIL affords an incredible opportunity for students to meet and work with peers from diverse international contexts.
The effort to introduce COIL to Sheridan has involved pilot courses, web events, and the development of new faculty training modules. The November 1st event was particularly special, as it was the first opportunity for Faculty members involved in the two COIL pilots to come together and jointly reflect on their experiences. The panel discussion was joined by Peter Galambos (FHASS), Stan Kamzol and Mark Weaver (Pilon), and Edwin van den Berg from Saxion University of Applied Sciences. It was hosted by Amira El Masri, the Director of Sheridan’s Centre for Global Education and Internationalization.
The conversation was both instructive and cathartic – offering an occasion to share experiences with COIL as well as all the tips and tricks we discovered during the pilots. The participants hope this conversation inspires others to explore COIL collaborations in the future.
If interested, the webinar can be viewed on SOURCE here. The event was also broadcast on local television for YourTV Halton.
For more information on COIL at Sheridan, visit our site on SOURCE. And watch out for the imminent launch of COIL 101, the online COIL faculty training module!
