Thematic Network on Collaborative Online International Learning and Biodiversity Education across the Arctic Circle (COIL@UArctic)
COIL@UArctic is a future-focused, globally connected, virtual learning strategy for UArctic members and non-members with a focus on Biodiversity Education. COIL (Collaborative Online International Learning) is designed to enhance graduate employability by promoting interdisciplinary, intercultural, and transversal skill development.
COIL has the potential to democratize student mobility and strengthen international learning opportunities for students, faculty, and researchers using freely available online tools. COIL pedagogy enables issues of global concern to be explored through experiential, collaborative learning techniques.
One of the most urgent is the rapid decline in biodiversity due to the unsustainable use of natural resources, climate change, the fragmentation of ecosystems, the spread of invasive species, the destruction of habitats, and other human activities.
Goals
Within the context of the Arctic dialogue, the network has four key aims:
To promote and enable wider engagement with COIL as part of a future-focussed, globally connected, virtual learning strategy.
To highlight the importance of biodiversity for the well-being of the planet as well as for sustainable development.
To enhance student employability within the Arctic region through the promotion of future-focussed, inter-disciplinary, transversal skill development using COIL.
To democratise student mobility and strengthen internationalisation at home through the expansion of COIL knowledge and opportunities across the Arctic region.
Resources
The Thematic Network provides an open access web-resource on Collaborative Online International Learning:
The website includes wealth of resources, advice and best practice for anyone who is interested in developing and running a COIL project in the Arctic context and beyond. It provides information on the COIL pedagogy and its benefits for students, staff and the community in the Arctic region, including the Indigenous Peoples.
It also includes information on how to create a COIL project and how to find a COIL partner, how to incorporate Biodiversity Education and align your COIL project to the Sustainable Development Goals.
Activities
COIL@UArctic Thematic Network runs a bi-monthly events programme, on Collaborative Online International Learning in the Arctic. All events within this programme are online and free to attend, and the event details are regularly posted on UArctic News and the UArctic Member Bulletin.
Our next event will take place in Autumn 2024. More details will be available soon.
You can find the recordings of the previous events in the programme on our YouTube channel.
You may also follow this LinkedIn page to be up-to-date with COIL@UArctic news and events.
Recent activities:
Partners Meeting - on Wednesday 21st August following a summer break, the COIL@UArctic partners reconvened to plan the year ahead with a focus on increasing engagement with the network and COIL projects. The next meeting will be held on Tuesday 1st October.
32nd Nordic Symposium on Tourism and Hospitality Research - on Friday 20th September Alona Roitershtein and Steve Harbert spoke about COIL@UArctic to encourage more COIL projects across the North.
Yellow Tulip Project - on Wednesday 11th September Izzy Crawford and Suzanne Fox co-hosted a webinar introducing a new COIL project for UArctic and non-UArctic members that is designed to address the stigma associated with mental ill health and suicide. A second webinar will be held on Thursday 25th September from 4pm to 5pm UTC. Please contact Izzy Crawford i.c.crawford@rgu.ac.uk for more information and how to join.
EAIE Conference – on Thursday 19th September, Mariam Raza (Conestoga College, Canada) and Izzy Crawford (Robert Gordon University, Scotland) delivered a world cafe session on the development of COIL@UArctic and using COIL to promote sustainability, with biodiversity loss education content supplied by Elina Oksanen.
Kick Start COIL Webinar – on Wednesday 16th October 2024 from 4pm to 5pm (UTC), COIL@UArctic will host the next webinar topic in the series looking at the challenges and support available when starting a COIL project – please contact Izzy Crawford i.c.crawford@rgu.ac.uk for more information and how to join.
IVEC Conference - on Monday 21st October, Izzy Crawford and Pascal Ezenkwu from Robert Gordon University will present a proposal for a new COIL Matchmaker app that is designed to make the process of finding a suitable COIL partner quicker and easier.
UArctic COIL profiles and examples – please get in touch with Izzy Crawford i.c.crawford@rgu.ac.uk if you would like to have your profile included on the thematic webpage to help you find a COIL partner, or if you have completed a COIL project and would like it to be featured on the thematic webpages.
We are currently looking for UArctic member institutions, who have already ran COIL (or virtual exchange) projects with their students. We would like to include project examples and best practice advice in our new COIL@UArctic website, and have your feedback and suggestions on the planned content of the website.
If you have such examples and are interested in sharing your experience, please contact our team on coil-uarctic@rgu.ac.uk.
More information and past activities can be found here.
Video interview: Izzy Crawford (Lead, Robert Gordon University) and Elina Oksanen (Vice-Lead, University of Eastern Finland) of the COIL@UArctic
