COIL Experience. Intercultural Case Analysis: Sports Brand Company Perspectives from Canada and Spain

Breakout Room B

The COVID-19 pandemic posed many challenges, including travel restrictions, which limited the opportunities for student-exchange programs. One solution to promote intercultural learning during the pandemic and form relations with students in different countries was COIL. This paper presents a Collaborative Online Intercultural Learning (COIL) case study that engaged students from Canada and Spain in an intercultural learning experience. Instructors worked collaboratively to design learning objectives and related course activities to establish a five (5) week program of co-instruction within their higher-education course schedules. Using technology, and a combination of asynchronous and synchronous opportunities, students were engaged in the course content (business-marketing strategy). Students learned about their unique cultural applications in relation to the content, and also learned about their cultural perspectives. Along with a variety of interpersonal and intercultural learning opportunities, students completed learning activities in cross-cultural teams (a balance of members from each country, three from Canada and three from Spain, with eight teams in total). Administrators, students and faculty were excited about the cultural learning experience and found the benefits to far outweigh the improvements needed. This paper shares the details of this experience from both administrative and faculty perspectives, to help other administrators/faculty members develop COIL and provide students with this rich intercultural online-learning experience.