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Our Story

ENGAGING THE WORLD BY CONNECTING OUR WORLD

In 2016, as part of our award-winning Global Learning for Global Citizenship initiative, FIU identified a need to provide new pathways for faculty and students to engage in the process of global learning online. Our search led us to Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL), a powerful form of virtual exchange pioneered by the SUNY COIL Center.

FIU established the Office of Collaborative Online International Learning (FIU COIL) in January 2021. FIU COIL's mission is to enable all FIU students and faculty to engage with their diverse peers worldwide in collaborative teaching, learning, research, and innovation online. Through a variety of recruiting, matching, training, and sustaining initiatives, FIU COIL is building a global network of global learners working together to understand and solve our world's most pressing problems.

Milestones

  • Spring '16The Office of Global Learning Initiatives collaborates with the College of Arts and Sciences to hold the first symposium introducing COIL to FIU faculty, staff, and administrators.
  • Summer '16The Office of Global Learning Initiatives and Media Technology Services are awarded an FIU Technology Fee Grant to support FIU COIL's development.
  • Spring '17FIU implements its first 5 COILs involving 70 FIU undergraduate students in Education and English and 25 College of Law students.
  • Spring '18COIL course development funds are part of newly-awarded Title VI grants for FIU's Kimberly Green Latin American and Caribbean National Resource Center in the School of International and Public Affairs and the Center for Business Education and Research in the College of Business.
  • Spring '19FIU holds its first COIL Virtual Exchange Leadership Institute for US and non-US institutions.
  • Summer '2044 COILs implemented since spring 2017 involving 1,147 FIU undergraduate and graduate students and 961 international students.
  • Fall '20FIU launches its custom COIL training program for international networks and institutions through its partnership with Learn Chile.
  • Spring '21FIU establishes the Office of Collaborative Online International Learning (FIU COIL) as part of FIU Global. FIU is awarded a Stevens Initiative grant for its project, "Virtual Tabadul," which brings together college-aged youth in the United States and in the Middle East and North Africa for language learning and community building through virtual reality.
  • Summer '21The School of International and Public Affairs, Honors College, and College of Business appoint their first COIL Faculty Fellows to advance COIL recruiting, matching, training, and sustaining in their units. FIU COIL and Universidad Católica de Manizales, Colombia, are awarded a 100K Strong in the Americas Innovation grant for their project, "Designing Alternative and Digital Strategies to Build U.S.-Colombia Multidisciplinary Intercultural Identities."
  • Fall '21104 COILs implemented involving 2,569 FIU and 2,484 international students.